Action group Schnellbahntrasse

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The Schnellbahntrasse action group was the largest citizens' initiative against the Mannheim – Stuttgart high-speed route .

It was considered to be the greatest adversary of the former German Federal Railroad with regard to the new line. It was, along with some K groups , according to the Deutsche Bundesbahn as the most important group that was completely opposed to the planned route. In addition to those directly affected by the new line, citizens who, as citizens and taxpayers, fought against the “insane project” were also involved in the initiative.

Observers described the work of the action group as more durable and more successful than that of other citizens' initiatives along the new Hanover – Würzburg line . According to the railway, the “extraordinary activities” of the action group led to “considerable delays in the implementation process” of the new line. By "responding to legitimate concerns" an attempt was made to enable a speedy implementation.

history

In 1975 around 20 citizens' initiatives, some of which had been fighting against the new line since 1973, came together to form the Schnellbahntrasse initiative . According to an estimate by DB, it was initially 900 people. According to the Bundesbahn, the initiative would have been joined by that part of the citizens' initiatives directed against the new line that were not prepared to make any concessions and had become radicalized.

The statutes of the association were adopted on March 6, 1976. With this, the general citizens' initiative Schnellbahntrasse was also renamed the action group Schnellbahntrasse . The purpose of the association, laid down in the statutes, was "to ensure that the interests of the population as well as nature and the environment are not, or as little as possible, impaired when planning and managing traffic in the Mannheim-Stuttgart area - especially on the occasion of the current rapid transit planning." It brought actions for rescission with suspensive effect against almost all of the 24 planning approval decisions . A total of almost 130 lawsuits were initiated by around 200 plaintiffs on the new line. According to the railway in 1987, most of the lawsuits were settled out of court after "tough negotiations", the remaining lawsuits were all dismissed by the administrative court.

According to the railway, contrary to the statutes, the initiative was not about improving the route, but about preventing the entire project.

In an open letter on May 31, 1976, she asked Chancellor Helmut Schmidt to refrain from building the new line. On October 14, 1978 the second general meeting took place in Ketsch .

In December 1978, the action group announced that it would take action against the new line before the Federal Administrative Court . After analyzes of the group had clearly shown the absurdity of the new route project, the business basis for the project was no longer applicable. The initiative expected a delay of several years from this step.

On February 15, 1979 there was an exchange of views between representatives of the Bahnbauzentrale and the action group. On October 27, 1979, a general assembly took place in Illingen . On the occasion of Lothar Späth's visit to an NBS discussion event in Schützingen on January 11, 1980, the action group organized signature, flyer and bumper sticker campaigns in December 1979 and January 1980. On October 11, 1980 the fourth general meeting of the action group took place in Forst.

According to DB information, the initiative initially achieved minor successes on a political level, but by the early 1980s it hardly attracted any attention. The action group then concentrated on legal possibilities. In all plan approval sections, the action group was looking for plaintiffs who were assured of assuming legal costs. Among other things, the complaining house owners at the Pfingstberg tunnel were all members of the action group.

In July 1990, the Federal Administrative Court dismissed an action brought by the action group against the route as a whole. She was the only one of more than a hundred plaintiffs who went to the highest court.

Charitable litigation

The charitable status initially granted was withdrawn by the tax authorities. The Ludwigsburg tax office refused the action group non-profit status on the grounds that the majority of the population were indifferent or supportive of the new line project. Observers suspected the Baden-Württemberg state government behind it. In mid-January 1980, the state of Baden-Württemberg introduced a bill to change the taxation of associations in order to be able to withdraw non-profit status (and thus the tax exemption) from citizens' initiatives.

In January 1978, the action group brought an action for restoration of the non-profit status before the tax court in Stuttgart . Once this is successful, the opposition put revision one. The non-profit status was still revoked.

In April 1979, the Federal Fiscal Court rejected the appeal against the first-instance judgment. After a year and a half legal dispute between the action group and the tax office in Ludwigsburg, the action group got back its non-profit tax status.

Membership structure

Most of the members came from the Stromberg area or Langen Feld, north of Stuttgart.

A member survey showed that almost half of the members had joined the action group or a local citizens' initiative in 1976; the first members joined in 1973. Nature and landscape protection as well as a waste of tax money were mentioned as personal concerns. The average age of the interviewees was 47 years, 83 percent were married, 11 percent were women, 75 percent were of Protestant denomination, and 31 percent worked in agriculture. 78 percent of those questioned said that the AG wanted to prevent the construction of the new line in principle, 42 percent said they wanted to help everyone affected by the construction of their rights; 31 percent said they wanted to achieve an environmentally friendly route.

discussion

The action group assumed a persistent decline in rail traffic and therefore doubted the mere necessity of the new line. The rail passenger traffic decreased from 231 million passengers in 1970 to around 160 million around 1977. The hoped-for increase in traffic is a pipe dream, while the route is destroying a local recreation area and harming thousands of people.

