Nature 10

I drive on slowly, anxiously avoiding any swerving into the restricted area that begins next to an old wagon track. And so I arrive at an outpost, at the extreme tip of this last farm, which has been measured deep into the cocoa field. Every culture really comes to an end here. Here man is really nothing, powerful nature is everything.

Paul Ettighoffer (1938): So sah ich Afrika. Mit Auto und Kamera durch unsere Kolonien. Gütersloh: C. Bertelsmann.

Paul Ettighoffer (1896 – 1976) was a German writer. Amongst other things, he wrote two travel books in 1938 and 1943 that are part of German colonial literature where he describes his travels.

Ettighoffer's books were distributed as factual reports in Nazi Germany (Lampert 2004). ‘As the Nazi system worked towards another war, Ettighoffer's books became radicalised in terms of militancy, racism, belief in authorities and colonial ideas’ (ibid.). Nature was constructed by Ettighoffer as an absolute threat, especially for white life. This idea lent legitimacy to the idea of the need for its total domination, including ecocide and genocide. To this day, the destruction of nature and humans are linked.

*Andreas Lampert (2004): Ettighoffer, Paul Coelestin. *United States Holocaust Memorial Museum: Nazi Imperialism. An Overview.

1937