Republic of Free Wendland

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The Republic of Free Wendland (also Free Republic of Wendland ) was proclaimed on May 3, 1980 by an initiative of the anti-nuclear power movement near Gorleben in Wendland (in Lower Saxony ). It existed for a month as a hut village in a forest clearing in the area of ​​the planned deep drilling site  1004 and was cleared by the police and the Federal Border Guard on June 4, 1980 .

Coat of arms of the Republic of Free Wendland
Wendenpass, issued May 3, 1980

prehistory

In 1973 the search for a suitable salt dome as a nuclear repository for radioactive waste began on behalf of the federal government . There were several salt domes to choose from in Lower Saxony, including the Gorleben salt dome . At the beginning of 1977, the Lower Saxony state government under Prime Minister Ernst Albrecht decided to undertake geological explorations in Gorleben. Resistance to this project quickly arose in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district and associations such as the Lüchow-Dannenberg environmental protection initiative and the Lüchow-Dannenberg rural emergency community emerged . As early as March 1977, opponents of nuclear power held a large rally in the region on the future building site with around 20,000 opponents of nuclear power, most of them from outside Germany. Other activities included a summer camp in Gorleben in 1977 and the Gorleben trek to Hanover in 1979 . From 1979 the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt prepared deep boreholes in order to examine the Gorleben salt dome for its suitability. The first deep drilling started at drilling site 1003 on January 4, 1980. Local opponents of nuclear power carried out smaller but unsuccessful occupation actions against the deep drilling during the clearing of the forest at deep drilling sites 1002 and 1003. At the beginning of 1980 they publicly discussed a major occupation campaign with "several hundred or thousands of foreigners together with as many Lüchow-Dannenbergers as possible". They named deep drilling site 1004 as their destination, the establishment of which was scheduled for May 1980. As a result, they called for a large-scale demonstration and implemented the plan.

occupation

View of the area of ​​the former hut village and the later deep drilling site 1004, 2015
The paved deep drilling site 1004 in a young coniferous forest, 2015

The actual occupation of the square was preceded in mid-April 1980 by a smaller occupation by around 20 opponents of nuclear power, who had set up some huts and tents on the site of the planned deep drilling site 1004. The citizens' initiative Environmental Lüchow-Dannenberg did not agree with this kind of occupation and planned at this time a Bohrstellenbesetzung from 15 May 1980. The occupiers left the premises after about one week of occupation duration them when the police prosecution for trespassing threatened.

The occupation took place on May 3, 1980 as part of a demonstration under the motto Battle Day of the Wends , in which around 5000 opponents of nuclear power took part. They had come from all over Germany and had tents and building materials with them. The demonstration march led to the site of the planned deep drilling site 1004 on the edge of an extensive pine forest area between the villages of Gorleben and Trebel . Protesters occupied the site in order to further deep drilling for the construction of the nuclear waste deposit Gorleben to protest . With the occupation, the so-called “Underground Office Gorleben-Soll-Leben” proclaimed the Republic of Free Wendland as a separate state from among the ranks of opponents of nuclear power . The spokesperson was Rebecca Harms . Lower Saxony's Minister of the Interior, Egbert Möcklinghoff , spoke in connection with the declaration of high treason .

The area of ​​deep drilling site 1004 is close to a forest path called Mastenweg. It was in 1980 a 16 square kilometer wasteland on which the forest after a summer 1975 arson by the fire in the Lueneburg Heath had been destroyed. In 1980 the outdoor area consisted of burnt tree remains on sandy ground. Within an area of ​​about 300 × 400 meters, the occupiers built a provisional hut village with around 120 huts made of wood and clay at the site of the planned deep drilling site 1004 , which the occupiers use the name "Hüttendorf 1004" or "auf 1004". wore. The "village" was laid out in the manner of the round settlement with huts around a round square, which is widespread in the Wendland . Among the buildings there were approaches for alternative architecture and ecological building, for example through straw-bale huts and energy-saving huts with heating made from bottles. There were numerous community facilities, such as a large kitchen, church, infirmary, toilet facility, bathing establishment, hairdressing salon and garbage dump. The largest building was the octagonal Friendship House with a diameter of 37 meters, which offered space for around 400 people. It was the only building constructed according to a plan whose boards and beams had been sawn to size beforehand. Architecture students from Hamburg calculated the statics and the roof construction so that more than a hundred people could be on the roof at the same time. The sanitary facilities included a sauna and bathing huts. Water was passed through a wind turbine -betriebenen deep well promoted and with a solar hot water system is heated.

