The village of Lützerath is the center of the protest against the energy giant RWE. The near-natural resistance is organized on the farm of the farmer who does not want to give way.
Jesse Dittmar is a herbalist, and the words with which the qualified biologist explains to the forty or so participants on a herb hike on the edge of the Garzweiler opencast mine, what grows here and how it can be used in the kitchen at home, are always calm and clear. Only at the foot of the old linden tree in the small town of Lützerath, which is threatened with demolition and whose blossoming crown can be heard, does Jesse Dittmar become very angry. “We are dependent on our environment,” she ends her little physics excursion about the contribution trees make to the supply of water and oxygen. “We assume that it will continue to provide us with food and oxygen, but that won’t work if we destroy it at the same time.”
The meadow on which the linden tree stands belongs to Eckhardt Heukamp, the last farmer in Lützerath, who is currently taking legal action against expropriation by the lignite group RWE. For a few months now, he has had climate-conscious roommates on his eighteenth-century farm: some of whom are properly registered tenants who take legal action with him. One of them is Jesse Dittmar, who enjoys the presumably numbered days in the hamlet not only because of the impressive natural monuments: “We live here as a community of solidarity and try to live a way of life that is based on our needs, not on those of the economy” .
In order to recommend the place where they live to as many people as possible, the residents of Lützerath rely on knowledge transfer and culture. Before a nearly two-week festival under the motto “Culture without coal” starts in August, the local initiatives are already taking the low incidence of corona as an opportunity for some outdoor events – including the herb hike in the shadow of the coal excavators.
“There are few places in Germany where the destruction by fossil capitalism is so visible, where the global destruction that is caused here is so clearly reflected locally in the destruction of the villages, the valuable soils, and nature,” says Jesse Dittmar. “Even if the story of Lützerath has an uncertain outcome, we can’t help but be here. We all know that lignite is no longer needed and that it will not go on like this if we want to save all of our livelihoods. ”Quiet words, behind which the courage of desperation lies:“ When I stand under this linden tree, I know that the end may be near. But I refuse to see that. It’s like a bad dream rolling towards us. “
Just days later, Jesse Dittmar’s words will work like prophecy. The flood disaster is also raging in the open-cast mining region and has made many long-standing warnings from environmentalists a reality. The Inde river laid by RWE bursts its natural bed and rushes into the Inden opencast mine as a waterfall. A caterpillar driver who is not found is carried away. Aerial photos show that the water has found the exact old, meandering bed from which the open-cast mine has displaced it.
An RWE tweet that the mine pumps continue to run, the pumped water is “partly discharged into rivers” – including the Erft – causes irritation. But in an interview with the journalist collective “riffreporter”, Erftverband boss Bernd Bucher contradicts assumptions that RWE had made the flood worse: “In the current case, it was even the case that RWE was pumping over what it could pump over and thus even overcompensating for it. Even if it had not been compensated, RWE would not have intensified the flood. So at least this time there is no reason to put RWE in the dock. “
And the group can also score points in the Garzweiler towns: At the suggestion of local residents: inside, RWE declares its willingness to provide resettler houses that have already been abandoned to homeless flood victims as living space. “We have space and are ready to help!”, The active members of the “All villages remain” initiative are happy about the opportunity to show solidarity.
Apart from Lützerath, a refugee family, also temporarily quartered in vacant living space, is preparing to leave the place forever. And even if the political speeches on the catastrophe promise accelerated climate protection: The residents: inside the oasis on Eckhardt Heukamp’s historic courtyard do not believe that the coal excavators will stop because of this. They are preparing to defend Lützerath with civil disobedience and at the same time try to make their peace with the impending end. “But even if we can’t stop RWE, so much has been created at this place of power that they can’t take away from us,” says Jesse Dittmar. And still holds on to the dream of being able to repeat her herb hike next spring.
