Zeitenwende für die Nachhaltigkeit – Zur umwelthistorischen Zäsur um 1800 Zeitenwende für die Nachhaltigkeit – Zur umwelthistorischen Zäsur um 1800

Abstract

The concept of sustainability has a history. Between 1350 and 1800, sustainability was widespread in Central Europe as a structural principle in the local laws of the feudal lordships. Decentralised rural societies were restricted by the amount of renewable natural resources available to their local agricultural systems.The first part of the paper outlines the key elements of this concept of sustainability based on the land use system of the "Commons", or shared land. Traditionally, there was no "Tragedy of the Commons" as suggested by Hardin, but a local public law designed to prevent overuse of forests and pastures. The second part focuses on the consequences of supplantation of this traditional land use system by the modern concept of individualised property, which took place around 1800. This change involved the breakdown of the former local public environmental law. During the following one hundred fifty years, fossil energy use and infrastructure evolved in the absence of public environmental law. It is concluded that the sustainability concept was not invented in the latter half of the twentieth century but is a rediscovery of an old tradition of European legal history.