Hambach Forest

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Aerial photo of the Hambach Forest (October 2018)
Hambach Forest (2016)
Location of the still preserved part of the "Hambach Forest" between the lignite demolition edge and the A4 / RWE Hambachbahn in the Morschenich (old) and Manheim (old) area
Satellite image ( false color representation ) of the preserved part of the Hambach Forest (south) and the Hambach opencast mine (as of 2005) , the pit of which is currently around 7 kilometers long and 7 kilometers wide.
The Hambach opencast mine seen from the viewpoint near Elsdorf- Angelsdorf (2006)

The Hambach Forest (also Hambach Forest ) is a (in November 2018) still a few hundred hectares large forest in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) between Cologne and Aachen.

Beeches that are over 150 years old in the Hambach Forest near Morschenich, also known as the Merzenicher Erbwald. The forest is part of the Hambach Forest and cut off from other parts of the forest by the advanced opencast mining. It is part of the concept submitted by BUND NRW for an FFH area in the Hambach Forest.

The Hambacher Forst (Hambacher Wald) currently (as of 2018) still covers an area of ​​approx. 500 hectares, which consists of the following three sub-areas: today's Lindenberg Forest between Stetternich and Hambach on the edge of the Sophienhöhe, Merzenicher Erbwald south of the old A 4 (approx . 250 ha), remains of the Blatzheim hereditary forest and the provost near Buir (approx. 200 ha). The remaining part of the Hambach Forest is mainly in the area of ​​the city of Kerpen , the western part in the municipality of Merzenich .

The energy supplier RWE has been clearing the forest to expand its Hambach open-cast lignite mine since the 1970s .

Before clearing began, the forest, first mentioned in the tenth century and previously called Bürgewald , had an area of ​​4100 hectares. Characteristic plant species are common oak , hornbeam and lily of the valley . According to the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation , the oak and hornbeam forests also listed in Appendix I of the Habitats Directive are "widespread but incomplete". Rare animals protected by European law such as Bechstein's bat , agile frog , dormouse and middle woodpecker live in the forest .

The Hambach Forest is a symbol of the resistance of the anti-coal power movement against environmental destruction and climate damage from the coal industry , as well as the impending coal phase-out as part of the energy transition .

After the Arnsberg district government, which is responsible for mining in North Rhine-Westphalia, approved the main operating plan for the opencast mine from 2018 to 2020 and a representative action by the Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) was rejected, RWE AG wanted to clear further parts of the Hambach Forest . For reasons of brood protection according to the Federal Nature Conservation Act , this is possible between October 1st and the end of February. According to the court, RWE said it would wait until October 14, 2018 at the latest. On April 20, 2018, the BUND again filed a lawsuit against the approved main operating plan and sees the Hambach Forest as meeting the criteria of a European nature reserve. On October 5th, the Higher Administrative Court of Münster ordered a preliminary clearing stop pending a renewed assessment of the facts as a result of a further action by the BUND against the deforestation of the Hambach Forest.

According to the plans of the energy company RWE and the proposed main operating plan 2018–2020, which BUND has complained about, the remaining approx. 200 hectares of the forest at Buir 2018 should be cut down to less than 100 hectares. Considerable disputes with tree occupiers on tree houses in the Hambach Forest were therefore to be expected. The black-and-yellow state government under Armin Laschet ( CDU ) decided in September 2018 to clear the tree houses that had existed in the forest since 2012 because of alleged lack of fire protection. She justified the step as necessary to ensure the safety of the occupiers. The state government rejected a connection with the clearing planned from October.

After the clearing was stopped by the Higher Administrative Court of Münster and a large demonstration took place in the forest with around 50,000 participants, the state government stopped the evacuation. According to estimates by the police union , the police worked a total of around one million hours in the five weeks of the eviction.

In January 2020, the preservation of the Hambach Forest was agreed at a top meeting between the federal government and the four federal states affected by the coal phase-out. The “timetable for the exit from coal” has not yet become a law.

geography

Location and size of the forest area

Originally, before the partial clearing in the course of the Hambach open-cast lignite mine, a forest area between Elsdorf and Niederzier , half in the Düren district and half in the Rhein-Erft district , extended to more than 4000 hectares.

The surviving part of the forest, which is now known as "Hambach Forest", located immediately north and south of the old A4 highway and north of the new A4 with the parallel to this newly created railway line of the Hambach railway and in the catchment area of the part already resettled villages Morschenich ( old) and Manheim (old), north of Morschenich-Neu and northwest of Manheim-new . The Eschweiler Forestry Office is responsible as the lower forest authority .

Forest division

The entire Bürgewald was used as a commons for centuries . With the Bürgebuschordnung of 1562, the forest was divided into four quarters, namely the Arnoldsweiler, Steinstrasser, Elsdorfer and Manheimer quarters. This made the use of the forest clearer. Around 200 years later, the quarters were divided again. On April 2, 1775, the communities were allocated the forest areas closest to them. So the Bürgewald got smaller subdivisions with specific names. The wooded areas that end in “Bürge” were owned by the individual communities. In the first available topographic map from 1902, many of the forest areas that existed at that time are named.

The topographic map TK 50 Düren from 1902 with the former Bürgewald and individual forest areas. Source: Geobasis NRW

The following forest areas in the Bürgewald existed or are:

a Dredged by the open pit mine

The Steinheide between Manheim and Geilrath and the Lörsfelder Busch near Kerpen are also part of the guarantee. The two forests were still connected to the core forest until around 1900, but were separated from each other by deforestation. Both forests are not being dredged by the Hambach opencast mine.

Flora and fauna

The Hambach Forest is considered a forest with high ecological value , which results from relics of heat-loving species that occur in the old forests. A visit to the forest and its biodiversity under the expert guidance of forest educators has been possible since 2014. According to the company, such offers were taken up by around 14,000 visitors by the time the evacuation began in September 2018.

flora

Treetops of the forest with canopy of leaves in September 2018.

The area has been forested for around 12,000 years after the end of the last Ice Age . Hornbeams and English oaks grow in the remnants of the forest . The oldest trees are around 350 years old. According to information from RWE, the tree population in the forest area near Buir is currently around 43,000 trees, spread over approximately 200 hectares, above a certain minimum size of the trunk.

fauna

Bechstein's bat

The forest is home to two colonies of Bechstein's bat , which is threatened with extinction, and which should be attracted to other forests in the vicinity of the open pit by creating special pastures outside the forest. It has been known since spring 2018 that RWE is closing the tree hollows for bats in the entire Hambach Forest. According to his own statement, this is done to protect the animals because of the planned clearing of the forest. According to a report by the Rheinische Post , the BUND accused the nature conservation authority of the Düren district of covering the evacuation of the bats. The environmental agency rejected the allegations on the grounds that the closing of the caves was “not necessarily” a violation of species protection law.

According to the environmental association BUND, twelve strictly protected bat species settled in the forest area affected by the excavation until 2030, which consists of 226 hectares of “most valuable forest areas” . A total of 142 protected animal species are present.

Surname

Hambacher Forst or Bürgewald

The names Hambacher Forst and Bürgewald actually refer to two different forests. The Hambach Forest is or was between Jülich , Stetternich , Lich-Steinstrasse , Hambach and Selgersdorf , the Bürgewald between Lich-Steinstrasse, Elsdorf , Manheim , Merzenich and Niederzier .

