Clearance of the Hambach Forest in 2018

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Tree houses in the Hambach Forest (February 2018)
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
Temporary settlement on the edge of the forest (2018)
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The Hambach Forest was about to be deforested in September 2018. It is a remnant of 2 km² of the originally 40 km² large Bürgewald, between Cologne and Aachen, which has been cleared for the Hambach opencast mine since 1978 .

The tree house colony there and the protests in the Hambach Forest are symbols of the resistance to lignite mining , coal-fired power generation and the associated pollution. Since 2012, the remaining part of the forest has been occupied several times by activists.

In the 2018/2019 clearing season, a large part of the remaining forest was to be cleared by the opencast mine operator RWE . In this area there were 50-60 tree houses that were cleared and torn down before clearing. On Wednesday, September 12, 2018, the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister for Homeland, Local Affairs, Building and Equality of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Ina Scharrenbach ( CDU ) ordered an eviction . The following police operation is considered to be one of the largest in the recent history of North Rhine-Westphalia . Formally, it was not a police operation, but a rescue operation. This political language regulation was advanced by the Cologne Administrative Court in September 2021 and the eviction was classified as unlawful. The decision is not yet final.

location

Constructions in the trees, Monkey town 2

The first buildings in the last remaining part of the forest were built from 2012 when there was an occupation. Some tree houses stand or stood in Oaktown on the stem oak Mona and in the tree house villages and forest camps called Beechtown , Cosytown , Kleingartenverein, Lorien, and Gaul, northeast of the village of Morschenich , which is intended for demolition , northwest of Buir and west of Manheim .

Hut village and tree houses

Some of the constructions were more than 20 meters high; for tree protection , they were not fastened with nails, but rather with knots. Between huts and platforms, there were rope paths and building connecting bridges laid out in the treetops as walkways . Climbing was used for the ascent. There was a pulley block for loads . The supply of electrical energy was made by solar panels , internet connection via cellular network.

Kitchens and heated bedrooms were later given as the reason for the evacuation because of the easily inflammable materials in the buildings. Tripods made of three tree trunks with a pedestal for the protest complemented the structures in the trees. The tree occupiers want to prevent the clearing of the forest and the excavation of a 450-meter-deep mine hole. The everyday life in the forest is not a wellness holiday, according to one resident, the winter was hard. There were many reports in national media about the hut village and the tree houses in the Hambach Forest.

Beechtown ( English beech ' red beech ' ), the tree house village in which a blogger who had reported from above about the tree occupations and protests crashed on September 19, 2018, was the highest forest camp among the approximately 70 tree houses grouped together. The huts were connected by suspension bridges to form a closed circle, in which several people lived in the crowns of the beech trees until they were cleared, shortly before the clearing season from October.

The building structures and huts were classified as black buildings by the authorities and temporarily tolerated. In autumn 2018, Rolf Martin Schmitz declared on behalf of the RWE Executive Board that the earth masses under the forest and the occupied trees would be needed to stabilize the slopes of the opencast mine; There is no room for compromise with environmentalists, since it is technically impossible to preserve part of the forest. In the end, parliament decides on laws.

Meadow camp

Protest camp at Hambacher Forst in front of the forest damaged by the drought on September 9, 2018

At the Hambacher Forst there is always a "meadow camp" on private property, about which a legal dispute has been going on for years.

Eviction in autumn 2018

Legal grounds for eviction

Tree house in the Hambach Forest (2018)

In 2014, the Ministry of Construction of North Rhine-Westphalia decided that the tree houses built by the tree occupiers in the forest should not be classified as structural systems . On September 4, 2018, one year after the political changes caused by the 2017 NRW state elections , the ministry issued a decree declaring the houses to be buildings.

