Naturschutz im geteilten Deutschland Deutsch-deutsche Naturschutzkontakte 1945-1969

摘要

The impacts of the cold war in the period between 1945 and 1969 increasingly confined the opportunities for cooperation between conservationists in East and West Germany. As was to be expected the year 1961 constituted a great divide, especially on the level of the nature conservation authorities: Meeting personally became more difficult, joint conferences virtually impossible. From now on the face-to-face exchange of ideas and information was only possible in the West-East direction. The specific West-German political instrument of the cold war since 1955, the Hallstein Doctrine, turned out to be the main obstacle to effective and continuous cooperation, at least for the official nature conservation of the two German states. Beyond that this foreign policy doctrine produced some contradictory effects. It limited the range of action of the East German ILN extremely, on the international level as well as in German-German relations. Meanwhile for the West German BANL, in times when the mere existence of this institution was frequently questioned, the doctrine supplied a political raison d'etre: The activities of the nature conservation authorities in the German Democratic Republic contributed to the maintenance of an independent BANL. Below this institutional level various relations continued to exist. Many conservationists, associations and federations as well as scientific and naturalhistory societies endeavoured to maintain channels for the exchange of information and publications, even if this required conspiratorial activities.