The guarantor separates the Jülich-Zülpicher Börde into the Jülich Börde in the north and the Zülpicher Börde in the south; in terms of nature , it is assigned to the main unit Jülich Börde (554) as a sub-unit (554.0) .

Strictly speaking, the name “Hambach Forest” for the Bürgewald is incorrect. The forest area, originally known as the Hambach Forest, is located north of the Bürgewald between Jülich, Hambach and Lich-Steinstrasse and is still partially preserved. The Hambach Forest was divided into two parts, namely the Selgenbusch, in which the Jülich Research Center has been located since 1958 , and the Great Forest. Although both partial forests no longer formed a continuous forest area since the Middle Ages due to deforestation, they were still closely connected in terms of administration and use and belonged together, hence the common name as "Hambach Forest". While the western part of the forest, the Selgenbusch, is not affected by the excavation and has been preserved, the eastern Hambach Forest, the so-called Great Forest, was largely cleared from 1978 onwards and dredged by the Hambach opencast mine. Only a small area, today's Lindenberg Forest between Stetternich and Hambach, has been preserved from the original forest. Since then, the Sophienhöhe has been built on the rest of this forest . The eastern Hambach Forest was the first forest to be cleared in the course of the opening up of the Hambach opencast mine.

Opencast mine operator Rheinbraun , now RWE, transferred the name Hambacher Forst to this forest when the logging and excavation of the Bürgewald began, although the Bürgewald was historically separated from the Hambacher Forst in terms of administration and use since the early Middle Ages. Neither Hambach, Stebenich nor Selgersdorf were among the places involved in the Bürgewald. Reasons for the transfer of the name are not known. It is likely, however, that the name “Hambacher Forst” was also established for the Bürgewald, depending on the open-cast lignite mine “Hambach”, which has been operated by Rheinbraun and RWE since 1978.

The two terms Bürgewald and Die Bürge have been used less and less in public debate since the beginning of the 2010s. Until then, the original names were still very common among the population. In the course of the struggle to preserve the remnants of the forest and it made during the public debate, the new name appears Hambach Forest over the transferred to the guarantor forest designation Hambach forest gradually enforce.

Etymology: Bürgewald or Bürge

There are different derivations for the two correct names "Bürgewald" or "Die Bürge":

  • Sieper derives the name from the Old Saxon term borgian , which means something like to protect , and the Middle Low German word borghen , which means to shield . Both terms indicate that the Bürgewald was a people's reserve for the people living in the vicinity.
  • Schläger argues that originally there was a unified imperial forest , the Burgwald administered by the castle in Düren , the use of which was divided over the course of time, with all the surrounding communities ultimately being involved.
  • Wirtz derives the term from the Celtic brogilo , the name for a fenced area.

Archeology and history

prehistory

The flange landscape was in pre- and early historical most densely populated time. In the run-up to the open-cast lignite mine, prospecting and excavations are therefore taking place in order to localize existing sites and examine them scientifically. However, only a very small part of the sites can actually be researched. Most of it is destroyed by lignite mining without having been thoroughly archaeologically examined beforehand. It is therefore necessary to select the preferred sites to be examined on the basis of scientific questions, possible significance and chronological classification.

Under the direction of the Frankfurt prehistoric archaeologist Jens Lüning , experimental archaeological experiments on Neolithic agriculture took place in the Bürge .

Ancient and Middle Ages

Roman necklace made of amber (3rd century), archaeological find in the Hambach Forest

Since the 1970s, Roman sites have been investigated , in particular with regard to ancient glass production and settlements or manors (so-called villae rusticae ). The large and partly richly furnished manors served to supply the nearby Roman Cologne ( Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium ). For late antiquity , so-called Burgi , small tower-like fortifications from the 4th / 5th centuries , could be found near the Roman trunk road Cologne - Aachen - Liège in the area of ​​the Bürgewald . Century. Franconian grave fields (6th / 7th centuries), for example, near the former village of Steinstrasse, testify to continuous settlement even in the Merovingian period . The earliest historical information about the Bürgewald is available for the Carolingian period . According to legend, St. Arnold von Arnoldsweiler is said to have achieved through a trick that Emperor Charlemagne gave him the entire forest. The saint then gave the area away to the surrounding communities in order to fight the poverty that prevailed there.

The Hambach Forest was first mentioned in a document dated July 25, 973 as burgina . In this document, Emperor Otto II confirms, in the queue of Archbishop Gero of Cologne, the wild ban that King Ludwig had given the Cologne church. Whether with this King Ludwig Ludwig the Pious (ruled 814 to 840) is meant cannot be said with certainty.

Modern times until 1971

Since the 16th century bush orders have been handed down that a sustainable regulate forest management and drastic penalties for partly wooden sacrilege set and theft. In 1562 the Bürgewald was divided into four quarters. The Arnoldsweiler Quartier comprised 2382 acres , the Elsdorfer Quartier 2382 acres, the Manheimer Quartier 1475 acres and the Steinstrasser Quartier 1927 acres. At that time the Bürgewald was 7975 acres and four rods in size.

In the surrounding communities, the cooperatively organized users gathered on fixed dates and held wooden objects . In 1775 the four quarters were subdivided again and distributed to the neighboring communities. Thus, each municipality was responsible for its own forest. This year, the Arnoldsweiler Quartier was divided into the Arnoldsweiler, Ellener, Merzenicher, Oberzierer and Niederzierer Bürge. Something similar happened with the remaining three quarters. These parts of the forest were assigned to the individual municipalities mentioned.

In 1939 an underground mine was set up in the Bürgewald between Morschenich and Etzweiler to extract lignite, the Union 103 mine . Operations ceased in 1955. At the end of the Second World War , a regiment advanced through the Bürgewald towards Erft as part of Operation Grenade of the 9th US Army on February 23, 1945 .

Younger past and present

Area acquisition by Rheinbraun AG

In the course of the ongoing planning for the Hambach opencast mine, the municipalities involved in the Bürgewald and private owners gradually sold their wooded areas to the then Rheinbraun AG between 1967 and 1971, thereby relinquishing all rights of use.

Since 1972 and 1973, the "annual reports of the Rheinische Braunkohlenwerke AG in Cologne [...] stereotypically indicated that the preparatory work for the opening of the Hambach opencast mine was being continued." At a press conference in 1974 by "RWE" (i.e. the Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG from Essen) said the board member Helmut Meysenburg: "We will unlock the Hambacher Forest." At that time it was discussed in which form the lignite should be used - to generate electricity or "as a chemical raw material". At that time it seemed as if using nuclear power to generate electricity would become cheaper than using lignite. The municipalities and municipal associations were and still are major shareholders of RWE today. So there was close contact between companies and politics from the start.

In an article in Der Spiegel on May 30, 1977, the Hambach Forest was described as the "largest and most valuable oak stock in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia". At the time, the 36 square kilometer forest was “proposed by landscape gardeners as a nature reserve because of its diverse flora and fauna, but in vain.” It is astonishing that “there is hardly any protest against such monstrosity”. The Hauptschulrektor Manfred Thelen, chairman of the “Hambacher Interest Group Opencast Mines Affected” (HIT) said at the time: “Here it is clear to everyone that there is basically no alternative to lignite mining in this area. Only the level of nuisance needs to be discussed. ”The citizens and organized citizens' movements are“ only concerned about higher compensation or better limit values ​​for noise and air pollution ”. The recultivation measures were then considered exemplary. But there was also criticism of the plans. The pastor Peter van Wersch, the pastor of the village of Steinstrasse , which was to be dug up, said publicly at the time: “The people of Rheinbraun have a heart like stone” and called them “unchristian and immoral” because “we are all blown with the wind” .