On the access road to the so-called republic , a hut was built as a border crossing station with a barrier , above which flags with the Wenden coat of arms and the anti-nuclear sun were attached. For a fee of DM 10 , a so-called Wendenpass was issued in the adjacent information center and provided with an entry stamp. According to the occupiers, the pass was valid "for the entire universe [...] as long as its holder can still laugh."

Community life

During the 33-day period of the occupation, the approximately 500 permanent occupiers on weekdays organized their community life on a grassroots basis. They formed a council of speakers and made decisions in regular plenums . The cast was especially fascinating for young people. In retrospect, the occupiers praised the human cohesion of the village community and the opportunity to live a utopia. Others felt reminded of the Woodstock Festival of 1969 or felt camps or campfires . With regard to a possible eviction by the police, there was broad consensus on passive resistance. However, some more militant occupiers disagreed with this. On the weekends, up to 5,000 people came to the occupied area who had become curious about the media coverage. Among them were sympathizers and onlookers as well as celebrities, such as the then chairman of the Jusos Gerhard Schröder , who had traveled with 300 delegates from a Juso federal congress from Hanover. Other well-known visitors and residents were the resistance fighter Heinz Brandt , the songwriters Walter Mossmann and Wolf Biermann , the photographer Günter Zint and the SPD politician Jo Leinen as well as the writer Klaus Schlesinger and the Bundestag member Herbert Gruhl . The cast was accompanied by numerous events. They took place in the large friendship house or on stages set up for this purpose. Lectures, discussions, readings, rock concerts and puppet theater performances were offered. The squatters received active support from local residents and were supplied with timber and food. On May 18, 1980, the pirate station Radio Free Wendland went on air on a tower on the occupied site .

eviction

Deep drilling site 1004 that was created after the evacuation of the hut village in July 1980

On the morning of June 4, 1980, the area was cleared by the Lower Saxony police with the support of other state police and the Federal Border Guard . According to a statement from the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Interior, around 3,500 officers took part in the operation, while other reports said there were over 6,000 emergency services. The legal basis for the eviction were violations of the occupiers against various subsidiary laws, such as the state forest law , the building regulations , the field and forest regulations law and the federal registration law . The authorities also feared a repetition of the forest fire disaster of 1975 , as there was a high risk of forest fires due to the high temperatures of up to 30 degrees . In addition, the occupied area was owned by the German Society for the Reprocessing of Nuclear Fuels (DWK).

The approximately 2500 occupiers present at the time of the evacuation had gathered in the village square, crouching tightly, to block their seats. As announced, they offered passive resistance to the evacuation and many of the occupiers had to be carried away by police officers. According to some reports, the evacuation took place largely peacefully, while according to other accounts the squatters were "dragged away, dragged, pushed away, sometimes with brutal severity." The pirate broadcaster Radio Free Wendland reported the evacuation of a tower on the site throughout the day. After the event, the police thanked the demonstrators for their non-violence via a loudspeaker announcement .

On June 2, 1980, the Bremen ecologist Walther Soyka and 15 other citizens applied for the hut village to be placed under protection as a living “ cultural monument 1004” in order to prevent eviction. They also filed an application for a temporary injunction that the facility may not be removed until a decision has been made. The Administrative Court of Braunschweig and the Higher Administrative Court of Lüneburg rejected a classification because it was not listed as a monument .