Since the tree houses have no escape stairs and access roads for rescue workers in an emergency, the state government believes that they violate fire protection regulations. Furthermore, the tree houses lacked the necessary window parapets and crash devices. According to the ministry, evacuation must therefore take place immediately, as there is a "risk of delay for the life and limb of the tree house residents for fire protection reasons". Jan Heinisch, 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 denied that there was a connection between the imminent clearing by RWE AG and the clearing. However , the ministry did not provide an explanation as to why the evacuation only took place after the drought in summer 2018 . 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. "

course

The eviction began on September 13th and dragged on until the beginning of October. This was inter alia. significantly delayed due to protests and a death.

On the evening of September 12th, it became known that the Hambach Forest should be evacuated from the following day for fire protection reasons. The building authorities of the Düren district and the city of Kerpen were instructed by the building ministry to read out the evacuation notices the next morning. The next morning the police entered the forest. According to a comprehensive report by the taz, there were 40 to 60 tree houses in at least three “villages” in the forest with the names “Norden”, “Oaktown” and “Gaul”.

By the evening hours of September 26th, 64 treehouses had already been dismantled, although it was not clear how many treehouses actually existed, whether platforms with overnight accommodation in the treetops are included in the statistics of the police and whether new constructions have been made since the first day the eviction were built. Another source names 53 dismantled tree houses. According to their own statements, the police cleared the last tree house on October 2, 2018. According to a spokesman for RWE, preparations were made to clear the area. On October 5th, the clearing of the forest was provisionally prohibited by the Münster Higher Administrative Court . By October 8, the police finally withdrew from the forest. Immediately afterwards, the forest began to be occupied again. The activists also built tree houses again. During one of the police inspections on March 25, 2019, 54 constructions, 39 of which were finished tree houses, were counted. Another clearance operation or alternative measures to make access to the tree houses more difficult were considered by the state government, but ultimately not implemented.

The police union estimates that the police worked a total of around one million hours in the five weeks of the eviction.

Protests

The eviction was accompanied by numerous protests. Protestant and Catholic clergy and young parishioners from Düren and Buir formed a sit-in and were carried away by the police. According to the police, tree squatters “took their urine directly from the police officers deployed and refused to leave the tree houses”. According to the police, an emergency vehicle was damaged when a Molotov cocktail was thrown in the area of ​​the approach to the forest . On the morning of September 14, activists blocked the representation of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia at the federal government in Berlin in protest against the eviction . On the morning of September 15, activists occupied the conveyor belts and excavators of the nearby Niederaussem lignite power station . The power plant then had to reduce its output. A manhole was found under the tree house village “Oaktown”. This had to be supplied with oxygen and stabilized by the mine rescue team . The work on the tunnels and the risk of collapse delayed the clearing of the tree houses. According to the organizers, 7000 people came to the nearby town of Buir for the traditional forest walk on September 16. Since the police had forbidden entering the forest, the demonstration should go to Morschenich . Parts of the demonstration split off and demanded access to the forest. Up to 1000 people got past the police into the forest. The clearance work was then canceled until September 18. Greenpeace activists set up tents in the foyer of the NRW State Chancellery in Düsseldorf on September 26th . Various rental companies of lifting platforms prohibited the use of their devices in the Hambach Forest.

On October 6, 2016, a large demonstration with more than 50,000 participants and numerous environmental organizations took place directly at the Hambach Forest. The police similarly spoke of tens of thousands of demonstrators. The participating organizations included the Friends of Nature Germany , Greenpeace and the Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation Germany (BUND); the band Revolverheld was also announced. However, the police initially banned the demonstration on the grounds that it "posed serious threats to public safety". The BUND then submitted an urgent application to the Administrative Court of Aachen and the Federal Constitutional Court . The administrative court in Aachen overturned the ban issued by the police on October 5, 2018. The police accepted the decision and did not go to the Higher Administrative Court in Münster.

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 operator of the ecological search engine Ecosia published a purchase offer directed to RWE for the site in the amount of 1,000,000 euros.