Before the opening of the Hambach opencast mine in 1978, the shares in Bürgewald were transferred from the surrounding communities to the ownership of Rheinbraun AG. In 2003 Rheinbraun AG was merged with the then parent company RWE AG, and the forest became their property. The Hambacher Forst has been cleared bit by bit since 1978 by Rheinbraun AG and RWE AG as the opencast mine progresses.

Resistance movement

Origins

In 1978 the Hambach Group was founded , which opposed the resettlement and demolition plans of some villages. Similar groups were formed in the towns threatened by the Inden and Garzweiler opencast mines , but they were only poorly networked with one another.

With regard to the church resistance, reference can be made to the year 1988, in which the Protestant pastor Dieter Schmitten (* 1934, 1964–1996 pastor in Düren) held a service under the heading “The earth screams in the north”. The church was then stormed by employees of RWE / Rheinbraun during the service. The Hambacher Wald is located in the municipality. Since then, the community has been committed to preventing the destruction caused by the opencast mines in the region, organizing discussions, disseminating statements, helping to make protests public and trying to find alternative ways with other institutions. During the protests in 2018, members of the parish college took part in sit-ins in the forest.

Larger nature conservation associations were also involved in the resistance efforts. In 2004 activists from Greenpeace protested against the further excavation of the forest for the first time with sensational actions. In 2009 the BUND first brought an action against RWE.

Occupation of the forest areas

In the protest camp (2013)

From mid-April to mid-November 2012, deforestation opponents occupied a smaller part of the forest. The evacuation of the camp began on November 13, 2012. A single opponent of deforestation stayed for four days in a self-made tunnel six meters underground. All 27 preliminary proceedings against the squatters were dropped.

In September 2013 the forest was reoccupied. The occupation was evacuated in March 2014 with a large police presence. Just a month later, the forest was reoccupied in several places.

Barricade of environmental activists (2015)

In October 2014 the camp was cleared again. 14 activists were arrested who allegedly attacked six RWE employees with pepper spray , stun grenades , fireworks and sticks. Police officers found two intact hand grenades from the Second World War and another in the so-called “climate camp” near the barricades . A detective suspected the weapons might have been used as booby traps . A spokesman for the activists denied the allegations; Aggression had emanated from the RWE employees, they had "only defended themselves", the grenades were relics of war, which were often found in the contested area at the time.

Since 2015, in addition to the ongoing occupation on tree houses and tents, Sometimes violent actions took place by some of the forest occupiers, in which massive action was taken against the clearing of the forest through burning barricades, the laying out of crow's feet , throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at RWE employees and police officers and other property damage. These actions reached a temporary high point when, in November 2016, a pick-up belonging to the mine operator got out of control as a result of stones being thrown and overturned four inmates who were injured in the process. The police surrounded the forest area extensively and arrested eight people.

The militant forms of protest finally drew the attention of the North Rhine-Westphalian authorities for the protection of the constitution , who mentioned them in their report as being responsible for a significant increase in crimes in the PMK -links field for the 2015 observation period. The state protection of the constitution report for the year 2016 found, in addition to “considerable damage to property, partly with the character of an attack” (pictured on high-voltage lines ), that “the occupants of the forest there and the left-wing extremists living in the neighboring Wiesencamp have repeatedly renewed and sometimes life-threatening barricades Installations in the forest area [made] clear ”. Disruptions to rail traffic and attacks using weapon-like tools, which were already described in the previous year, were repeated in the reporting period and their intensity increased again. According to a report published by the SZ in October 2017, there were also arson on cable routes and blockages of excavators and treadmills; since 2013, 944 criminal charges have already been filed in connection with resistance to the planned clearing.

In the Hambach Forest and its surroundings, forest and hunting facilities such as high seats and game protection fences have repeatedly been the target of vandalism. According to the Aachen police, between the middle of 2016 and the beginning of 2018 46 investigations into damaged or destroyed high seats in the area of ​​the Hambacher Forest were initiated. While some of the high seats were set on fire, parts of others were found in the barricades of the protest camps. On March 17, 2018, activists of the group “Hunt Saboteurs” held a workshop in the Hambach Forest under the title “Introduction to Hunting Sabotage”. In the following week, the Aachener Zeitung reported that all of the raised seats in the area around Morschenich that had remained until then had been destroyed.

A "meadow camp" outside the Hambacher Forest on private property was declared illegal by a judgment of the Higher Administrative Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (OVG Münster ) in December 2016.

In the course of the public opinion battle , Rolf Martin Schmitz , CEO of RWE AG, described some previously unknown violent demonstrators as " eco-terrorists " in an interview with Bild newspaper on August 2, 2017 .

In November 2017, the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND) failed with a lawsuit before the administrative court in Cologne against the permits for the Hambach opencast mine. The BUND had indicated its willingness to agree to a settlement. The chamber had suggested moving the mining limits in order to spare the Hambach forest. Against the background of a foreseeable phase-out of coal, the proposal should serve to pacify the conflict. RWE AG and the defendant country rejected the court's compromise proposal. Immediately afterwards , the BUND appealed to the responsible OVG Münster.

In a request of the Greens faction convened special session of a plenary session of the regional parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia on 30 November 2017, the President appealed Monika culvert to the state government to stand on the side of nature and species protection: "It's about the solution a social conflict, not only in relation to the enforcement of law and order. ”She also urged that such a solution not be left to the courts. The CDU MP Romina Plonsker contradicted this and referred to existing lower court decisions as well as to approval procedures that had already been carried out. "It is above all a matter of the law and the rule of law." For the animal species that live there, other areas have been registered in the Natura 2000 European system of protected areas, and there are already tried and tested procedures in place for species protection that are also observed.

Planned clearing of the remaining forest from 2018

initial situation

In the summer of 2016, the red-green state government under Hannelore Kraft ( SPD ) decided on the so-called " key decision on the future of the Rhenish lignite district / Garzweiler II ". This states that the mining limits of the Inden and Hambach opencast mines will remain unchanged, but that the mining limits of the Garzweiler II opencast mine will be significantly reduced. Johannes Remmel , the minister for the environment at the time , emphasized in an interview with the taz in September 2018 that the Hambach forest was not the subject of the negotiations at the time.

After the coal commission began its work in June 2018 , environmental associations and Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze demanded a clearing stop. Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) refused to mediate on the question of whether RWE AG should clear the Hambach Forest before the coal commission has issued a recommendation to phase out coal.

Demolition edge of the Hambach opencast mine with the Hambach Forest and activists in the background (November 2017)

According to a report by Deutsche Welle , supplies remained for at least three years even without clearing in 2018. The DW referred to research by BUND, which suggests that the cutting edge is still at a sufficient distance from the forest. RWE boss Rolf Martin Schmitz had stated in a letter to the chairman of the coal commission: “A temporary suspension of the clearing planned for October 2018 in the Hambach opencast mine would call into question the continuation of the opencast mine and thus the power generation of the Niederaussem and Neurath power plants. “Both Deutsche Welle and BUND itself accused Schmitz of deceiving the coal commission, ministries and the public.