According to a train count carried out by the initiative in November 1976, the existing line was not overloaded. According to the Bundesbahn, data was deliberately used incorrectly.

The action group feared cost increases of 100 percent and wanted to give politicians "tutoring in arithmetic". It has "much cheaper alternatives". In 1977, at an official cost of DM 2.5 billion , she expected costs of  DM four to five billion. In addition, there would be costs for the fleet of vehicles and at least DM one billion in construction interest and depreciation. The project is thus a billion dollar grave. Operating costs of a similar amount would still be incurred on the existing route anyway. The operating costs of 22.5 million DM per year assumed in the profitability calculation for the new line are also not sufficient. With 2.5 billion DM, 600 kilometers of single-lane federal roads could be expanded to two lanes and many road deaths, injuries and congestion avoided.

She accused the Baden-Württemberg state government of having "fallen over" in view of concessions in the choice of route for the new line.

The action group also criticized the start of construction. It is a scandal to start construction, although 90 percent of the project is still lacking a building permit and the profitability has not been examined in detail.

After the project for the new Cologne – Groß-Gerau line was put aside in mid-1978, the action group assumed that the new Mannheim – Stuttgart line could also be stopped.

In August 1980, the action group published a 17-page information leaflet entitled New section of the German Federal Railroad (NBS) Mannheim – Stuttgart, unnecessary, uneconomical, a huge bad investment . In it, she was the board of the Deutsche Bundesbahn to deceive the public. A section built in 1977 and 1978 exceeded the cost estimate of 1975 by 64 percent, the alignment was unnecessarily designed for 400 km / h and landscape and environmental protection measures in the amount of many hundreds of millions of DM were canceled. The Deutsche Bundesbahn then brought an action for injunctive relief in order to prevent the allegations, which it considered to be unjustified. The action group referred to this as the “muzzle strategy” and invoked the fundamental right to express one's opinion . The Karlsruhe Higher Regional Court essentially followed the line of argument put forward by the Deutsche Bundesbahn.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Tunnel construction is possible up to 30 meters deep in opencast mining . In: Bonner General-Anzeiger , Bonn city edition, 23 September 1989, p. 10.
  2. ^ A b Dietrich Neidhardt: Public relations for the new Mannheim – Stuttgart line . In: Die Bundesbahn , 8/1978, pp. 599–603.
  3. ↑ a b c Thomas Zeller: Street, Railway, Panorama . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2002, ISBN 3-593-36609-6 , pp. 381, 385.
  4. ^ Wilhelm Linkeränger: Expanding the existing network is not enough in all respects . In: Handelsblatt , May 4, 1981.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Werner Hagstotz: Concern and collective action in rural areas . Verlag Haag + Herchen, Frankfurt am Main 1981, ISBN 3-88129-475-9 , pp. 8, 127, 129, 133, 141-145, 149, 159, 163, 265-275.
  6. ↑ a b Erich Fein: Planning and implementation of the new Mannheim – Stuttgart line . In: Knut Reimers, Wilhelm Linkerhägner (Ed.): Paths to the future . Hestra-Verlag, Darmstadt 1987, ISBN 3-7771-0200-8 , p. 169-176 .
  7. ↑ a b c Erich Fein, Dietrich Neidhardt: New Mannheim – Stuttgart line: A project is taking shape . In: Die Bundesbahn , issue 10/1981, pp. 807–816.
  8. ↑ a b Hellmut Bernius: Legal protection for untrue statements? In: Die Bundesbahn , vol. 58, no. 10, 1982, pp. 747-749.
  9. ↑ Fridtjof Theegarten: "Glasharte No" ui this route . In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten , December 7, 1977.
  10. ^ Judgment with file number 4 C 26.87 of July 27, 1990 by the 4th Senate at the Federal Administrative Court. Quoted in: “Eco” seal for new line from the highest authority . In: Die Bahn informs , issue 5/1990, p. 13, ZDB -ID 2003143-9 .
  11. ↑ "You can save some marks" . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1983, pp. 86-93 ( online ).
  12. ↑ Nothing works without a tunnel . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1979, pp. 53-60 ( online ).
  13. ^ Project group Mannheim - Stuttgart of the Bahnbauzentrale, information center (ed.): Future for the Federal Railroad? Brochure, 32 A4 pages, Karlsruhe, 1981, p. 26.
  14. ↑ a b Fridtjof Theegarten: Hurdles into a new age of the railway . In: Stuttgarter Nachrichten , July 23, 1977, p. 14.
  15. ↑ a b 1976: The opponents are still hoping . In: Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung , August 18, 2010.
  16. ↑ The dispute over the old express railway line . In: Mannheimer Morgen , August 24, 2010.
  17. ↑ Dietrich Neidhardt: The public debate about the new Mannheim – Stuttgart line . In: Die Bundesbahn , 11/1979, pp. 791–796.
  18. ^ Jörg Weikert: Untitled. In: Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung , July 29, 1978.