Follow-up actions and other locations

Throughout Germany, there were solidarity and protest actions in around 80 places due to the eviction. They presented themselves as demonstrations, traffic blockades, distribution of leaflets, billposting, but also as occupations of town halls, churches and squares. In Heilbronn, opponents of nuclear power occupied the Kilian's Church . In some places symbolic embassies of the "Republic of Free Wendland" were opened (Gifhorn, Hamburg, Hildesheim, Krefeld), drilling sites were set up and trees were planted.

In June 1980, a small group of around 30–50 occupiers set up a tent camp in the Bremen district of Mitte and later a permanent hut made of logs with a grass roof on President-Kennedy-Platz as a symbolic message of the "Republic of Free Wendland". A tolerance agreement was negotiated with the city of Bremen so that the group could stay there for about a year. After the camp was cleared, the hut remained for a while as a reminder of the “Republic of the Free Wendland”. Remnants of it in the form of a wooden plank with the inscription “Embassy of the Republic of Free Wendland” with an “ Anti-nuclear power plant sun ” and the date “4/4/80” appeared in Jeebel near Bremen in 2018 when a call was made for wood donations for the construction of benches . The plank was made available to the Gorleben archive in Lüchow.

Archaeological research

Archaeological excursion to the former deep drilling site 1004, where the protest camp was located in 1980, 2017

After the evacuation of the protest camp in 1980, the deep drilling site 1004 was set up on an area of ​​four hectares and, analogous to the deep drilling sites 1002 and 1003, expanded like a fortress. This included a fence, a ditch, a six-meter-high concrete wall, floodlight masts and water cannons. Because of the heavy equipment, the drilling site including the access roads received an asphalt surface. With her abandonment in the 1980s, the area became freely accessible again and the surrounding area was reforested. Today (2017) the area of ​​the former protest camp is largely covered with younger coniferous forest, while around five percent of the asphalt surface of the former deep drilling site is covered.

In 2016, the archaeologist Attila Dézsi from the Archaeological Institute of the University of Hamburg announced that he would scientifically investigate the site of the former protest village of the "Republic of Free Wendland" until 2018. The investigations were aimed at the reconstruction of the camp and the research into the four-week everyday life of the occupiers. They included, among other things, evaluations of image, writing and sound sources, geophysical prospecting and excavations . Local residents and contemporary witnesses were actively involved in the research process.

During the first inspection of the site in spring 2017 with the help of probe users , 450 objects were found, around two-thirds of which date from around 1980. The first excavation campaign took place in October 2017, another followed at the beginning of 2018. The investigations concerned the first project of contemporary archeology on everyday culture in the late 20th century in German-speaking countries.

Receptions

The refuge that was built near Gorleben in 2010, based on the hut village that existed 30 years earlier

To this day, opponents of nuclear power consider the roughly four-week occupation of the drilling site with the proclamation of the Free Wendland Republic in 1980 as a defining event in the history of the resistance to nuclear power and represent this accordingly. Even today, opponents of nuclear power in Wendland use the term "Republic of Free Wendland" . The green coat of arms is still a symbol of the anti-nuclear movement, especially in Wendland. It can be purchased as a flag in many locations. The Wendenpass with stamp is occasionally offered in some protest camps.

In 2006 a five-page announcement by the Republic of Free Wendland against the nuclear industry and arbitrary police force was published as an advertisement in a local newspaper.

On the 30th anniversary of the eviction, there was a weekend of remembrance and protest at the nuclear facilities near Gorleben from June 4 to 6, 2010, in which around 800 people took part. Members of the rural emergency community inaugurated a “refuge” in the forest within sight of the “exploratory mine”, which also serves as a reminder of the hut village of the Free Wendland Republic .