Further clearing from October 2018 was permitted on the basis of the main operating plan 2018-2020, which was approved by the Arnsberg district government in March 2018. In its press release, the Arnsberg district government pointed out that due to the fact that the judgment of the Cologne Administrative Court of November 24, 2017 has not yet become legally binding, the habitat protection has been "again thoroughly and intensively examined", but the result has been confirmed , "That neither for legal nor for nature conservation reasons such a subsequent extension of the protected area is necessary."

In principle, the state government has the authority to issue instructions to the district governments. Regarding the continuation of the Hambach opencast mine and the mining limits, the black-and-yellow state government referred to the lead decision of the red-green previous government from 2016. However, according to Section 30 of the State Planning Act, “a lignite plan must be reviewed and, if necessary, changed if the basic assumptions for the lignite plan are met change significantly. "

Flag with the slogan 'Hambach Forest remains!' at a demonstration of the resistance movement (photo taken in February 2019)

Since RWE Power AG, as the owner of the site, announced that it would stick to the approved schedule, the situation came to a head shortly before the planned start of work in late summer 2018 after the police began to clear the tree houses that were still in the forest. In the course of the clearance, a number of media pointed to parallels between the situation in the Hambach Forest and the fight against the Wackersdorf reprocessing plant in the 1980s. During the ongoing protests, the diminutive Hambi was established among the community of demonstrators against the deforestation of the Hambach Forest , with the help of which high- public aids were developed (flags, banners, stickers, chants like “Hambi stays!” ).

Developments prior to eviction

"You don't want to save the trees, you want to abolish our state," said NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul .

New Year 2018 strangers entered the open-cast mine and damaged property there , including a. Electricity generators were rendered unusable or set on fire, cables were cut and containers were pelted with stones. The Aachen police reported further attacks on police officers on August 25, 2018. Some were only stopped when the threat of firearms was threatened . In addition to throwing stones, pyrotechnics and twin fire, officials were threatened by masked people with iron bars. The Aachen police chief Dirk Weinspach spoke in an interview with the Westfälische Nachrichten of an "unbearable escalation of violence". The number of activists has tripled within a few weeks, the occupying scene has also changed significantly and, as a result of the calls for support from the forest occupiers, has been increased by violent criminals from all over Europe who “represent a completely different potential for violence than those who existed there Weeks were. ”A supposed explosive device discovered by strollers turned out to be a dummy. On the part of the police, the attacks were taken as an indication that “obviously increasingly extreme, violent criminals belonging to the left-wing autonomous scene ” were staying in the forest.

Initially, the Ministry of the Interior planned to use civil law to persuade RWE to clear the property. It also wanted to share GPS data and photos of the tree houses with the company. However, RWE refused. A law firm was then hired to substantiate a legal basis for an eviction by the ministry. Fire protection was named as a possible reason.

On August 27, 2018, the head of the police department of the Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia, Daniela Lesmeister, came up with the plan for clearing the forest during a site inspection. The inspection was protected by 400 police officers. The following day, the police searched the meadow camp outside of the Hambach forest again. She seized various items of equipment (spray cans, paint tubes, potato knives, forks, etc.) and confiscated them. RWE works councils wrote an open letter to the federal government and warned against a hasty exit from coal in the Rhenish mining area.

With the classification of the Hambach Forest as a “dangerous place” by the Aachen police on August 31, 2018, identity determinations independent of suspicion became possible there in accordance with Section 12 of the Police Act of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (PolG NRW). According to the police, over 80 crimes by activists had been recorded by the end of August alone.

In the night from September 1st to 2nd, 2018, the “Alliance Mobile” of the “Buirer for Buir ” initiative burned out. The police are investigating deliberate arson.

On September 3, 2018, police presented an arsenal of confiscated weapons from the activists to the media. In addition to a few twins, it was mainly forest equipment ( hatchets , axes , machetes ). One day later, the Ministry of the Interior in North Rhine-Westphalia had to admit that a large part of the items shown had already been confiscated in summer 2016 and are therefore not directly related to the current actions. The ministry announced that the weapons had been shown "as an example".

Solidarity rally with the cast in the Hambach Forest in front of the RWE office in Berlin-Mitte

On September 4, 2018, the NRW building ministry issued a decree declaring the tree houses to be structures . Since these do not have rescue stairs and access routes for rescue workers in an emergency, they violate fire protection regulations , and the necessary window parapets and fall protection devices are missing. According to the ministry, evacuation must therefore take place immediately, as there is a " risk of delay to life and limb of the tree house residents for fire protection reasons". Jan Heinisch (CDU), State Secretary in the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Construction, said: “Fire protection knows no delay. If a fire breaks out somewhere, the rescuers will not be able to come to the rescue quickly enough. The situation is life-threatening for the residents. ”The state government sharply rejected the fact that there was a connection between the imminent clearing by RWE AG and the evictions. In 2014, the North Rhine-Westphalian Ministry of Construction decided that the tree houses built by the tree occupiers in the forest should not be classified as structural structures .

The reactions of the opposition in the state parliament were inconsistent. In the building committee, MPs from the SPD and the Greens accused the state government of exacerbating the conflict over lignite mining with the clearance operation. Leading this social dispute over building law was "politically inadequate", said SPD parliamentary deputy Jochen Ott . The parliamentary group chairman and former Justice Minister Thomas Kutschaty , on the other hand, expressly underlined in a press conference in front of journalists that the energy company RWE had a legal right to clear the Hambach Forest. The reason for the evacuation by the state government with fire protection is "legally creative", but legally justifiable.

RWE AG stated that the group was not involved in the decision to start the eviction, but stated: “RWE Power submitted an application to the regulatory authorities and the police on August 1, 2018, in good time before the approved clearing season 2018/2019 to clear the Hambach Forest, which is owned by RWE, of illegal occupations and uses. "

Clearance and destruction of the tree houses

Tree house colony in the Hambach Forest (February 2018)
Newly erected barricades and environmentalists (September 2018)

On September 5, 2018, RWE began removing obstacles and blockades from the activists from the forest. Several hundred police officers were on duty to protect the workers . On September 9, 2018, 1,100 citizens took part in a guided tour through the forest. On September 12, 2018, the evacuation was announced for the next day. On the same day, the Aachen police appealed to the protesters to stop violent attacks on police officers after a warning shot had been fired during a confrontation with masked people who had "massively attacked" their forces with stone throwing.

The evacuation of the Hambach Forest was ordered for Thursday, September 13, 2018, by the Minister for Homeland, Local Affairs, Building and Equality of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Ina Scharrenbach (CDU). The action was considered one of the largest police operations in the recent history of North Rhine-Westphalia. In the forest there were around 40 to 60 tree houses in at least three “villages”. Formally, it was not a police operation but a rescue operation.

