The Green Nazis

One of the most intriguing facts of the Nazi Party membership rolls is how many of its adherents belonged to what today would be considered the green movement. Even many ‘greens' who were not Nazi Party members, like Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003), the infamous propaganda filmmaker for the Third Reich, became caught up in the new movement. Nazi biologist Walther Schoenichen asserted that National Socialism was the political fulfillment of more 100 years of German Romanticism. With its strong emphasis upon celebrating the authenticity of the German folk people (das volk) indigenously rooted in the natural landscape of their homeland in great contrast to the liberalism of the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution, German Romanticism is one of the great foundational pillars of modern environmentalism. While in hindsight, some environmental historians may debate over how green the Nazis were in actual practice, the National Socialist aspirations for a greener Germany cannot be denied.....