The hut village in Hanover, which existed for nine days in September 2010

Based on the 30th anniversary of the eviction, the director Florian Fiedler initiated the theater project Republic Free Wendland - Reactivated with the Schauspielhaus Hannover from September 17th to 26th, 2010 . For this purpose, around 50 schoolchildren, mainly from IGS Roderbruch , and 25 adults built a hut village on Ballhofplatz in Hanover based on the model from 1980. There were theater performances on site, such as puppet theater from the Bread and Puppet Theater , concerts, lectures and discussions on the subject of nuclear power. The beginning was the band Ton Steine ​​Scherben , the final discussion was led by the sociologist Oskar Negt . This project received greater media attention when it threw a cake at the Green politician Jürgen Trittin during a panel discussion with the environmental activist Hanna Poddig . After nine days the village was dismantled again. The citizens' initiative environmental protection Lüchow-Dannenberg picked up a wooden hut in order to use it in Wendland for opponents of nuclear power. As a follow-up to the theater project, Jens Nacke (CDU), member of the state parliament, presented in November 2010 under the tenor "Republic of Free Wendland - Reactivated" - nothing except expenses? a small request with 20 questions to the Lower Saxony state government .

At the beginning of 2015, the mayor of Dannenberg , Elke Mundhenk, issued a "Wendenpass" from the Free Wendland Republic to the US whistleblower Edward Snowden and presented it to the Bundestag member Konstantin von Notz . He is a member of the NSA committee of inquiry and campaigns for the granting of asylum for Snowden in Germany.

See also

Audio

literature

  • Günter Zint , Caroline Fetscher : Republic of the Free Wendland. A documentation . Two thousand and one , Frankfurt am Main 1980.
  • Dieter Halbach, Gerd Panzer: Between Gorleben and city life. Experience from 3 years of resistance in Wendland and in decentralized actions . AHDE-Verlag, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-8136-0021-1 .
  • 101 VHF: Radio Free Wendland , ed. Network Medien-Cooperative, Frankfurt / Main, 1983 (sound documentation of the evacuation of the hut village on June 4, 1980)
  • Wendland Resistance Report, Part 1, January 1983 - June 1985, 1985
  • Klaus Poggendorf: Republic of Free Wendland in: Gorleben. Controversy about nuclear waste disposal and the future of a region , Lüneburg, 2008. pp. 89–90
  • Gorleben , supplement in Die Tageszeitung on June 21, 1980
  • 33 days cast on 1004 , publisher: WAA-Gruppe Lüneburg , 1980

