Killing and Conserving Empire

A Global History of Germans, Birds, and the Environment

Steven McClellan

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, several developments not only ran alongside one another, but developed in tandem: the economic exploitation of natural resources, including birds, from colonized lands; the professionalization of ornithology; and the rise of conservation, citizen science, and changing attitudes toward nature. The history of these connected developments tells us a great deal about the social relations of modern Germany and how cultures of imperialism were intertwined with both science and naturalist passions.

By striving to understand birds and their world, bird enthusiasts confronted the tensions between national, local, and global connections. Either in their backyards, or through traveling the globe, they developed an understanding of the world as connected, volatile, and ultimately changeable. Decades of information gathered locally and regionally, not only hold a wealth of information about bird populations but also the environment and how it has changed over time. Armed with a unique combination of local and global knowledge, bird conservation activists debated environmental and anthropogenic processes of change, frequently disrupting the traditional distinction between the “natural” and the “social” spheres and introducing a new construct of the scientifically informed active citizen.