The Green and the Brown A History of Conservation in ... - WNLibrary

On the Paper Trail: The Everyday Business of Conservation 139
had painted on walls and buildings to mark the troops’ path. In Hesse,
conservationists urged hunters to design their shooting blinds so that they
were “organically embedded into the landscape.” 9 Even Jewish cemeteries
could make it onto the conservationists’ agenda: in 1938, Hans Stadler,
certainly no philo-Semite, ordered his subordinates to screen the region’s
Jewish cemeteries for natural monuments. 10
For many conservationists, the national conservation law was an uplifting
experience. For example, the conservation advisor for the Husum district
on the North Sea outlined an ambitious agenda for action within
months after the law’s passage. Crediting previous efforts as “worthy
preparations,” his document promised a “strict organization” aimed at
a “properly planned and accurate stock-taking on the basis of the law.”
The advisor sought to collect information with a flurry of questionnaires,
and armed with this information and the “systematic cooperation of a
network of co-workers in all parts of the district,” he hoped to bring
the area’s natural treasures “safely under protection (unter Dach und
Fach).” 11 The penchant for registration and organization was definitely
typical: compiling comprehensive inventories was a highly popular activity
among conservationists, and advisors routinely asked their co-workers
for “a voluminous list of spots worthy of protection.” 12 Of course, a certain
amount of red tape was an inevitable by-product of the upswing of
conservation work, but efforts often moved far beyond administrative
necessities. At times, one could get the impression that for contemporary
conservationists, only a properly registered natural treasure was a real
natural treasure.
The emphasis on registration and organization was all the more surprising
because the conservationists were by no means legalist purists
who narrow-mindedly focused on a proper execution of the law’s provisions.
Quite to the contrary, many conservationists were activists in the
9 StAN Rep. 212/19 VII no. 2535, Regierung von Oberfranken und Mittelfranken to the
Bezirksverwaltungsbehörden, December 10, 1938; StAD G 38 Eudorf no. 47, Der
Reichsstatthalter in Hessen to the Forstämter, July 1, 1937.
10 StAW Landratsamt Obernburg no. 210, Regierung von Unterfranken und Aschaffenburg
to the untere Naturschutzbehörden, January 11, 1938.
11 LASH Abt. 320 Eiderstedt no. 1846, Lamprecht and Wolf, Aufgaben des Natur- und
Heimatschutzes im Kreise Husum (1935), p. 1n.
12 StAW Landratsamt Ebern no. 1336, Der Regierungs-Beauftragte der NSDAP für
Naturschutz in Unterfranken to Hauptlehrer Hoch in Ebern, March 11, 1935.
Similarly, WAA LWL Best. 702 no. 184b vol. 2, Gemeinsame Arbeitstagung der
westfälischen Naturschutzbeauftragten und der Fachstelle Naturkunde und Naturschutz
im Westfälischen Heimatbund on February 12–13, 1938, p.4.