  • Protest in front of the RWE in Berlin on September 17, 2018

  • Protest to the meeting of the coal commission with symbolic pictures of trees for the preservation of the forest on September 18, 2018

  • Newly erected barricades and environmentalists in September 2018

  • Demonstration at Hambacher Forst on October 6, 2018

As early as 2017, there were protests against coal mining during the climate conference in Bonn at the Hambach open-cast mine . The credibility of the climate commitments was questioned, and the clearing of forests and tree houses was classified as disproportionate. Also in 2018, on the way to the UN climate conference in Katowice , activists had hiked through the remains of the old forest.

Journalist dies

In the afternoon around 3:50 pm, a 27-year-old artist and journalist who had gone to a tree house in "Beechtown" died because he was prevented from doing his documentation work by the police on the ground. He fell through a collapsed suspension bridge from a height of about fifteen meters. In order to clear up the incident, the further clearance work in the Hambach Forest was completely stopped until September 21st. According to initial information from the police, the journalist's crash was unrelated to a direct police measure . However, a lifting platform arm with SEK personnel was in the process of fetching an activist from a neighboring tree, while the journalist was negotiating with people on the ground - including a police officer - to exchange a memory card . On September 23, 7,000 people remembered the journalist who had died and protested peacefully in front of and in the forest; a forest walk with a route through the forest had been prohibited, so a stand rally was held.

Clearance stop in autumn 2018

Great mouse-eared mouse ( Myotis myotis ) roosting in a bridge

The Supreme Administrative Court decreed on October 5, 2018 a preliminary clearing stop at the Hambach Forest . The judges thus complied in an urgent procedure with the application of the Federal Environment and Nature Conservation Germany . The BUND had argued that the forest with its two colonies of the endangered Bechstein's bat and the great mouse -eared bat corresponded to the qualities of a European FFH protected area and therefore had to 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 Federal Government's National Strategy for Biological Diversity . According to Annex IV of the Habitats Directive, bat species are also strictly protected outside of FFH areas. There are a total of 142 protected species .

The Münster Higher Administrative Court stated that the documents included several boxes. The legal questions are so complex that they cannot be answered in an urgent procedure. The clearing must therefore be stopped for the time being so that no “completed, irreversible facts are created”. In addition, the “ public interests of area and species protection, protected by EU law, could be irreversibly impaired”. A spokeswoman for the Cologne administrative court , where the main proceedings are being negotiated, told the Rheinische Post that a decision on this was not to be expected “within a few weeks”. Even a legal dispute lasting several years cannot be ruled out. RWE expected that legal certainty about clearing in the Hambach Forest could only exist at the end of 2020.

On September 24th, a legal opinion was presented on behalf of Greenpeace , which at that time saw no operational need for clearing the forest.

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.

Legal processing

Trials against activists

The trial of an activist opened on February 4, 2019. On February 5, the trial was adjourned because a police witness did not appear. On February 18, the activist was sentenced to nine months in juvenile detention by the Kerpen District Court . In the appeal proceedings before the Regional Court of Cologne , the judgment was reduced on May 28, 2019 to a three-week permanent detention and 40 social hours in the field of environmental and nature conservation. Since the pre-trial detention was taken into account, the activist did not have to go to the arrest.

Judicial assessment of the eviction

On September 8, 2021, the Cologne Administrative Court ruled that the evacuation of the Hambach Forest was based on merely pretended grounds and was therefore unlawful. The state building ministry instructed the city of Kerpen against their will to carry out an evacuation. As a legal basis, the alleged fire protection deficiencies of the tree houses were used as a pretext to enable an evacuation. In fact, it was a matter of removing the activists from the forest. This goes, inter alia. from the eviction order issued by the building ministry to the city of Kerpen. However, building law and fire protection regulations were not applicable for this purpose, making the evacuation illegal. Initially, no appeal can be lodged against the decision; However, an application can be made to the Higher Administrative Court for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia for approval of the appeal within one month of the delivery of the full judgment ( Section 124a (4 ) VwGO ).

Artistic reception

The Berlin singer-songwriter and cabaret artist Bodo Wartke composed the piano ballad "Hambacher Wald" on the subject and thus achieved a considerable reach on YouTube.

