When a reactor accident occurred in the US nuclear power plant in Harrisburg on March 28, 1979, hundreds of farmers were already on the roads between Wendland and Hanover on their tractors. There is no need for the accident in the distant USA - because here in Lower Saxony, in tranquil Gorleben in the district of Lüchow-Dannenberg, a nuclear waste repository and a reprocessing plant are to be built. The state government had decided that two years earlier.
First 350 tractors, then 100,000 people
The fear is great in Wendland. The will to fight against the plans is also great - among others with Heinrich Pothmer. On March 25, the 25-year-old farmer made his way to Hanover with many others. The "peasant emergency community" had called. Start is in Gedelitz near Gorleben, around 350 tractors are there. In Hanover, Pothmer will then turn to Prime Minister Ernst Albrecht from the CDU in front of 100,000 people:"My dear Mr. Albrecht, we don't want your Schiet," he yelled at the participants, who came from all over Germany to the largest demonstration in Lower Saxony's history came.
Eight days on foot from Gorleben to Hanover
25 years later, Susanne Kamin remembers the special atmosphere:"It was already clear to us back then:what we are doing here is legendary," said the later chairwoman of the Lüchow-Dannenberg Citizens' Initiative (BI). Marianne Fritzen, who died in 2017, was also there in March 1979 to demonstrate against the plans of the Albrecht state government. She is on foot for eight days in bad north German weather before she gets to Hanover. What she sees along the way impresses her. "What impressed me was that there were banners hanging on the house facades and people were standing on the balconies and clapping," said the founder of BI on the 25th anniversary of the trek to Hanover. "That was overwhelming.
Plans for reprocessing plant are shelved
The number of demonstrators in Hanover was also overwhelming. Under the impression of the reactor accident in the USA, opponents and critics of nuclear power traveled from all over Germany. In the end it was 100,000. State boss Albrecht was apparently also impressed. A week later he declared that a nuclear reprocessing plant could not be implemented politically in Wendland. However, Gorleben then became the location for two interim nuclear storage facilities and the so-called pilot conditioning plant. For decades, the subterranean Gorleben salt dome was tested for its suitability for a repository. And the Wendland repeatedly experienced clashes between opponents of nuclear power and the state power, when once again Castor transports rolled towards Gorleben.
Two exhibitions highlight the events
Two exhibitions tell of the days of actions and reactions in 1979. The special exhibition "Tractors to Hanover. Gorleben and the movement to phase out nuclear energy" has been on display at the Hannover Historical Museum since March 27th. In the special exhibition, photos, documents, eyewitness reports and "souvenirs" report on the events of that time and their effects up to the present. The show "The Gorleben Trek - 40 years later" can be viewed from March 31st in the district house in Lüchow. Partners in both projects are the Historical Museum, the Institute for Didactics of Democracy at the University of Hanover and the Gorleben Archive in Lüchow.