Pre-industrial forests in Central Europe as objects of historico ...

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foresters about “their” district 26 . Apart from the local studies concerning the research area of this work
many and thorough studies, namely on city forests 27 , have been published so that in 1973 Brandl 28 was
able to attempt a first summary for the area of southern Germany with a view to this type of property.
Gaps are to be found in detailed research of woods in small private and large private possession, of
endowment forests and community forests.
Partly because of their obscure places of publication, partly because of their spatially limited
sphere many of the above works are undeservedly hardly known to a wider public, not to mention to
those outside of forestry science. They are full of regional and relevant details which makes them, on
the one hand, a treasure trove for more general work on forest development; on the other hand, many
of the results are hardly comparable to one another because of the different methods applied, the mode
of presentation and temporal and relevant main emphasis. In order to guarantee at least a certain compatibility
of such works international standards in silvi-historic research for the division and optical
form of small-space forest stories was formulated 29 . As the already numerous studies on single forested
mountains however show, such attempts at standardisation have not been very successful. The
same is true of similar attempts in geography 30 . Regional differences, especially in the sources of information
and concerning the interests of the authors, are much too varied.
Numerous points of contact between geography and forest history are namely to be found
when the forest scientist understands the forest and its development as part of the overall cultural landscape
31 , that is to say, when the position of forestry science is regarded as in competition with space 32 .
Thus, in current questions overlapping occurs in the fields of spatial planning 33 and of forest damage
research 34 , for some of which historic aspects have recently been reflected on 35 . The teachings of forest
functions can be regarded as an attempt with a geographical approach to describe the changes in the
relationship between forests and society as it realizes the competing spatially relevant claims on the
forest as a plan of perception and order. It emphasizes the prominent ecological, social, popular health
and state preservation value of the forest for an industrial society. The opinion that these forest functions
are at least as important as its material results are common knowledge today and co-determine
forestry law 36 . The teaching of forest functions illustrates very clearly the prominent importance of the
forest and might have contributed in its didactic clarity to the present-day scientific occupation with
the forest.
The three-volume textbook by Mitscherlich 37 is a work which regards - using the comprehension
outlined - the importance, functions and effects of the forest on the environment and vice versa
under genetic aspects. Plochmann's 38 historically inclined representation of man and the forest also
achieves this in the context of numerous other contributions on forestry in H. Stern's text and readingbook
“Rettet den Wald” (“Save the forest”). The large “Natur- und Freizeitführer durch die deutschen
Wälder” (“Guide to nature and leisure through the German forests”) 39 is recommended as it describes