Web links

Commons : Protests in the Hambach Forest  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ RWE: Hambach Forest cannot be saved , ZDF.de, September 29, 2018
  2. ↑ a b c Anett Selle, Bernd Müllender: Clearance in the Hambach Forest. "The forest stays, the forest goes" , taz.de of September 13, 2018 (accessed on September 14, 2018)
  3. ↑ Hambacher Forst: Massive use against opponents of lignite , Berliner Morgenpost, September 13, 2018
  4. ↑ Police continue to clear the tree houses , ZEIT ONLINE , September 15, 2018.
  5. ↑ a b WDR, Hambacher Forst: Lawyers want to stop eviction , it began on September 13, 2018, accessed on September 14, 2018
  6. ↑ There is noise above all the treetops , Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 13, 2018.
  7. ↑ pad / mxw / dpa: Hambacher Forst: Clearance of tree houses was illegal. In: Der Spiegel . September 8, 2021, accessed September 8, 2021 .
  8. ↑ Clearance of tree houses in the Hambach Forest was illegal. In: DerTagesspiegel. September 8, 2021, accessed September 9, 2021 .
  9. ↑ a b c d Die Zeit, Jagd durch die Wipfel , September 13, 2018
  10. ↑ Evictions start again , taz.de from September 24, 2018, accessed on September 28, 2018.
  11. ↑ a b Clearance stopped after fatal accident in Hambach Forest , Deutschlandfunk.de, September 19, 2018.
  12. ↑ I am here to oppose the evacuation of my body , Zeit Campus , September 13, 2018.
  13. ↑ I could live up there for a month or two without coming down , Die Welt, Sept. 7, 2018.
  14. ↑ The day on which “Beechtown” fell , Aachener Nachrichten, 25 September 2018.
  15. ↑ RWE boss Schmitz sees no chance for Hambacher Forst , t-online, September 30, 2018.
  16. ↑ lignite opponents: This is the Wiescamp at Hambach Forest .
  17. ↑ Radio Rur: The dispute about the meadow camp settled? . In: www.radio-rur.de .
  18. ↑ Aachener Zeitung: Merzenich / Kerpen: The district administrator has the meadow camp cleared . In: www.aachener-zeitung.de .
  19. ↑ Ralph Jansen: Six Years in the Hambach Forest: Destroyed Home - What Remains of Life in the Forest .
  20. ^ Aachener Nachrichten: Hambacher Forst: Violent protests accompany the clearing of the forest . In: www.aachener-nachrichten.de .
  21. ↑ Hambach Forest: Police report dismantling of 53 tree houses . 26th September 2018.
  22. ↑ Last tree houses cleared: RWE is preparing to clear the Hambach Forest. In: Spiegel Online . October 2, 2018, accessed October 3, 2018 .
  23. ↑ [1] , WDR from September 19, 2019; Accessed September 9, 2021
  24. ↑ 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]).
  25. ↑ Kölner Stadtanzeiger, Police clears forest area Large scale operation in Hambach Forest in minute protocol , September 13, 2018
  26. ↑ Protet against forest clearing: environmental activists block NRW representation in Berlin . FAZ.net, September 14, 2018.
  27. ↑ Interview with the press spokesman for the Kerpen fire brigade Twitter, September 17, 2018.
  28. ↑ Interview with the press spokesman for the Kerpen fire brigade, part 2, Twitter, September 17, 2018.
  29. ↑ Interview with the press spokesman for the Kerpen fire brigade, part 3, Twitter, September 17, 2018.
  30. ↑ Clearance of the Hambach Forest continues , sueddeutsche.de video
  31. ↑ Bernd Müllender: Bottleneck in the Hambach Forest: Are RWE running out of lifts? . 23 September 2018.
  32. ↑ Hambacher Forst: "That is the center of society" .
  33. ↑ Large protest action planned at Hambacher Forst ( memento from October 2, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) dpa / stern.de from October 1.
