Abstract
The mania for native plants appears to be a recent phenomenon in Germany. It has accompanied demands for new ethics and a life close to nature. Some examples of this mania are presented here. A historical review of the scientific and professional development of landscape architecture in Germany sheds some light on these more recent developments. The work of landscape architect Willy Lange in Berlin in the early 20th century, and his reference to the laws of nature are crucial to understanding the current mania. So too is the special understanding of plant geography, which in Germany was called plant sociology. In the so-called Incorporated East Areas, the territory taken by Germany from Poland in World War II, to create an ideal German landscape, German landscape architects formulated “landscape rules” which reflected Lange's ideas about nature and design, as well as national Socialist criminal energy. The mania for native plants during National Socialism and the fact that this particular aesthetic point of view became governmental policy is particularly disquieting when one relates the phenomenon to more contemporary events.
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