When the police marched into the forest on the morning of September 13, 2018, several Protestant and Catholic clergy and young parishioners from Düren and Buir formed a sit-in and were carried away by the police. In Cologne city center, around 400 people met on the evening of the same day in an unannounced demonstration against the planned clearing of the Hambach Forest and some of the traffic was blocked. On the same day, the Cologne Administrative Court (VG) confirmed the eviction order against which a tree occupier had sued. He took the view in court that he would become homeless because of the eviction. The Cologne Administrative Court did not follow this. On September 14, 2018, environmental activists blocked the representation of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia at the federal government in Berlin in protest against the eviction .

Between September 15 and 16, 2018, there were delays in the evacuation of the main camp. A shaft access was discovered there under the occupied tree. As it later turned out, two activists - including a journalist - had barricaded themselves in it. On the lowest level, the shaft was about 11 meters deep and had two chambers. The Kerpen fire brigade and experts from the Herne mine rescue team had to be called in for the rescue . Oxygen problems arose, so ventilation of the mine had to be provided. There was also the risk that heavy vehicles in the forest could collapse the building. Eventually, the activists were persuaded to leave the shaft voluntarily and then taken into police custody.

On September 16, 2018, according to the police, 4,000 people and according to the various activist groups between 5,000 and 9,000 people took part in the protests in the forest. Eight people were injured in clashes with the police.

Sit-ins and the building of new barricades caused a stir in the media. Criticism was drawn by the increasing propensity for violence in the protests, which also included actions such as pouring buckets of faeces onto the emergency services under the tree houses or throwing their own droppings on them. In order to protect themselves from infections, the police then had to wear appropriate protective clothing; a group of ten officers were so defiled that they were incapacitated for the day. In the previous weeks, there had already been massive threats and intimidation of the employees of supplier companies of the RWE Group as well as lenders of lifting platforms and cranes who were in use in the Hambach Forest. In one case, a company withdrew its machines from the forest after strangers started a fire on its company premises in Willich .

On September 19, a 27-year-old, who claims to be an artist and journalist, who had gone to a tree house, died in a fall through a collapsed suspension bridge from a height of around 15 meters. In order to clear up the events, the further clearance work in the Hambach Forest was interrupted and resumed on September 26th. The public prosecutor's office ruled out any third-party negligence as a result of matching witness statements, which were also confirmed by the evaluation of the victim's helmet camera. Another accident occurred on September 27, 2018 when a 24-year-old fell from a height of about six meters from a ladder and was seriously injured.

On Sunday, September 30, 2018, around 10,000 people took part in a forest walk against clearing. That day the eviction was suspended. According to the Aachen police, 77 tree houses had been cleared and removed at this time.

The police reported on October 2, 2018 that the last tree house in the Hambach Forest had been cleared by activists. Then RWE prepared the clearing of the area, u. a. by erecting fences and demarcation ditches, probably with the intention of being able to punish entering the forest as trespassing. A ruling by the Erkelenz District Court had previously established that entering the premises without clearly recognizable boundaries could not be punished as trespassing. According to the Federal Forest Act and the North Rhine-Westphalian Forest Act, access to forests is to be granted in principle. Only in exceptional cases may this be prohibited by forest authorities.

Provisional prohibition of clearing by the OVG Münster

On October 5, 2018, RWE was initially prohibited from clearing the forest by a decision by the Münster Higher Administrative Court . This decision was justified by insufficient evidence on the part of RWE and the mining authority that “if the clearing stop would endanger the energy supply nationwide or nationwide”.

The judges thus complied with the application of the Federal Environment and Nature Conservation Germany in an urgent procedure . In particular, the restoration of the suspensive effect of the main action pending before the competent administrative court was confirmed. The court followed the legal position of the plaintiff and applicant by means of provisional legal protection. This is to prevent RWE and the district government from creating a fait accompli by clearing and excavating before a decision is made on the main issue. In the reasoning of the court, the objection raised by RWE and the district government of the given common good in the form of safeguarding the energy supply was rejected as insufficiently justified.

( Myotis myotis ), Annex IV type of the Habitats Directive .

In the main proceedings, which have not yet been concluded, the BUND argues that the forest with its two colonies of the Bechstein's bat , which is threatened with extinction, and the great mouse -eared bat, correspond to the qualities of a European FFH protected area and must therefore be legally protected. The Bechstein's bat and the great mouse-eared bat are listed in Appendix II and Appendix IV of the Habitats Directive and at the same time are types of responsibility within the National Strategy for Biodiversity of the Federal Government. Species in Annex IV are subject to special legal protection by the EU because they are rare and worthy of protection. Since there is a risk that the occurrence of these species will be lost forever, their habitats must not be damaged or destroyed. A total of 142 protected animal species are present.

Immediately after the decision was announced, the RWE Power AG share lost a good 8.5 percent in value, which corresponds to around EUR 900 million. In the following days, the price slipped further.

Shortly afterwards, the company stopped work on the fencing of the site and, at the request of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger , had a spokesman say that the forest would remain open to the public. Due to the decision of the OVG Münster, clearing is initially not possible, the forest is therefore not an RWE company site, so “in our opinion, the Hambach Forest is a forest that must be accessible to the public. Enclosure is therefore not permitted. ”However, it is also questionable whether the forest, as RWE insinuates, would have been declared a company site and cleared without the judgment of the OVG Münster. According to the provisions of the main operating plan, the forest may only be cleared to the extent that this is absolutely necessary for the continued operation of the opencast mine. In practice, this means that clearing is legal with a lead of two years. At the excavator speed of the past few years, this would correspond to a distance of around 300 meters from the edge of today's open pit towards the forest. The distance between the edge of the open pit and the edge of the forest was usually well over 300 meters in September 2018 and would have been pushed forward to up to 1000 meters in the clearing planned by RWE for October 2018. According to a legal opinion commissioned by Greenpeace, such clearing and an associated expansion of the company premises without a compelling reason for open pit mining are not legally covered.

Follow-up developments

Large demonstration at Hambach Forest (October 6, 2018)

A demonstration announced for October 6, 2018 at Hambacher Forst was temporarily banned by the police on October 4. However, the ban was overturned in an urgent procedure by the Aachen Administrative Court on the afternoon of October 5th, as it was "very likely unlawful". The demonstration then took place on the scheduled date. It was organized by numerous environmental organizations, including BUND , Campact , Greenpeace , NaturFreunde Deutschlands , Buirer für Buir and the “Rural Agriculture” working group (AbL) and others. The speakers included Michael Müller (NaturFreunde Deutschlands), Jens Sannig (Pastor), Ulf Allhoff-Cramer (Detmolder Bauer), Antje Grothus (Buirer for Buir), Hubert Weiger (BUND), Martin Kaiser (Greenpeace), Mamadou Mbodji (NaturFreunde Internationale), Helene Nietert (Camp for Future), Christoph Bautz (Campact), Jochen Flasbarth (BMU), Annalena Baerbock (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Bernd Riexinger ( Die Linke ), Michael Zobel (Forest Pedagogue), Ingo Bajerke ( Keyenberg ), Uwe Hiksch (friends of nature) and Milan Schwarze (end of the terrain). In addition, various musicians performed including Eddi Hüneke , Revolverheld , Tape recorder , Die Höchste Eisenbahn , Gerd Schinkel , Joe Löhrmann , Davide Martello and Piri-Piri. According to the organizers, 50,000 people took part in the protests. Estimates by the Aachen police were between 25,000 and 30,000 participants. The demonstration went off without incident. According to the organizers, this was the largest demonstration in this area to date. The police acted cautiously and let the protesters into the forest.

and display information about the image
Panoramic photo of a bucket wheel excavator in the pit near Hambacher Forst on October 6, 2018. On the left of the image, near the edge of the demolition, a banner was attached as part of the demo that took place that day.

