Zur Geschichte des Umweltbegriffs

Historically, the biological concept of living organisms from the early 19th century was a precondition for the evolution of the modern concept of the environment. The connection with the hermeneutic concept of the environment qua “landscape” was made through A. v. Humboldt's “physiognomy of plants” and the geographical sciences. At the turn of the 20th century, ecology was established as the “science of communities”. These are primarily considered to have formed through the adaptation of organisms to one another, and, therefore, to an inner environment of a superordinate system.