Deutsche Bank AG - Historische Gesellschaft der Deutschen Bank e.V.

Environment and Entrepreneurs - In The Same Crisis?
: hy vlltuc
"T/w ~xprcss~ori i:ric;is.
of ~ts dia.q/~osti(; and p/qqnost/c
contenr, /s t/7e II~~JIC;IIU~ O/ i>
ncw awatene.?.Y.''
(R. Koselleck)
The destruction of the environment began wlth
the emergcnce of rnankind He made himself
master of the earth: the evolution ofpowerfulstatc
cultures - the ancient Sumerians, the seapowcr
Ven~ce, ihe risc of the U.A. in the 19th century
based on an industrialized, large-scale agricultural
econom y - was accompanled by extensive exploitation
a f the soil, the felllng o f woods, the devastation
and desolation of large parts of Mesopotamia,
Lebanon, North A frica, Dalmatia, the annihilation
of the prairies with their inhabitants and animal
species in North America. Andslnce antiquity (Cyprian'),
the humanists (Agricola;'), right up to our
times, the destruction of nature, the exhaustlon of
the earth, the decimation of birds ancl other animals,
the poisoning of ksh in our waters, for
example through mlniny, have been the object of
repeated complaint and criticlsm.,'
Slnce the Enlightenrneni, or possibly even ear-
lier; not only have the Pace and extent of industrial
damage to the environment been growing rapidlg
but also the belicf - in the face of obvious (and not
least entrcpreneurial) achievements - in the pro-
gress of mankind towards ever higher levels of
being.
The climax and possible end of this phase of
blind faith ln Progress, which even wars and
periods of pessimism did not lnterrupt, became
apparent when man firstset foot on the moon. This
triurnph of technology stood in striklng contrast to
a decade in whlch warnings of a 'kilent sprin~"'~
and a global exhaustion of resources" found a
worldwide echo, ln which the issues of consumer
protection and ecology triggered movernents, to
begln wlth in the USA., the political impact of
which was reflected in an initial wave of consumer
protection and emission control laws, andin which
the student revolts slgnalled the post-industrlal
chanye of values.
lt began as a Protest against more and morc in-
tolerable condltlons in certain areas - e.g. over-
motorizatlon with its problems of airpollution and
the sealing of ever greater land areas in densely
popula red countrles with unabated compression
o f passenger cars into lines of conyested trafic -
and led via questions about causes and relation-
ships, to an increasingly critical view of increas-
ingly crltical conditions in ever broader fields, from
thc chernical-intensive overutilization of agricultu-
rat areas ro the spoiling o f counrryside and en vi-
ronment by mass tourism.
This set the scenc for conflicts between the
centre of society and its fringes, conflicts whlch
could not leave untouched the philosophy of entrepreneurs,
who constitute a core element of the
social centre, but instead put it under increaslng
pressure. For while, on the fringes o f soclet~ a new
a wareness o f en vironmental crisis was turning
lnto a politically effective cornmitment among