The party Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen North Rhine-Westphalia moved its state party conference to October 7, 2018 in the Hambach Forest in protest against the clearing plans . The chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in North Rhine-Westphalia , Thomas Kutschaty, commented on this very critically in the Westfälische Nachrichten : "If the Greens were really interested in the Hambach Forest, they would not have approved the clearing two years ago."

According to a survey published on October 7, 2018 by Infratest dimap on behalf of the WDR political magazine Westpol , 79 percent of North Rhine-Westphalia did not think the clearing was right, and 71 percent of CDU voters were against it. Only 18 percent supported the planned deforestation of the forest.

In mid-October, several houses in the Kerpen district of Manheim near the Hambach Forest, including the historic forester's house, were occupied. Like the entire town, the buildings are to give way to the Hambach opencast mine and were already empty. An eviction action by RWE was dismissed on October 22nd before the Cologne Regional Court because RWE was unable to name specific residents due to the constantly changing residents. The new residents are currently allowed to stay in the houses that, according to the group, are already owned by RWE.

The Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IG-BCE) called for a demonstration in the village of Buir on the morning of October 17 . Around a hundred people took part in the demonstration, among them apparently many employees of the energy company RWE, which ostensibly had announced job cuts last week due to the clearing stop in the Hambach Forest. According to the Aachen police, the demonstration, registered as a vigil and stand rally, then moved as a protest march in front of the private home of the lignite critic Antje Grothus, a co-founder of the citizens' initiative “Buirer für Buir”, which campaigns for the preservation of the Hambach Forest and is also a member of the government set up by the federal government Coal commission is. The demonstrators are said to have chanted “Grothus out” and “Hambi away” in a threatening and aggressive manner in front of the house and made noise with drums and whistles. They also took photos of the house, noted down the license plates of private cars and knocked on a window. According to the Aachen police, there may be a “deviation from the right of assembly”. A spokeswoman for the police in the Rhein-Erft district announced that there was definitely reason to "work up the case". The union IG-BCE then surprisingly distanced itself from the rally registered in their name. IG-BCE boss Michael Vassiliadis even apologized and said that it was understandable that this demonstration in front of the house was understood as an attempt at intimidation. He also stressed that such actions would not correspond to his understanding of political conflicts in a democracy.

In the early morning of October 21, a group of activists occupied the bucket-wheel excavator, which was standing on the top floor near the forest, bringing it to a standstill. The group unveiled several banners up to 90 meters high, on which, among other things, “No jobs on a dead planet” and “It often hits with the wrong people, not with friends we want trouble”. The occupation lasted until early afternoon when the last activists voluntarily ended the action after negotiations.

Suspension of clearing plans and development from 2019

North Rhine-Westphalia's Prime Minister Armin Laschet declared on February 20, 2019 in front of the Westphalian state parliament that he wanted to preserve the Hambach Forest, and also announced a new key decision on lignite at state level. First, however, the Bundestag must implement the resolutions of the coal commission into laws and provide the appropriate funds for structural change in the budget. At the same time, he announced a clearing moratorium promised by RWE until 2020 and called on the forest occupiers to leave the forest if they actually wanted to protect it. Likewise, the Merzenich Erbwald (original part of the Bürgewald or the Hambacher Wald) and the Steinheide protected area with its forest area should remain unaffected by lignite mining. According to RWE's plans, these areas of forest should be used by opencast mining from 2030.

In March 2019 it became known that, contrary to the clearing stop, around 50 trees had been felled, but not by RWE. According to the police, tree trunks with freshly cut edges were also used to build new tree houses.

In June 2020, the police cleared barricades up to 15 meters high on paths in the Hambach Forest, where around 100 squatters were staying when there were major fluctuations.

Public perception and discussion

Unions

The Chairman of the Mining, Chemical and Energy , Michael Vassiliadis , said in a ZDF interview both the right of protesters to make their voice heard, and the necessity of clearing the Hambach Forest. “Here in Hambach the issue is whether coal will continue to be mined in the next few years and not around 2035. And I think this point must be clearly underlined: If the Hambach Forest is not cleared, it will end there very very quickly Revier. ”The big task is to harmonize the goals of climate protection and Germany's energy supply. The RWE works council chairman Harald Louis spoke in connection with the protests of a "hunt against coal" and denied a peace obligation during the negotiations of the coal commission : "The commission did not discuss the clearing of the Hambach forest - that has long been decided." the discussion is a mixture of things that are unrelated. He pointed out that although only a small number of the forest occupiers were ready to use violence, he was "simply stunned" in view of their actions.

The evacuation operation ordered by the state government was criticized several times by professional associations and unions of the police. The Bund Deutscher Kriminalbeamter NRW (BDK) spoke of a "blatantly wrong political decision" and emphasized in a press release that the government was only now, "after one of the driest summers in post-war history," and contrary to the 2014 NRW building ministry's assessment and the corresponding legal classification of affected municipalities value the tree houses as structures and (among other things) have them vacated for fire protection. “The state government can no longer hide behind court decisions. This is clearly a political starting signal for the hot phase of one of the largest and most expensive police operations in the history of NRW. The police are active here in administrative assistance . This administrative assistance should have been denied at this point in time because the country is facing considerable disadvantages when it comes to guaranteeing security for the population, ”said the state chairman. The deputy state chairman also complained about the “burning up” of colleagues. As a result of their use, presence concepts in the cities could not be carried out to the required extent, which is already leading to an increase in the number of cases. “As a result, we are now protecting RWE's lignite mining instead of our population.” The NRW Police Union (DPolG) agreed with this statement. Such neglect of police tasks could "hardly and only painfully be allowed in view of the positive development in the area of ​​internal security". At the same time, the association appealed to the activists to recognize realities in a constitutional state. Forms of action which "put the health, their own lives and the lives of the rescuers, colleagues and RWE employees at risk, are definitely not part of peaceful protest." The North Rhine-Westphalia regional association of the Police Union (GdP) had previously both sides were asked to enter into dialogue and warned against escalation. The GdP has estimated the cost of the deployment to be in the double-digit millions.

Assessments by experts and scientists

Claudia Kemfert , Professor of Energy Economics and Sustainability at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, took the position in an interview with Deutschlandfunk that if the coal phase-out was initiated on the basis of the above-mentioned study by the German Institute for Economic Research , part of the lignite in the Hambacher opencast mine could be dispensed with. Against this background, she saw the announced clearing by RWE AG, before the coal commission worked out a compromise, an unnecessary escalation. The highest-ranking mining official in North Rhine-Westphalia, Andreas Nöthen, described a rescue of the Hambach Forest as not possible. "Even if politicians decided to get out of lignite today, the opencast mines would have to be enlarged by a few hundred meters in all directions in order to flatten the embankments so that they would remain stable in the centuries to come". He was confirmed in this by Christian Niemann-Delius, emeritus mining professor at RWTH Aachen University . Preparations for the closure of an open-cast lignite mine would take “at least a decade”. During this time, the opencast mine must be continued "to prevent devastating environmental damage", for example by aborting water management . "Only when the final operating plans have been approved can you begin to exit."

