March 19, 1977 is a beautiful day in the Weser Uplands. Actually. There is a hint of early spring in the air. But many people have other things in mind than enjoying the day:More than 20,000 people gather in Grohnde, a small town about 50 kilometers south of Hanover, to demonstrate against the construction of a nuclear power plant (NPP) on the Weser. One of them is Peter Dickel, a law student from Hamburg who is involved in the burgeoning anti-nuclear movement. "Many demonstrators were downright euphoric," he recalls. But in the course of the day, the mood of many people should darken. What was planned as a peaceful protest against the planned nuclear reactor turns into a real battle between demonstrators and police officers. Not only the tear gas used by the police causes tears. Hundreds of people - demonstrators as well as police officers - are injured, some seriously.
"Wallflower" Grohnde
Together with the historian Bernhard Gelderblom, Peter Dickel wants to keep alive the memories of that decisive day for the region. At the time, Grohnde didn't play a major role in the media, he says. In complete contrast to Brokdorf in Schleswig-Holstein, where a nuclear power plant was also to be built. At the time, the images of the violent clashes were shown nationwide in the news and were a topic of conversation. "Up until then, Grohnde was a wallflower," agrees the Hamelin historian Gelderblom.
United against nuclear power station
According to Dickel, that March day in Grohnde was no less difficult. This was to be expected in Brokdorf. The proximity to the metropolis of Hamburg with its large left-wing scene would have played a role, according to Dickel. In the Weserbergland there was no such scene on this scale. In the region, the protest against the nuclear power plant was organized in several citizens' initiatives. "There were teachers, employees, craftsmen and farmers who represented very different political positions, but they all shared an attitude against the planned nuclear power plant on the Weser," says Dickel.
Not just peaceful protest
Violence as a means of resistance was rejected by many people in the region. According to Dickel, there were many among the students from Hamburg, Göttingen and Bielefeld who had a different attitude at the time. Since the 1960s, society has also been in upheaval due to the student movement. One had the attitude that one should not put up with the fact that new nuclear power plants could be pounded out of the ground everywhere. According to Dickel, some in the early anti-nuclear movement found it legitimate not only to rely on peaceful protest.
Situation is getting out of hand
A month before the "battle" there had been a peaceful occupation of a building site in Grohnde. The police held back. On March 19, however, things got completely out of hand. Some police officers had also been deployed in Brokdorf and had witnessed violent clashes there at first hand. Opposite them were determined demonstrators who wanted to occupy the building site, which was now protected by a fence, reports Dickel. For Lower Saxony's then Prime Minister Ernst Albrecht (CDU), such opponents of nuclear power were one thing above all:"criminals".
Building fence torn down
Even today there are still protests against the nuclear reactor in Grohnde. 40 years ago, around 20,000 people took part in a demonstration that escalated as it progressed.When the demonstrators, some of whom were wearing gas masks and helmets, tore down a meter-long section of the site fence, which cost around 1.8 million marks, the police gave up their cautious tactics. "The site fence was poked with iron bars to fend off the demonstrators," Dickel recalls. The injuries suffered were just as serious as when mounted police officers hit the demonstrators with long sticks.
Young and poorly equipped
According to Bernhard Gelderblom, the fact that the police acted in this way was also due to a lack of experience. The police leader was just 24 years old and many of the riot police were between 18 and 19 years old. In addition, the police were poorly equipped to protect themselves and not well prepared for such a situation, according to Gelderblom. The officials employed at the time would have confirmed that.
44 years later Grohnde is shut down
Miraculously, no one died back then. After the "battle" the protest died down. There have always been larger demonstrations, but such violent clashes have never happened again in Grohnde, says Peter Dickel. In 1985 the nuclear power plant in Grohnde went online. After the reactor disaster in Fukushima in 2011, the federal government cashed in on the 2009 decision to extend the service life of the German nuclear reactors. In 2021, ten years after Fukushima, the Grohnde nuclear power plant will finally be shut down - 44 years after the "Battle of Grohnde".