  34. ↑ Police forbid demonstration. In: FAZ.net . October 5, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  35. ↑ NRW-Greens relocate party conference to Hambacher Forst , welt.de from September 8, 2018, accessed on October 1, 2018
  36. ↑ Kate Connolly: Berlin startup offers € 1m to save ancient Hambach forest from coal mining. October 9, 2018, accessed October 9, 2018 .
  37. ↑ Ecosia offers RWE € 1,000,000 for Hambach Forest . In: The Ecosia Blog . October 9, 2018 ( ecosia.org [accessed October 9, 2018]).
  38. ↑ Wolfgang Kaes : A tree, a forest and the rule of law - How politics in the Hambach Forest measure with two different standards , General-Anzeiger , September 24, 2018.
  39. ↑ Who is the victim from the Hambach Forest? , faz.de from September 20, 2018 (accessed September 24, 2018)
  40. ↑ Journalist dies when he falls from a suspension bridge , Tagesschau, September 19, 2018
  41. ↑ Chronicle of the Hambacher Forest clearance: The Screaming in the Forest , taz.de of September 22, 2018 (accessed on March 3, 2019)
  42. ↑ Death in the Hambach Forest: But there is a police operation nearby , wdr.de from September 20, 2018, as of 5:56 p.m. (accessed on September 28, 2018)
  43. ↑ Accident in the Hambach Forest: Journalist died after falling from a suspension bridge , aachener-nachrichten.de from September 19, 2018 (accessed on September 28, 2018)
  44. ↑ Thousands defy mud and rain , taz - the daily newspaper, September 19, 2018.
  45. ↑ a b Münster: The court temporarily stops clearing in the Hambach Forest. In: Spiegel Online . October 5, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  46. ↑ tagesschau.de: OVG Münster stops clearing in the Hambach Forest for the time being. In: tagesschau.de. October 5, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  47. ↑ a b c court orders a temporary clearing freeze. In: zeit.de . October 5, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  48. ↑ Bechstein-Fledermaus and Co .: BUND wants to stop Hambach . In: Kölnische Rundschau , April 12, 2012. Retrieved April 26, 2014.
  49. ↑ tagesschau.de: OVG Münster stops clearing in the Hambach Forest for the time being. In: tagesschau.de. October 5, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  50. ↑ Hambacher Forst: RWE assumes that the clearing will stop by the end of 2020. In: welt.de . October 5, 2018, accessed October 5, 2018 .
  51. ↑ Thousands demonstrate in the Hambach Forest. In: FAZ.net . Retrieved October 6, 2018 .
  52. ↑ Police continue to clear the tree houses in the Hambach Forest , Der Tagesspiegel, September 24, 2018.
  53. ↑ Coal companies receive billions. In: Tagesschau.de. January 16, 2020, accessed January 16, 2020 .
  54. ↑ trial Hambi activists: Owl in the district court. In: taz.de . February 4, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  55. ↑ Trial against Hambacher Forest activist: "Eule" remains in custody. In: taz.de. February 5, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  56. ↑ Hambi activist condemned: an example is made. In: taz.de. February 19, 2019, accessed March 3, 2019 .
  57. ^ Regional Court of Cologne, 322 Ns 9/19. Retrieved August 27, 2021 .
  58. ↑ Clearance of the Hambach Forest was illegal , Tagesschau from September 8, 2021; Accessed September 9, 2021
  59. ↑ Clearance of tree houses in Hambacher Forst was illegal , Süddeutsche Zeitung of September 8, 2021; Accessed September 9, 2021
  60. ↑ Protest culture. Music and art as instant water heaters , deutschlandfunk.de from October 2, 2018 (accessed October 11, 2018)
  61. ↑ Bodo Wartke - Hambacher Wald YouTube, published on September 21, 2018 (accessed October 11, 2018)

Coordinates: 50 ° 52 ′ 44 ″  N , 6 ° 33 ′ 33 ″  E