Web links

Commons : Republik Free Wendland  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ann-Kristin Mennen: Archaeologist digs up "Free Republic of Wendland" at ndr.de from January 18, 2017
  2. ↑ Gorleben Chronicle - 1977 at Gorleben Archive
  3. ↑ 40 years ago: First test drilling in Gorleben at ndr.de on January 4, 2020
  4. ↑ GJ: For the discussion about occupation in: Gorleben informs No. 13 from March 80 of the citizens' initiative Lüchow-Dannenberg
  5. ^ The cast in: Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung from April 15, 1980
  6. ↑ Place 1004 - Entry prohibited in: Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung of April 23, 1980
  7. ↑ Five thousand built their village on deep drilling site 1004 in: Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung of May 5, 1980
  8. ↑ Rebecca Harms withdraws from European politics NDR, April 23, 2019
  9. ↑ Story: Never give up! at wendland.net
  10. ↑ Gorleben Chronicle 1975 at Gorleben Archive
  11. ↑ Photo with a view of the hut village ( Memento from November 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ Gerhard Ziegler: Free Republic of Wendland: The measurement of the history of resistance began at wendland.net on November 23, 2017
  13. ↑ Dirk Boeljes: Anti- Nuclear Power Plant History: The “Republic Free Wendland” at Stromtipp.de from April 30, 2010
  14. ^ Gorleben archive: Village history of the Free Republic of Wendland. Hüttendorf on 1004 ( memento of November 8, 2009 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on April 13, 2011
  15. ↑ DER SPIEGEL , quoted from Andreas Baum, "Nuclear opponents proclaim the" Free Republic of Wendland "in Gorleben in Lower Saxony. 25 years ago ” in the“ calendar sheet ”of Deutschlandradio Kultur on May 3, 2005
  16. ↑ Stefanie Maeck: Die Hippie-Republik in: Spiegel-Online, Eine Tages, from May 4, 2015
  17. ↑ a b 1004 occupiers only want to offer passive resistance in: Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung of June 2, 1980
  18. ↑ NDR review: We are the lucky ones. The Republic of Free Wendland , accessed on April 13, 2011
  19. ↑ Venceremos, bye in: Der Spiegel from July 14, 1980
  20. ↑ a b "Free Republic of Wendland" has ceased to exist in Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung of June 5, 1980
  21. ↑ Very carefully in: Der Spiegel, June 9, 1980
  22. ^ The defense of the "Republic of Free Wendland" (1980) in: Institute for Peace Education Tübingen e. V.
  23. ↑ 1004 no cultural monument in Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung of June 14, 1980
  24. ↑ As opponents of nuclear power Heilbronner Kilianskirche occupied in Heilbronner Stimme from June 4, 2020
  25. ↑ Gorleben in Bullenhand - Resistance throughout the country ... in: Gorleben as a supplement in the daily newspaper of June 21, 1980
  26. ↑ Weser-Kurier on June 16, 1980: "« Bretterbudenstaat »now at Kennedy-Platz"
  27. ↑ Citizens, Police. Bremen's police from 1945 to today
  28. ^ Message from the "Freie Wendland" in the district newspaper of February 12, 2018
  29. ^ Memento from the Jeebel for the Hüttendorf archive in the district newspaper of March 2, 2018
  30. ↑ Drilling rig now on 1002 in Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung of May 6, 1980
  31. ↑ Carolin George: What was left of the "Republic Free Wendland" in the world of November 6, 2016
  32. ↑ Dietrich Mohaupt: Nonviolent protest for a nuclear-free future at Deutschlandfunk from November 3, 2016
  33. ^ Reimar Paul: What is buried there in taz of October 16, 2016
  34. ↑ In the field of tension between research and the formation of myths: The excavation of 1004 near Gorleben in Elbe-Jeetzel-Zeitung of November 3, 2017
  35. ↑ Digging for the remains of the Free Republic of Wendland at wendland.net from December 5, 2016
  36. ^ Archaeological research into the Free Republic of Wendland
  37. ^ Announcement of the Republic of Free Wendland of October 21, 2006
  38. ↑ 30 years of the Free Republic of Wendland at: Citizens' Initiative Environmental Protection Lüchow-Dannenberg e. V. ( Memento from June 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  39. ↑ The hut in Gorleben remains with: Citizens' Initiative Environmental Protection Lüchow-Dannenberg e. V. of March 23, 2010
  40. ^ Archives Schauspiel Hannover, issue 4, 2010, p. 11 (PDF; 3.7 MB); Schauspiel Hannover Archive, No. 5, 2010, pp. 12–15 (PDF; 2.8 MB), accessed on April 14, 2010
  41. ↑ Spiegel-Online of September 23, 2010: "Trittin refrains from reporting"
  42. ↑ In the hut village, after the attack on Trittin, everyday life returns with an exclusive video: Cake attack on Jürgen Trittin in: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 24, 2010
  43. ^ Andreas Schinkel: Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung of September 26, 2010: "Hüttendorf on Ballhofplatz cleared as planned"
  44. ^ "Republic of Free Wendland - Reactivated" - Was nothing except expenses? Small question with answer November 2, 2010, printed matter 16/3170
  45. ^ German passport for Edward Snowden ( memento from December 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) at ndr.de from January 27, 2015
  46. ↑ 18 days of free Wackerland - ( media workshop Franconia , approx. 32 min.)
  47. ↑ Wake up the dead Christianity - at the beginning of this week the occupiers in Wackersdorf were driven out by the police. - ( The time of January 10, 1986)

Coordinates: 53 ° 0 ′ 46.4 ″  N , 11 ° 20 ′ 4.3 ″  E