Hitler: the green movement's German shepherd?
Ever wondered why it is that Germany (a country that generates and is hell-bent on becoming the first country to run on 100% green energy by 2050) is so far ahead of the rest of the world in the race to be green?
According to Lord Anthony Giddens' latest book, '' and a number of respected historians, Hitler may have given Germany a head-start. Not only did he pass at that time, but he also had a soft spot for vegetarianism, organic nibbles and animal welfare (up until the point when he poisoned his doting German Shepherd, Blondi, that is).
'The Nazi "ecologists" promoted conservation and organic farming, and practised vegetarianism', writes Lord Giddens on page 51 of his book. 'The Reich Nature Protection Law, passed in 1935, together with other legislation, had the aim of preventing damage to the environment in undeveloped areas, protecting forests and animals and reducing air pollution.'
If you're toying with the idea that the Nazis weren't such a rotten bunch after all (just a couple of misunderstood hippies who lost their way?) then nip that thought in the bud, says Peter Staudenmaier, co-author of the book ''. They were 'not a group of innocents, confused and manipulated idealists, or reformers from within', he says, but 'conscious promoters and executors of a vile program explicitly dedicated to inhuman racist violence, massive political repression and worldwide military domination. Their "ecological" involvements, far from offsetting these fundamental commitments, deepened and radicalized them'.
Either way, the Reichstag's imminent transformation into the , powered entirely by renewable energy, has clearly been a long time coming.
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