Federal and state politics

In an open letter, Greens parliamentary leader Anton Hofreiter and parliamentary deputy Oliver Krischer called on Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) and Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) to suspend the planned clearing of the Hambach Forest. It could not be “that the forest will be cleared while the Commission is working. A coal company that relocates rivers, villages and highways like toys in the Rhineland for its opencast mine is also able to excavate in such a way that the rest of the Hambach Forest can be preserved. ”In addition, the MPs expressed their doubts about the reasoning RWE decided not to downsize the Hambach opencast mine.

The chairman of the SPD parliamentary group, Andrea Nahles , accused the Greens of neglecting those affected in the coal regions in terms of climate protection. Narrowing the climate problem to brown coal is not acceptable to the SPD. “We can't just switch off this technology. Résumés and entire regions depend on the coal. ”The SPD MP Matthias Miersch contradicted Nahles indirectly and warned against viewing the interests of people and climate protection as a contradiction:“ Anyone who practices climate protection makes politics to protect humanity and also to protect German industry ", And called for prudence with regard to the Hambach Forest. "It is important to avoid an escalation there." Addressing his own parliamentary group, he advocated a compromise solution: "Not always when one has a claim, it is also legitimate to enforce the hell out of it."

Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) defended the clearing of the forest and accused Sabine Leidig in the Bundestag of "denouncing" an entrepreneurial decision that had been confirmed by courts and parliaments.

The energy policy spokesman for the FDP, Martin Neumann , referred to the legal basis for deforestation created by the Greens themselves. With this “the decisions of the coal commission are by no means anticipated. One cannot simply force the coal phase-out illegally. ” Andreas Pinkwart , Minister of Economics and Energy for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, said no , in particular , against a reassessment of the situation as a result of the Paris Climate Agreement ratified by the Bundestag and Bundesrat in 2016 . Against the background of the riots in Chemnitz, MP Lorenz Gösta Beutin ( DIE LINKE ) criticized the criminalization and repression of protesters who campaigned for climate justice and the future of people. “We on the left say: We show solidarity with the protests in the Hambach Forest. Hambi stays! "

The sometimes violent form of the protest by the forest occupiers was criticized from various sides, in particular the violence against police forces was unanimously condemned. The Green politician Volker Beck said on Twitter : “In a democracy there is no right to violence. Civil resistance and protest is our option and our choice. The police officer does not decide on his assignment. He is not the opponent. ”The Green parliamentary leader Monika Düker also expressed solidarity with the protesters, but called for them to“ finally distance themselves clearly and unambiguously from the violent actions and not to tolerate these perpetrators in their ranks. ”

Press

The controversies surrounding the Hambach Forest were discussed in detail in print and online media. In the FAZ, Reiner Burger commented that the settlement of the forest occupiers had been a rallying point for violent left-wing extremists right from the start: "It is frightening that the supposedly bourgeois local milieu has never clearly distinguished itself from it" and criticized the role of the Greens in the political dispute : “ [You were sitting with] at the cabinet table when the North Rhine-Westphalian state government confirmed a little more than two years ago that RWE can continue its Hambach opencast mine unchanged and that it is also allowed to fell the trees. Now they have retrospectively discovered their love for the forest. ” Rainer Haubrich expressed himself similarly in the WELT . It is legitimate to protest against the expansion of the opencast mine, but the criminal energy with which some activists proceeded is not legitimate. The journalist Tomas Avenarius stated in the Süddeutsche Zeitung : “First the environmental activists celebrate that a court has for the time being forbidden the clearing of the Hambach Forest and that they are right - at least in the beginning. But then some environmentalists declare that they distrust a final decision by the judiciary even before the actual trial has begun and are nailing new tree houses together ", and asked the question:" What do you say to those who enter the law for far less honorable reasons Asking questions as the tree house residents - Reich citizens , right-wing extremists and other law breakers? "

Numerous press voices referred to the difference between law and morality, for example Petra Pinzler in the Süddeutsche Zeitung : "On the one hand there is law and profit, on the other there is morality that one does not want to afford." Another comment from the same newspaper spoke of a "burned-up home". RWE could indeed rely on legally binding commitments, which also stood up in court, and the use of the police was not objectionable if permits could not be enforced in any other way. In times of the energy turnaround, however, it is hardly possible to convey “why an entire region has to be burned”. A column by Christiane Schulzki-Haddouti in the journal Spektrum der Wissenschaft stated that RWE and the North Rhine-Westphalian state government are still within the legal framework, but their actions are no longer legitimate. "The insistence of the two actors not to leave the route taken over 40 years ago, in view of the hot-time study, violates all ecological and economic reason." The next generation will already have to live with the consequences of climate change. In a comment in the newspaper Neues Deutschland, Lorenz Gösta Beutin ( Left Party ) described the RWE officials as “coal-yield sharks”. They might think political decisions, the law, court judgments and the state power on their side, but the clearing of the Hambach Forest is nonetheless unjust: “Okay RWE, understand, you are right. But let the trees run! "

Stefan Schultz wrote in a comment published by Spiegel Online that the protest movement and environmental groups were fighting the “wrong fight”. In order to save the Hambach Forest, the coal phase-out should have come earlier. The RWE Group not only felled old trees in Hambach, but also planted more than ten million new ones, for example on the nearby Sophienhöhe. With the said fight, BUND and Greenpeace endangered much more important goals such as their participation in the German coal commission, the mixing of peaceful protest with violent protest is "unfortunate". The Hambach Forest as a symbol is seductive, but it makes more sense for environmentalists to concentrate on the coal phase-out. “How much of this dirty energy source is still burned depends not least on how well you do your work on the commission.” The business journalist Jürgen Flauger also condemned the violent forms of protest in the Handelsblatt , but advised RWE not to continue his right to knock. By not clearing the land, the company could gain more than it would lose. In return, the environmental associations would have to contribute to a sensible political solution that would do justice to RWE and the company's employees.

Churches

The Catholic Council of the Rhenish region of Düren spoke out against the clearing and with a procession with the Aachen Peace Cross set a "clear, peaceful sign for the continuation of our earth" and against the "profitability of our time". At the same time, at the former location of a now demolished chapel in Manheim, which was partially relocated for the expansion of the open-cast mine, Steffen Meyn , who died in the context of the evacuation of the Hambach Forest, was commemorated. The Catholic Council takes part in the Peace Plan initiative founded in early 2016 , which met six times with representatives of RWE AG for talks. The initiative is an alliance of churches, environmental protection organizations and citizens' groups. The environmental encyclical Laudato si ' by Pope Francis is also a motivation for the commitment . In the encyclical, Francis calls for the end of the use of fossil fuels and establishes a connection between the prevailing economic system and the global resource and climate problem.

Even Manfred Rekowski , President of the Evangelical Church in the Rhineland , called on RWE and state government to dialogue. Although the energy company has the right on its side due to the existing permits, clearing must be dispensed with during the talks of the coal commission, said Rekowski in Düsseldorf the Evangelical Press Service (epd). "It also serves social peace if facts are not created at this point."

Concerns about excessive engagement against the interests of RWE AG come from representatives of the Catholic parishes directly at the opencast mine. a. because resettled communities are dependent on financial support for compensation from the group.

