Elm War
The Elm War (Swedish: Almstriden ) was a one-week confrontation in May 1971 between the Swedish police and environmentalists during the construction of the underground in central Stockholm .
As part of the inner city redevelopment of Stockholm , the construction of the Tunnelbanan station Kungsträdgården was to follow a design that required the felling of a group of around a dozen large elms . A protest movement arose against the destruction of specimens of this endangered species, which went far beyond the inner circle of committed environmental activists of the “Alternative Stad” group around Jan Wiklund and, according to opinion polls, enjoyed great approval among the Stockholm population.
The protest against the construction of an underground railway line was answered with the deployment of the police. The climax was a confrontation with the tree occupiers on the night of May 11th to 12th, 1971. However, there was only occasional violence. As a result of the dispute, the politicians refrained from felling the trees, but changes to the design of the station kept the elm group. The Elm War is seen as the starting point for the change from a technocratic to a more citizen-oriented local policy in Stockholm.
literature
- Daniel Helldén: Democrat utmanas: almstriden och det politiska Establissemanget . Statsvetenskapliga institutions, Stockholms universitet, Stockholm 2005, Stockholm studies in politics, ISSN 0346-6620 .
- Göran Foltin, Jan Wiklund: Kampen om Staden, Helsingborg 1981
- Robert Schediwy : City Images - Reflections on Change in Architecture and Urbanism, (especially S 225ff) Vienna 2005
- Robert Schediwy, Franz Baltzarek Grün in der Großstadt, Vienna 1982 (photos, p. 64f)
Individual evidence
- ↑ YouTube: Videos from Almstriden (Ulmen War)