Lützerath.
In Lützerath, the police have started the evacuation. Climate activists fight back with passive resistance. Our reporter is on site.
It’s twenty past seven when, in the darkness of Wednesday morning, a woman trudges through the morass that rain has turned the ground at the climate activist camp. “Medium alert, the cops will try to enter the camp from all sides,” she calls through a megaphone. It’s the wake-up call for them protesterswho want to prevent the eviction of the hamlet. A good hour later, police officers stormed onto the earth wall that lay between the huge pit of the Garzweiler opencast mine and the entrance to the town, pushed the activists down and forced their way into the settlement. The Eviction Lützeraths has begun. More on the subject: Anxious hours in Lützerath – is there an escalation?
Lützerath, a small settlement in the Rhenish lignite mining area south of Mönchengladbach. It’s the last place for that Brown coal is to be excavated, which has been dug out of the ground here for a hundred years. Seven buildings, two streets, abandoned by the original inhabitants. Climate activists have settled here for a good two years, occupying the empty houses and building tree houses at dizzying heights. For years there has been a legal and political debate about the future of the hamlet.
Showdown in Lützerath: climate activists against police hundreds
In October, the North Rhine-Westphalian state government, the federal government and the energy company RWE agree: the phase-out of coal is to be brought forward to 2030, but Lützerath is to be destroyed. The police pull together hundreds of people from all federal states, drive up heavy equipment such as excavators and water cannons, build a road from the opencast mine towards the village and block it off over a wide area. It’s the biggest Police operation in North Rhine-Westphalia after the clearing of the Hambach Forest in 2018, which was later declared illegal, which was also supposed to fall victim to the coal, but is saved after a court decision. Also interesting: Coal exit – The Greens and the Lützerath dilemma
The squatters of the place consider the decision to dig up Lützerath to be wrong in terms of climate policy. “Lots of coal lie beneath the village. The climate crisis is already escalating, people are dying from this crisis. We live on coal here to prevent it from being burned,” says Mara, a spokeswoman for activists fighting for climate change. Many who are in Lützerath want to nonviolent resistance Afford. Not everyone stays peaceful. There were isolated clashes with the police on the Sunday before the eviction. On this day, thousands of supporters come to the hamlet.
Demonstrators in Lützerath: Social disobedience for climate justice
On Wednesday morning, activists are sitting on the earth wall in front of the town entrance, police officers with shields and helmets in front of them, behind them light poles are set up in front of the pit of the opencast mine, which brightly illuminate the scenery. “Megaphone check,” calls one, the others repeat it. “We need more people on the wall,” calls the first, the others pass it on. It’s their way of passing on information. Other protesters are equipped with radios.
Behind the earth wall, activists from “Leave the church in the village” have set up a shelter. “We are for the integrity of creation and for a good life for all. It can be reduced to the abbreviation: for climate justice“, says Negen Jansen, a woman in her mid-seventies. She says she is also standing here out of solidarity with the many young people. “In the past few days we have repeatedly been able to have a de-escalating effect. Let’s see what happens today.” Also read:
Lützerath: barricades, sit-ins, tree houses, Beethoven
A short time later, the police break through sit-ins. The officials are robust, pushing people off the slippery embankment and occasionally using clubs. “We are peaceful, what are you?” shout the activists. Then stones and bottles fly. “Stop it,” shout some demonstrators, and: “No violence”. The throw stops. The police are penetrating the town, spreading out across the extensive area and securing access. The situation is unclear. A drone is buzzing over Lützerath to observe the situation.
The squatters withdraw into the houses, climb into the trees, hang themselves in tripods, constructions made of three tree trunks. They want to make it as difficult as possible for the police to clear them. For the past few weeks they’ve been digging pits barricades built. They built a wall of containers in front of the farm of farmer Eckhard Heukamp, who was the last resident to leave the area at the end of last year. Activists are sitting on the wall, many in black, all masked. Objects fly again. “Don’t throw anything, this is a peaceful blockade,” shouts one. Beethoven resounds from a loudspeaker: “For Elise.”
The resistance in Lützerath is not always peaceful
A few meters further, two fly at a barricade incendiary bottles, flames blaze up. Firecrackers explode on the premises. The situation calmed down a short time later. Demonstrators keep shouting slogans. Some are old: “High international solidarity”, others are new: “Police, NRW, thugs from RWE” or “Police everywhere, no justice”.
Some activists discuss with the police officers: “You may think you’re doing the right thing, but you’re not doing it, we’re here for you and your children,” says one of the officers in front of him. He looks at him motionless. Other demonstrators insult the police officers, accuse them of having no backbone, of acting as vicarious agents RWE close. Some officials engage in discussions, trying to explain that they alone would enforce the law.
“It feels like we’re criminals”
In the hours that followed, the police cleared individual barricades and carried demonstrators away. You are here illegally, Lützerath is privately owned by RWE. More violent incidents on the part of the demonstrators stay away until noon. A police spokeswoman speaks of a “largely peaceful course” of the clearance operation.
A young woman is standing in front of one of the huts, she is playing a guitar and singing. She calls herself Pustekuchen and has been in Lützerath for two days. She says she was hit in the face by police two days ago. “It’s a scary feeling,” she says, “it feels like we criminal would be, although we are here for a good reason.”
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