Bernd-Stefan Grewe

The End of Sustainability? The Forest and Industrialisation in the Nineteenth Century

Forest usage was - before industrialisation - one of the most important factors of economic development in central Europe. With industrialisation the material basis for the use of the forest changed. Because of coal, railroads, and an emerging chemical industry, the forest was no longer the most important source of energy and resources. What role did the forest play in the industrial revolution? To what extent did industrialisation change forestry? How are these changes to be judged vis-à-vis sustainability?

The disregard of the limits of organic growth had a negative impact on sustainability in many respects. New raw materials did not have the effect at the macro-level of being substitutes; instead they complemented forest resources, which continued to be used. In other words, the new materials represented a much broader basis of resources. As the earlier limitation had generally prevented an expansion of production, one can speak of a breakthrough through the previous, organic limit to growth, a breakthrough which enabled stronger economic growth. Furthermore, the widening of the basis of raw materials made it possible for apparently "backward" enterprises to hold on to their traditional methods of production as some previously (large) consumers were able to switch over to surrogates, which made additional resources available. For this reason, too, forestry was able to participate in the economic growth and to compete with imported foreign products. Indeed, sustainable forestry was only able to hold its own in Germany because it was now free from previously strong demand pressures.