The discourse on nature has become problematic in many ways today. This sometimes goes so far that one can no longer speak of a presupposed nature. Hartmut Böhme therefore first asks in his fundamental essay what it means to live in an era "after nature." He then discusses the main approaches to the contemplation of nature: the culturalist approach, neo-Darwinian aesthetics, the deconstruction of nature, nature in the context of life sciences, ecological constructivism, the process of "gendering nature," and finally the old Kantian approach of a "technique of nature." Against this background, artistic examples from Bruegel to Beuys are presented that refute the recently held theses about the inability of Western culture to conceive the interconnection of nature and culture.