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The series “Naturkunde” edited by Judith Schalansky at the publishing house Matthes & Seitz brings together a colorful spectrum of nature books of a special kind. "The name of the series says it all: what is being done here is not just science, but rather passionate exploration of the world: knowledgeable, vivid and aware that it tells primarily about people - and about a view of a nature that includes us," says the publisher. One could also say: natural stories in a positive sense, nature at its finest in a noble style. Unlike what you would expect from a series, each book has its own format, is tastefully designed and is a pleasure to read just from the feel.
Two books in this recommended series are presented here. "Abandoned Places" by Cal Flyn (translated by Milena Adam), which uses a global perspective, and a local fallow atlas ("field, vacant lot, landfill") by David Bröderbauer, which leads to often familiar places where he illuminates the respective microcosm of botany.
Cal Flynn comes from the Scottish Highlands. Her award-winning book, "Islands of Abandonment - Life in the Post-Human Landscape" (2021), has also been available in German since 2023 as a special kind of travel guide, "Abandoned Places - Ends and Beginnings in a Deserted World". "In this book we travel to some of the scariest and most deserted places on earth." Naturally, the region around Chernobyl in Ukraine can also be found here. Flyn spared no effort, was on site, did intensive research and spoke to countless people. She has put her encounters and observations in an easy-to-read form in the book, which largely has the character of a report. "I spent two years traveling to places where the worst had already happened."
In the first section, "In Absentia", places are presented that show how flora and fauna recover through the absence of humans. The first location is the Five Sisters, a barren land 25 kilometers southwest of Edinburgh in Scotland. In the 19th century, large quantities of oil shale were distilled here, leaving behind 200 million tons of slag. A gigantic dump that was named the Five Sisters as a five-pointed pyramid. Flyn finds poetic words for this: "Green moss lay on the rubble like a picnic blanket, soft and inviting." (page 27).
Her conclusion is not despair over what has been lost; rather, she sees the processes of reconquest as a source of hope. "They remind us that even when the situation seems desperate, not everything is lost." She also visited the 180-kilometer-long deserted buffer zone that has existed since 1974 between the Turkish and Greek parts of Cyprus. In 2008, a team of researchers counted 358 plant species, 100 bird species, 20 reptile and amphibian species, and 18 mammal species. "Children of war," as she writes on page 56, drawing parallels to the Green Belt between the former Eastern Bloc and the West.
Part two, “The Stayers,” takes us to Paterson (New Jersey) and Detroit (Michigan), where the auto industry once boomed. Today the situation has changed. "In total, more than 60 of Detroit's 360 square kilometers of urban area are abandoned - that's an area the size of Manhattan." (page 112). But before nature took over the abandoned buildings, the looters arrived, who "like carrion crows, depend on the death of the building to make their living." (page 117). We are familiar with such places as “lost places”.
In the third part, “The Long Shadow,” she visits locations in the USA, France, Tanzania and Scotland. Part four, the final "endgame", is about the British volcanic island of Montserrat in the Caribbean, whose capital Plymouth was evacuated in 1996 due to volcanic activity. Flyn again proves to be a meticulous observer: "A hotel filled with slag, which solidified like concrete, whereupon the outer walls gave way, revealing a solid cast of negative space [...]." (page 258). Nature returned here too. The interior of the former police station is now "an oasis in the middle of rubble and rubble," she writes under the photo on page 259. The final destination is the Salton Sea in California. It was created in 1905 by a dam break, today it is affected by evaporation and the largest lake in California shows parallels to the Aral Sea.
Anyone who thinks of a weighty large format when they hear the word atlas will have to be disabused of this when they hear "Field, vacant lot, landfill" with the subtitle "Brachenatlas" by David Bröderbauer. The book, measuring 18 by 12 centimeters, can easily be slipped into any pocket. David Bröderbauer, born in 1981, is a writer and biologist in the Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna. Here he works in the area of science communication (see also blog: Botanical Garden). In the definition of fallow land, which can be found in the first ("field fallow") of the twelve chapters, one learns that the word "probably does not come from the regular breaking up of the arable land" (page 12), but can probably be traced back to the "rotten" becoming as a result of nutrient-consuming planting. If the term fallow land is used, from industrial to social wasteland, the common denominator of all these places is that they have "at least temporarily fallen out of use". Other fallow areas presented here in the book as separate chapters are: vacant lot fallow, pavement crack fallow, industrial fallow, landfill fallow, train station fallow, garden fallow, cemetery fallow, war fallow, border fallow, drought fallow and space fallow.
In addition to the chapters mentioned, there are also plant portraits, each with a page of text and a page of images. At the beginning (page 28) there is the corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas, where we learn that it occurs on former industrial areas as well as between disused tracks. In addition to well-known plants such as shield, ivy and tomatoes, less common species such as Ruthenian saltwort and ragweed are also presented.
Bröderbauer takes the reader into nature in authentic and credible reports. "When I'm depressed, when I feel lost, or when the grayness of the city becomes too much for me, I look down: even in the last crack there is a little plant that, despite everything, is shaping its life here. That cheers me up." (Page 47) The comparisons and images contained in the well-researched book are also interesting. The author calculates that all the cracks in the pavement lined up together would form a line sixty million kilometers long, which corresponds to the distance from Earth to Mars.
On the topic of “cemetery wasteland” we read: “Every grave is a wasteland in the making – a piece of earth that has been put out of use, set aside in memory of a dead person.” (Since 134) When it comes to wild growth, Bröderbauer takes us to the St. Marxer Cemetery or to the Jewish part of the Central Cemetery. During a family outing there is an animal encounter when three deer appear between the gravestones. "I take my daughter on my shoulders so she can see the animals better." This is how nature education works!
In the case of “war wasteland”, reference is made to the war in Ukraine. Along the front, large areas of arable land could no longer be cultivated, which is shown in the satellite image as a green band between the cultivated fields, which are plowed and brown in autumn.
Embedded in personal encounters with nature, a mix of interesting facts enriches this vademecum, which is worth reading. Bröderbauer's Brachenbüchlein brings ubiquitous, often little-noticed places into the spotlight. He gives new meaning to this forgotten nature, the omnipresent botanical diversity offscreen. "Fallow lands provide a habitat for many plants and animals, including numerous cultural followers, exotics, escapees and mutants. But rare and endangered species also find refuge here." (page 9)
Conclusion: "Abandoned Places - Ends and Beginnings in a Deserted World" proves to be a special kind of travel guide that leads to places of resurgent nature as a beacon of hope. "Field, vacant lot, landfill - A fallow atlas", a small-format reading book, impresses with an easy-to-read mix of nature reports and information about forgotten places that surprise as temporary biotopes. (Thomas Hofmann, June 26, 2026).