152 FRANK UEKÖTTER
154 million cubic meters of solid waste. The clean-up project reached a
milestone when a formerly devastated open-cast uranium mine hosted
the national gardening fair (Bundesgartenschau) in 2007.^15 Nuclear
waste is a more contested issue in West Germany, where the search for
a permanent storage for spent nuclear fuel is ongoing. Clean-up is also
pending for the Asse II mine near Wolfenbüttel, where a total of 125,787
barrels of low- and medium-level nuclear waste were stored in somewhat
haphazard fashion between 1967 and 1978.
However, toxic waste was not the only environmental legacy of the
GDR. It also left behind some largely untouched landscapes that became
nature reserves. For example, a national park in the Müritz lake district
was already being discussed at Landschaftstag, the fi rst nature conserva-
tion conference, held in Neubrandenburg in 1966. If it had been imple-
mented, this project would have made the GDR the creator of Germany’s
fi rst national park.^16 The Müritz National Park became a reality in 1990
as part of the GDR’s national park program, which brought a dramatic
increase in protected areas. However, the German Green Belt (Grünes
Band Deutschland) is perhaps more interesting from the perspective of
an interwoven history. The German Green Belt sought to preserve the
wasteland along the former Iron Curtain; it became Germany’s largest
system of linked biotopes with a total area of 177 square kilometers.
Turning a landscape of death into a nature reserve was a vision that suc-
ceeded in spite of tremendous administrative obstacles. The project in-
volved nine states, thirty-eight counties, and two independent cities—an
administrative nightmare under ordinary circumstances. The Green Belt
has been part of a European project since 2003.^17
But for all the diff erences between East and West, it bears recognition
that both German states had to deal with similar issues. Many environ-
mental problems were the result of a large industrial sector in combina-
tion with the mobility and consumption requirements of advanced affl uent
societies. The East German shopping frenzy of 1989/90, when everything
from bananas to used cars found grateful buyers, showed a convergence
of consumerist desires. The hot topics were remarkably similar on both
sides of the Iron Curtain: industrial chemistry, heavy industry, nuclear
power, lignite coal. Only uranium mining remained an overwhelmingly
East German experience, though just for lack of signifi cant deposits in
the FRG. The U.S. uranium mining experiences indicates that only a for-
tunate geology saved the Federal Republic from a disaster on par with
the Wismut.^18
These parallels raise questions about the sharp contrasts that prevail in
accounts of East and West German environmentalism around 1990. The
demise of the GDR was framed heavily in ecological terms: environmen-