Meister, Georg, and Monika Offenberger. Die Zeit des Waldes. Frankfurt am Main: Zweitausendeins, 2004.
Through a collection of 445 photographs taken from precisely the same places at intervals of months, years and decades, Die Zeit des Waldes [The forest over time] offers a stop-action look at the diversity of transformations within Germany’s forests. Some series show regeneration, such as a rotten tree stump becoming a nursery for spruces. Others reveal the impact of human interventions, such as overgrazing by wild animals protected for hunting, or the expensive reliance on avalanche barriers in lieu of sustaining healthy mixed forests.
The book offers an understanding of forest ecology while uniquely documenting the state of Germany’s forests. The authors analyze and present wide-ranging trends while outlining an extensive history of central Europe’s forests since the end of the last Ice Age. In an era marked by climate change and the forces of globalization, they stress the importance of the transformation of commercial forests by allowing nature to take its course. (Adapted from the authors’ abstract)
- Gissibl, Bernhard. “A Laboratory for the Implementation of “Wilderness” in Central Europe—The Bavarian Forest National Park.” Environment & Society Portal, Arcadia (2014), no. 4. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. https://doi.org/10.5282/rcc/5856.
- Wilke, Sabine. “Human-Nature Relations in German Literature: A Curated Stroll through a History of Entanglement.” Environment & Society Portal, Virtual Exhibitions 2018, no. 4. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. http://www.environmentandsociety.org/node/8150.