Wyhl () is a municipality in the district of
Emmendingen
Emmendingen (; Low Alemannic: ''Emmedinge'') is a town in Baden-Württemberg, capital of the district Emmendingen of Germany. It is located at the Elz River, north of Freiburg im Breisgau. The town contains more than 26,000 residents, which ...
in
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
in southwestern
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
It is known in the 1970s for its role in the
anti-nuclear movement
The anti-nuclear movement is a social movement that opposes various nuclear technologies. Some direct action groups, environmental movements, and professional organisations have identified themselves with the movement at the local, natio ...
. Wyhl was first mentioned in 1971 as a possible site for a
nuclear power
Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...
station. In the years that followed, local opposition steadily mounted, but this had little impact on politicians and planners. Official permission for the plant was granted and earthworks began on 17 February 1975.
[Walter C Patterson (1986)]
Nuclear Power
Penguin Books, p. 113. On 18 February, local people spontaneously occupied the site and police removed them forcibly two days later. Television coverage of police dragging away farmers and their wives through the mud helped to turn nuclear power into a major national issue. The rough treatment was widely condemned and made the wine-growers, clergy, and others all the more determined. Some local police refused to take part in the action.
Jim Falk
Jim Falk (born ) is a physicist and academic researcher on science and technology studies.
Background
Falk was born in Oxford, England. His father was the philosopher Werner D. Falk (latterly professor at the University of North Carolina), and h ...
(1982). ''Global Fission: The Battle Over Nuclear Power'', Oxford University Press, p. 105.
Subsequent support came from the nearby university town of Freiburg. On 23 February about 30,000 people re-occupied the Wyhl site and plans to remove them were abandoned by the state government in view of the large number involved and potential for more adverse publicity. On 21 March 1975, an administrative court withdrew the construction licence for the plant.
[Mills, Stephen and Williams, Roger (1986)]
Public Acceptance of New Technologies
Routledge, pp. 375-376.[Gottlieb, Robert (2005)]
Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American Environmental Movement
Revised Edition, Island Press, USA, p. 237.
/ref>[Wolfgang Rudig (1990). ''Anti-nuclear Movements: A World Survey of Opposition to Nuclear Energy'', Longman, pp. 130-135.] The plant was never built and the land eventually became a nature reserve.[
The Wyhl occupation generated extensive national debate. This initially centred on the state government's handling of the affair and associated police behaviour, but interest in nuclear issues was also stimulated. The Wyhl experience encouraged the formation of citizen action groups near other planned nuclear sites.][ Many other anti-nuclear groups formed elsewhere, in support of these local struggles, and some existing citizens' action groups widened their aims to include the nuclear issue. This is how the German anti-nuclear movement evolved.][ Therefore, Wyhl is often referred to as the first great success of the German Anti-nuclear power Movement with an announcement effect for other similar conflicts like ]Brokdorf
Brokdorf is a municipality in the district of Steinburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the bank of the Elbe river, approx. 20 km east before the river flows into the North Sea. As of December 2019, the total population ...
, nuclear reprocessing plant Wackersdorf
The Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant (german: Wiederaufbereitungsanlage Wackersdorf, abbreviated WAA Wackersdorf) is a reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf in Bavaria, Germany. Because of protests the plant was never completed. Today it is an ...
or Gorleben
Gorleben is a small municipality ('' Gemeinde'') in the Gartow region of the Lüchow-Dannenberg district in the far north-east of Lower Saxony, Germany, a region also known as the Wendland.
Gorleben was first recorded as a town by the rulers of ...
. Anti-nuclear success at Wyhl also inspired nuclear opposition in the rest of Europe and North America.[
]
See also
*Anti-nuclear movement in Germany
The anti-nuclear movement in Germany has a long history dating back to the early 1970s when large demonstrations prevented the construction of a nuclear plant at Wyhl. The Wyhl protests were an example of a local community challenging the nucl ...
*Rolf Disch
Rolf Disch is a German architect, solar energy pioneer and environmental activist. Born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, Disch has dedicated particular focus to regional renewable and sustainable energy.
As head of his own architecture firm, ...
*Michael Sladek
Michael Sladek (born 1946 in Murrhardt) is a German doctor and bearer of the Federal Cross of Merit.
Life
He became famous by realising a grid-independent system for producing electricity, by distributed little power plants.
For this he was aw ...
References
{{Authority control
Emmendingen (district)
Anti–nuclear power movement
Anti-nuclear movement in Germany