William T. Markham Bücher

The book explores the evolution of German environmental organizations from the late 19th century to today, highlighting their resilience through historical challenges such as hyperinflation, war, and authoritarian regimes. It details their responses to significant social movements, including nationalism and anti-nuclear protests, while also addressing their strategies for survival in times of diminished public focus on environmental issues. By applying organizational theories, the author offers a fresh perspective on the motivations and behaviors of these groups, distinguishing them from traditional analyses.

German environmental organizations have doggedly pursued environmental protection through difficult times: hyperinflation and war, National Socialist rule, postwar devastation, state socialism in the GDR, and confrontation with the authorities during the 1970s and 1980s. The author recounts the fascinating and sometimes dramatic story of these organizations from their origins at the end of the nineteenth century to the present, not only describing how they reacted to powerful social movements, including the homeland protection and socialist movements in the early years of the twentieth century, the Nazi movement, and the anti-nuclear and new social movements of the 1970s and 1980s, but also examining strategies for survival in periods like the current one, when environmental concerns are not at the top of the national agenda. Previous analyses of environmental organizations have almost invariably viewed them as parts of larger social structures, that is, as components of social movements, as interest groups within a political system, or as contributors to civil society. This book, by contrast, starts from the premise that through the use of theories developed specifically to analyze the behavior of organizations and NGOs we can gain additional insight into why environmental organizations behave as they do.