The use of energy from wind has a multi-faceted relationship to visibility. Between 1973 and 1991, various actors in the West German environmental movement made assertions about the visibility of renewable sources of power, but wind energy took on a particular prominence. In this article, the question of how different actors have used knowledge and the materiality of wind turbines for competing purposes is explored. Environmentalists attempted to create visible signs of a valid alternative energy future by tinkering with small, decentralized wind turbines, while the Federal Republic of Germany's Ministry of Research and established energy providers used the failure of the statesubsidized large-scale wind-energy project GROWIAN to criticize renewables and brand their application as misguided. In both cases, actors created new wind energy visibilities to convey their conflicting interests-pitting those advocating a new, environmentally friendly energy system against those who sought consolidation of the large-scale fossil-nuclear energy system.
Die Verfügbarkeit von immer größeren Energiemengen ist die Grundlage unseres heutigen energieintensiven Lebensstils. Entsprechend haben sich historische Energieforschungen primär mit dem seit rund zweihundert Jahren anhaltenden Wachstum des Energieverbrauchs auseinandergesetzt. Auf dem Weg in nachhaltige Energiezukünfte gilt es aber, das Energieverbrauchslevel zu senken. Der Beitrag begibt sich auf eine historische Spurensuche nach dem Energiesparen und zeigt auf, dass aktuelle Diskussionen über Energiesuffizienz Ausprägungen eines Diskurses darstellen, der mindestens bis in die Frühe Neuzeit zurückreicht und seitdem immer wieder Aktualisierungen erfahren hat.
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