Wilhelm Raabe’s novel ‚Pfisters Mühle‘ (Pfister’s Mill) from 1884 has long been highlighted as the first example of Eco-fiction in German-language literature. The novel has been read as an early example of criticism of industrialism and capitalism articulating an idyllic longing back to the pristine nature of the pre-industrial era. In this article, it is, for the first time, shown how closely the novel’s ecocritical perspective is connected with Arthur Schopenhauer’s immanent metaphysical interpretation of the world. Man’s successive destruction of nature and thus of his own basis of life is inscribed in the world from the beginning (Adam). In man, nature, metaphorically speaking, strikes the teeth in its own flesh.