New Publications on Environmental History

In October 2026, three essays by Sascha Ohlenforst, a Research Associate at the Chair of History of Technology and Economy, on the environmental history of the 20th century were published.

In his article “Mining Law and Regional Planning: The North Rhine-Westphalian ‘Lignite Laws’ of 1950, ” published in the legal journal *Natur und Recht*, Ohlenforst examines the legal restructuring of Rhineland lignite mining after 1945 and demonstrates how the laws paved the way in the long term for a more environmentally friendly mining law by strengthening state control mechanisms and introducing democratic participation procedures.

The essay “In the Shadow of the Economic Miracle? An Environmental and Social History of Wastewater Disposal in the Höxter District from the 1950s to the 1970s,” published in the anthology *Periphery as Perspective*, edited by Matthias Frese, Christoph Lorke, and Peter Fäßler, challenges common periodizations of environmental history using the example of a rural region and argues for greater consideration of the varying paces of environmental policy modernization processes.

In “Between the Systems: Hans Reichelt as a Former GDR Environment Minister in Reunified Germany, ” published in the fellowship anthology *Ost. West. And in Between, published by the Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship, Ohlenforst examines, from a biographical perspective, the spaces where East and West met before and after the political transition of 1989–90. The article and the anthology as a whole thus address questions regarding German-German history and its aftermath, which were also discussed at the symposium “Writing and Teaching GDR History,” organized in July 2026 by the Junior Professorship for the Didactics of History and the Chair of History of Technology and Economy.