The Politics of Nature: Constructing the German Reunification During the Great Odra Flood

Natural disasters like earthquakes, tornadoes, hailstorms and floods always lead to a massive media coverage as a close look in the fait divers of daily newspapers proves. They seem to have a short-lived but extreme effect on society as well as on the media. One point which is often neglected is the fact that disasters occur in unique socio-hi torical contexts that determine the patterns of interpretation. This seem to be also the case concerning the Great Odra Flood 1997 inasmuch as the disaster occurred within the singular process of the German reunification. Following especially the German newspapers, the Odra Flood marked the point of the real reunification and therefore efforts to dam the rising waters have been metaphorically interpreted as the joint fight against the flood. It received its political dimension in particular via different types of metaphors that blend synchronic domains of discourse. The present chapter investigates the metaphorical patters the underlie the news coverage of the flood and relates these to the 'visions of nature ' that are the subject matter of the present volume as a whole