Artistic reception

The director and cameraman Aribert Weis shot the documentary films "Die Menschen von Lich-Steinstraß" (award "TV play of the year 1980") and "Lich-Steinstraß dies or Requiem for a lily of the valley" in 1980 and from 1980 to 1990 together with Regine Heuser. Documented is one of many villages that had to give way to the brown coal opencast mines operated by RWE in the area around Cologne. The films show the suffering of the residents who are being resettled and testify to how much the “biggest hole in the world” has destroyed the landscape. It will also be shown how the oldest forest in North Rhine-Westphalia fell victim to the project piece by piece and how irreparable damage was caused to the surrounding landscape by the intervention in the groundwater system.

The artist Susanne Fasbender toured the Rhenish lignite mining area and, with her trilogy Brand I - III, created a film opus between 2012 and 2018 in which she analytically documents the connections between raw material extraction, land grabbing, the destruction of old cultural landscapes, economic growth and the climate crisis and tries to find the underlying Disclose structures. The third part is devoted to lignite resistance and focuses on the occupation of the "Hambach Forest" since 2012 and its significance in the context of the internationalization of the climate movement.

The photographer Martin Claßen took portrait photos of individual trees in the Hambach Forest at the beginning of 2018. He put together a selection of around 50 black and white pictures for the exhibition “The Doomed”. The photos were shown as part of the Photoszene Festival in Cologne.

The Berlin songwriter and cabaret artist Bodo Wartke released the piano ballad "Hambacher Wald" in September 2018.

The songwriter Gerd Schinkel published the ballad "Hambi remains", in which he addresses the destruction caused by the RWE group and the police violence in connection with the clearing of the tree houses and protests against the planned clearing of the Hambach forest. Schinkel also presented the song at the large demonstration against the clearing on October 6 in front of tens of thousands of demonstrators.

literature

  • Marion Brüggler: Villa rustica, glassworks and burial ground. The imperial and late antique settlement HA 132 in the Hambach Forest. With contributions by Hubert Berke, Karl-Heinz Knörzer, Jutta Meurers-Balke , Ursula Tegtmeier and Ralf Forst. Rhenish excavations Volume 63. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern 2009.
  • Wolfgang Gaitsch u. a .: Late Roman glassworks in the Hambach Forest - production site for the EQVA keg jugs. Archaeological and scientific research . In: Bonner Jahrbücher 200, 2000, pp. 83–242.
  • Theo Hamacher: On the history of our forests - Medieval valuation of the forest and the Bürgebuschordnung from 1557 . In: Rur flowers. Born in 1928, No. 7.
  • Andreas Heege: Hambach 500. Villa rustica and early to high medieval settlement of Wüstweiler (Niederzier municipality), Düren district. Rhenish excavations Volume 41. Cologne / Bonn: Rheinland Verlag 1997.
  • Albert Kirchgens: Home burned out. Open pit lignite mining and its consequences. Aachen: Alano 1985.
  • PH Schläger: The Bürgewald. Contributions to local history of the Bergheim district, issue 1, Bergheim 1950.
  • Fritz Seibel: Technology and manufacturing techniques of Roman glassworks using the example of the excavations in the Hambach Forest. Current comparisons and models. Berlin: Galda - Welch Verlag 1997.
  • Werner Sieper: Problems of the Bürgewald . In: Düren history sheets. No. 26, Düren 1961.
  • wisoveg.de: Timber crime and its punishment in earlier times . In: To Erft and Gilbach: Heimatblätter for the Bergheim district . Supplement to the Kölnische Rundschau No. 9, October 1949 ( The Bürgebuschordnung of 1537 and 1556 )

Web links

Commons : Hambacher Forst  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Hambacher Forst  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Media reports on the protests in autumn 2018

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Topographic map TK 50 Düren born 1979 to 2015, Geobasis NRW
  2. ↑ A stage win for the Hambach Forest. dated February 12, 2018, accessed November 9, 2018
  3. ↑ General-Anzeiger: How politics in the Hambach Forest measures with two different standards
  4. ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation: LRT 9160 - Chickweed-oak-hornbeam forests (PDF; 912 kB)
  5. ↑ Ronja Heise, Jana Ballenthien: Sundays in the Hambach Forest With guided walks Michael Zobel brings people closer to the endangered forest. dated September 5, 2018, accessed November 9, 2018.
  6. ^ Deutsche Welle, Hambacher Forst: Battle for Coal, Forest and Climate , September 5, 2018
  7. ↑ a b Antje Grothus: "Very clear mood making from RWE" , zeit.de from September 7, 2018 (accessed on September 16, 2016)
  8. ↑ a b Hambach opencast lignite mine District government Arnsberg approves main operating plan 2018–2020 - District government Arnsberg . bezreg-arnsberg.nrw.de.
  9. ↑ New lawsuit against Hambach opencast mine , wdr.de from April 20, 2018 (accessed on September 14, 2018)
  10. ↑ RWE: Further barricades in the Hambach Forest are being removed. In: Die Zeit Online. September 6, 2018, accessed September 6, 2018 .
  11. ↑ This little piece of forest , taz.de of February 7, 2016 (accessed on September 17, 2018)
  12. ↑ Officials withdrawn - The police were in the Hambach Forest for so many hours . In: General-Anzeiger Bonn . October 8, 2018 ( general-anzeiger-bonn.de [accessed October 8, 2018]).
  13. ↑ Coal companies receive billions. In: Tagesschau.de. January 16, 2020, accessed January 16, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Hambach Forest: A forest as a political symbol By Christopher Bonnen for tagesschau.de from September 18, 2018 12:43 pm
  15. ↑ Hubert Böhr: 7000 years Merzenich. From the Stone Age to the year 2000. Aachen 2014, p. 81 f.
  16. ↑ Tranchot 1801–1828, first recording 1836–1850, new recording 1891–1912, TK25 1936–1945, German basic map and digital topographic map (collection service). In: Internet portal TIM-online 2.0 beta. Retrieved January 16, 2017 .
  17. ↑ Rolf Dieter Stoll, Christian Niemann-Delius, Carsten Debenstedt, Klaus Müllensiefen (eds.), The lignite mine. Significance, planning, operation, technology, environment , Berlin - Heidelberg 2009, p. 523.
  18. ↑ WDR, current hour: Hambacher Forst: What would be if ... , video (3:27), September 1, 2018, available until September 1, 2019.
  19. ↑ A movement arises in the Hambach Forest A movement arises in the Hambach Forest , aachener-nachrichten.de from September 30, 2018 (accessed October 1, 2018)
  20. ↑ a b WDR, Hambacher Forst: A symbolic place , November 26, 2017
  21. ↑ Albert Kirch gene Dissipated home. Open pit lignite mining and its consequences. Aachen: Alano 1985, p. 38.
  22. ↑ mimikama.at
  23. ↑ An interview with RWE boss. There is no chance of leaving the Hambacher Forst standing , Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from September 29, 2018 (accessed on September 30, 2018)
  24. ↑ Cattle manure is supposed to attract bats to their new home . In: Aachener Zeitung , August 1, 2013. Accessed April 26, 2014.
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Coordinates: 50 ° 52 '46.9 "  N , 6 ° 33' 54.4"  E