Josef Maas

Josef Maas (born January 19, 1931 in Kalkar-Hönnepel / Niederrhein; † June 3, 2008 in Blomberg / Lippe), known as Farmer Maas , was a German farmer and opponent of nuclear power and a symbol of the young ecological movement in Germany. He led the legal and public opposition to the Kalkar nuclear power plant . Mainly because of this resistance, the fast breeder never went into operation - and the technology was abandoned in Germany. As a focal point of the anti-nuclear protest , "Kalkar" was also an important impetus for founding the Green Party .

Live and act

Josef Maas lived and worked with his family of seven on the family's own farm in Hönnepel in the immediate vicinity of the large-scale construction site for the fast breeder. He fought back against the construction of the breeder reactor with persistent tenacity since the late 1960s. From 1972 he was the lead plaintiff an almost fourteen years lasting litigation against the project for themselves Maas 1.5 million German marks in debt. At the same time, Maas and his supporters ( BI stop Kalkar) sensitized and mobilized the public; the demonstrations in Kalkar at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s are among the largest anti-nuclear power rallies in Germany. In the course of this struggle against the energy industry, politics and the church, "Der Held von Kalkar" ("Der Spiegel") developed from a conservative CDU member and church board member to an eco-rebel and candidate for the Green Party. In 1980 he was elected the top candidate in the state elections by the North Rhine-Westphalian Greens .

At the beginning of 1985, Maas informed his colleagues that he had to sell his farm - which he was managing in the tenth generation - due to excessive indebtedness. In February the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia decided to refuse the fast breeder an operating license. When Maas had not found a buyer for his farm by the end of the year, he received a purchase offer from Kraftwerk Union (KWU), which was subject to the condition that his complaints should be dropped. Josef Maas, meanwhile also "tired of health and nerves from the long argument", sold and moved to the Nassengrund estate in Lipperland, 300 km away .

After the state government repeatedly postponed the operating license for the reactor, the federal government announced in March 1991 that the fast breeder was finally over. Farmer Maas and his wife also traveled to the victory celebration of the opponents of nuclear power in front of the fast breeder.

In 2008 Josef Maas died in Blomberg. He was buried in the village cemetery in Hönnepel.

Farmer Maas in art

In 1978 a long-playing record was released with the title Bauer Maas - songs against atomic energy to finance litigation costs. Artists involved in the sampler were Frank Baier (with the title song), Mundwerk, Manfred Jaspers, Saitenwind, Tom Kannmacher , Butterflies , Fiedel Michel , Bruno and Klaus, Walter Mossmann and Kladderadatsch. In 1982 it was re-released and distributed over two thousand and one. In 2009 it was released remastered on CD.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Few are willing to fly the flag , Frankfurter Rundschau, September 1, 1981
2. ↑ "Do not kindle this hellfire". SPD politician Friedhelm Farthmann on the fast breeder . In: Der Spiegel . No. 27 , 1985, pp. 48-51 ( online interview).
3. ↑ Bernd Müllender: Farmer Maas gives up . In: Die Zeit , No. 48/1985.
4. ↑ 1991 - Construction freeze in Kalkar. That's it. Current hour. WDR. Broadcast from March 25, 2006 (5'58) ( Memento from September 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
5. ^ Bauer Maas - songs against atomic energy . LP, Pass-op production, Moers 1978
6. ^ Bauer Maas - songs against atomic energy . LP, two thousand and one, Frankfurt / Main 1982
7. ^ Bauer Maas - songs against atomic energy . CD, Essen 2009

Web links

• Farmer Maas at the victory celebration of the opponents of nuclear power in 1991 (several times in the first minute of the video)
• Bauer Maas-Lied , Frank Baier, video (4:28 min)