Action group A 31
The action group A 31 is a citizens' initiative that succeeded between 1973 and 1982 in completely preventing the southern part of the A 31 motorway between Bottrop and Bonn , which had been classified as the highest priority in the federal traffic route plan . A broader aim was to give more attention to environmental protection in transport policy and in all other public and private areas. The action group is one of the forerunners of the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen party .
Individual initiatives and associations
The first citizens' initiative was created in October 1973 from the Working Group on people and the environment of the community college Mülheim, when the first phase of construction of the highway (then under the name A113) in Mülheim an der Ruhr to concerns and suggestions disclosed had been. It initially aimed to find a less polluting route and developed an alternative proposal, which was signed by around 300 Mülheim citizens. This meant that the imminent start of construction in the Hexbachtal could initially be stopped. As a nature and landscape protection area, the Hexbachtal is part of the so-called regional green corridor B, which spans cities and runs through the central Ruhr area from north to south. When it later became apparent that this alternative solution also contained considerable potential for conflict, the basics of planning were dealt with and the realization that the concerns of environmental protection and local recreation, which had not been given enough consideration, had to have priority and that this motorway had to take precedence should not be built. When the planning for the next section in the Mülheim-Heißen area was disclosed in 1974 , information stands with display boards were set up on the affected walking paths and further signatures - over 16,000 in total - were collected with this aim in mind. At the same time, there was a merger with other initiatives, initially with the Werdener Group , which had also started with an alternative proposal, but then gradually with all other initiatives along the route from Bottrop to Siegburg .
Scientific Advisory Board
A scientific advisory board was also formed in which experts from all relevant fields were involved (spatial planning, sociology, medicine, urban planning, transport planning, agriculture and forestry, energy and water management). The advisory board produced material that other citizens' initiatives, e.g. B. could use the initiatives against the DüBoDo and against the west bypass in Berlin. In addition, statements were made on draft laws such as B. on the Traffic Noise Protection Act or presented at hearings in the Bundestag committees and the State Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia .
Actions
Through numerous campaigns on the occasion of party political events and through our own events, the public was made aware of the problem of the unilateral transport policy, so that the regional press and radio and television reported on it beyond the local press. On the occasion of a visit to Mülheim, Minister of Transport Horst Ludwig Riemer was received with a broomstick, which the architect Horst Leiermann called an East Frisian spit, symbolically embodied the A 31 motorway and on which the affected local recreation areas were impaled in the form of polystyrene bodies. Part of the expenses could be financed through two folk festivals in Hexbachtal. After the Landschaftsverband Rheinland had created an elaborate exhibition with display boards and pictures in the Gruga in Essen in 1975 , with the topic: "Why our country needs the A 31", Leiermann responded with an exhibition in which he showed pictures of serious interventions in the nature and in living areas showed by the road construction. Citizens' initiatives from all over Germany met at a conference in the House of Encounters in Mülheim to exchange experiences and strategies. Renowned speakers, such as the specialist lawyer for administrative law Konrad Redeker from Bonn, gave presentations, radio and television reported on it. In a ZDF broadcast as part of the series "Always Trouble with ...", proponents discussed with representatives of the action group. Authorities and politicians had to reckon with the fact that the citizens would find the formal errors in the planning and, if necessary, object to the legal process. So it was not just the traffic engineering reports, in which the action group was able to prove errors, but the regional association also commissioned the required economic and ecological reports. An expert opinion finally confirmed the view of the action group and the southern part of the A 31 motorway was finally deleted from the federal transport infrastructure plan by the Bundestag in 1982. The demands were also followed to provide the A3 motorway with a third lane on both sides as an alternative .
More ambitious goals and activities
The action group A 31 had achieved the closest goal of preventing the construction of the motorway. The preoccupation with the basics of planning, however, also led to the realization that transport policy in the Federal Republic of Germany is determined by interests that do not serve the common good. The aim of the numerous actions was to change the direction of transport policy by shifting the focus to public transport. This goal was not achieved. The funds available for the 100 km long southern part of the motorway were used for the northern part between Bottrop and Emden . Since environmental protection received too little attention in the other areas of spatial planning , several members decided to become politically active themselves. Wilhelm Knabe , Norbert Mann and others are among the founders of the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen party , other members were in city councils , associations such as the Essener Aktion gegen Umweltdestruction ( Horst Pomp ), in the State Advisory Board for Immission Control NRW ( Volker Sperlich ) or in Landscape councils active.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Sykorra Of the "valleys" on the Regional Green Corridor B, in: Essen posts. Contributions to the history of the city and monastery of Essen 128 (2015), pp. 261–296.
- ↑ Contact addresses of the "Aktiongemeinschaft A 31" in the archive of the "Kultur-Historisches Verein Essen-Borbeck".