The power of the people against nuclear power; das KKW in Wyhl
In the 1970's Germany the state was intensively investigating nuclear energy and planning several plants in order to live up to the growing demand for energy. Kernkraftwerk Wyhl was the first of nine nuclear plant to be build. However, the nuclear plant raised some concern amongst local farmers and ecological institutes, mostly because they feared the plant would negatively affect the Wyhl' Enviroment, thus slowing down the process.
The German government decided to use an iron fist against these protestors. State officials were unwilling to talk to protestors and a series of public hearings took a turn for the worse when protestors felt they weren't heard and decided to leave carrying a coffin saying: "The dead of democracy?". However, when a protest on the building site was broken up the protest gained recognision around Germany, attracting a huge number of protestors with posters. The object shows a poster made by protestors just before the large occupation began. The last sentence: "Die Antwort darauf kann nur einer WIEDERBESETZUNG DES BAUPLATZES bestehen", encourages protestors to come down to Wyhl. They occupied the building site for over ten months.
Eventually, plans for the nuclear plant in Wyhl were cancelled. This succes came as a sign for protestors that their tactics were succesful and led to an array of protests against the other nuclear plans all over Europe and North America. Examples are the power plant in Kalkar (in Germany as well), Creys-Malvillein (1977, France), Bilbao (1977, Spain) and also several protests in the United States.
The object clearly shows us the limitations of a top-down approach. If the communication with the people is cut short, support for the plans may disappear and continuing these plans top-down can be very hard or even impossible. The decision the German government made to strongly oppose the protest clearly took a turn for the worse, only enflaming the protests and eventually endangering numerous plans for nuclear energy all over Europe and North America.
How to cite this page
Simon Jacobs, 'The power of the people against nuclear power; das KKW in Wyhl', Inventing Europe, http://www.inventingeurope.eu/story/the-power-of-the-people-against-nuclear-power-das-kkw-in-wyhl
Sources
"Mobilizing Against Nuclear Energy: A Comparison of Germany and the United States" - Christian Joppke, p. 97-101
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernkraftwerk_Wyhl
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=227
http://energytransition.de/2012/10/whyl-the-nuclear-plant-that-never-was/
