The Hambach Forest and the German Energiewende: The Influence of the Hambach Forest Movement on the German Coal Phase-Out
Almut Mohr
Registration number: 911101-576-060
Submission date: 6-08-2019
MSc Thesis Environmental Policy Group
Supervisor: Dr. Mattijs Smits
Picture Front Cover: The Hambach Forest and a coal excavator in the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine (© Jörg Scepanski, 5.04.2019) Abstract Already for decades, the Hambach Forest, an ancient forest in Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia, is step by step cleared to give way for the expansion of the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine. This clearing goes along with protests, e.g. by occupying the forest with tree houses. In summer 2018, the protests regarding the Hambach Forest peaked, because the tree houses were evicted in order to continue clearing the forest even though a lawsuit was pending in court to prevent the forest from being cleared. In the same year, the Federal Government implemented the so-called Coal Commission with members from workers’ unions, scientists, business representatives and representatives from civil society and environmental NGOs to find a consensus on the coal phase-out including a year for the final phase- out.
There is a whole network of activists, organisations and initiatives protesting against the coal mining and demanding the protection of the Hambach Forest. The thesis analyses these actors summarised as the Hambach Forest Movement, and the movement’s influence on the Coal Commission as well as on the German coal phase-out. Moreover, the role of the Hambach Forest for the movement and the sense of place of the Hambach Forest are analysed.
The findings, based on interviews, indicate that the broad and internationally linked Hambach Forest Movement shaped the perception of the Hambach Forest within and beyond Germany. Due to the protests, the Hambach Forest is often seen as a symbol. The movement influenced the work of the Coal Commission which stated in its final report that the preservation of the Hambach Forest is ‘desirable’. The movement also contributed to the destabilisation of the energy-regime, as the public support for fossil fuel power plants decreased. Moreover, the movement contributed to changes in the broader political landscape, with an increasing interest for climate and environmental policy.
I
Acknowledgements ‘I want to dedicate this price to those protecting the Hambach Forest and to the climate activists who fight to keep the fossil fuels in the ground everywhere’1. This statement by Greta Thunberg who won the ‘Golden Camera’ in Germany in the special category on climate protection the day before I started my field research made once more clear that the Hambach Forest in Germany is a symbol for the fight against climate change and a symbol for the phase-out of fossil fuels as a source of energy. Therefore, these words perfectly describe my motivation to write my thesis on the Hambach Forest and to go into this particular forest for my field research.
I would like to thank all my interviewees for answering my questions and for giving me such in-depth information on their understanding of the Hambach Forest and the Hambach Forest Movement, as well as insights into the working process of the Coal Commission. Without all of you, it would not have been possible for me to write my thesis on this particular topic. Moreover, I would like to thank all the interviewed activists, as you all inspired me and made clear to me, that there are many different ways to stand up for your vision of how the world could (should) be.
Besides all my interviewees, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Mattijs Smits. During our meetings, he always gave me very helpful input and inspiring ideas for further developing and strengthening my arguments. His critical feedback helped me to work on and sharpen my thoughts and to reflect on my arguments.
The critical readers of my draft versions helped me to improve my thesis. Thank you for finding so many big and small typos and unclear phrases and for all the input.
Moreover, I would like to thank my friends (especially the ones offering me a place to sleep during my field trip) but also all the others to always having an open ear for me and motivating me to continue writing my thesis and rethinking my arguments.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for always being there for me and supporting me, not only during the process of this thesis but for everything. Without you, my whole studies would have been impossible.
1 Greta Thunberg’s speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFvXc14g3AQ II
Table of Contents Abstract ...... I
Acknowledgements ...... II
Table of Figures ...... VI
List of Acronyms ...... VII
1. Introduction ...... 1
The German Energiewende ...... 1
The Hambach Forest as a Key Site of Conflict on the Future of Coal ...... 2
Aim of the Research ...... 3
Conceptual Framework ...... 3
Research Questions ...... 4
Roadmap of the Thesis ...... 5
2. Conceptual Framework ...... 6
Geographies of Social Movements ...... 6
Social Movements and the Sense of Place ...... 7
Multi-Scalar Networks of Social Movements ...... 9
Multi-Level Perspective...... 10
Windows of Opportunity: Creating a Chance for Transition ...... 13
The Multi-Level Perspective and Concepts of Place and Space ...... 14
The Role of Civil Society and Social Movements within a Socio-Technical Transition .. 15
Linking the Concepts ...... 17
Analytical Framework ...... 18
3. Methodology ...... 21
Research Area ...... 21
The Hambach Forest ...... 21
The Hambach Opencast Coal Mine ...... 22
Methods and Research ...... 23
Positionality and Reflexivity ...... 25
III
4. The Network of the Hambach Forest Movement ...... 27
Occupation of the Hambach Forest ...... 27
History of the Occupation and Current Situation ...... 27
Characterisation of the Occupation: A Project on How People Can Live Together ...... 29
Places of Activism next to the Forest ...... 30
Multi-Scalar Networks in the Hambach Forest Movement ...... 31
Hambi-Support Groups and Individual Supporters ...... 33
Buirer für Buir ...... 33
Forest Walks ...... 34
BUND NRW ...... 35
Ende Gelände ...... 36
Networks to other Occupied Forests in Germany and International Support ...... 36
Environmental Organisations in Germany and Abroad...... 38
Fridays for Future ...... 39
Conclusion: The Hambach Forest Movement’s Network ...... 40
5. The Sense of Place of the Hambach Forest...... 42
The Hambach Forest and Collective Imagination ...... 42
Activists’ Perspective: The Hambach Forest as a Symbol ...... 44
International Perspective ...... 47
National Perspective: External Perception of the Hambach Forest Movement ...... 49
RWE’s Perspective...... 51
Conclusion: Sense of Place of the Hambach Forest ...... 52
6. The Hambach Forest Movement within the Changing Energy Regime in Germany ...... 54
The Hambach Forest Movement and the Regime-Level: The Coal Commission ...... 54
The Hambach Forest Movement’s Influence on the Coal Commission ...... 55
Criticism on the Coal Commission by the Hambach Forest Movement ...... 57
The Hambach Forest Movement and the Regime-Level: Influence on the Government ...... 58
The Landscape-Level and the Hambach Forest Movement: The Role of Climate Change .... 59
IV
The Occupation of the Hambach Forest as a System Change Movement: Niche-Action influencing the Landscape-Level ...... 61
The Role of the Renewable Energies in the Hambach Forest Movement ...... 63
Conclusion: The Hambach Forest Movement’s influence on the Energiewende ...... 65
7. Discussion...... 67
The Hambach Forest Movement in Recent Literature ...... 67
The Anti-Coal Movement in Other European Countries: Place-Attachment and Resettlement due to Coal Mining in the Czech Republic ...... 69
Occupied Forests: The Case of the Białowieża Forest ...... 69
The Role of Renewable Energies in the German Energiewende ...... 70
Can a Movement Influence the Landscape-Level? ...... 72
Discussing the Conceptual Framework ...... 75
Reflection on Methodology ...... 77
Qualitative Interviews and Their Limitations ...... 77
Research in an Occupied Forest ...... 78
Open Questions: Further Research ...... 79
8. Conclusion ...... 80
9. Literature ...... 83
Annexes ...... 91
Annex 1: Overview of the Interviewees ...... 91
Annex 2: Topic List and Questions for Interviews ...... 93
Annex 3: Overview of the Coding ...... 96
Annex 4: Overview: Members of the Coal Commission ...... 97
V
Table of Figures Figure 1: Electricity Mix in Germany in 2018 (Author’s own depiction)...... 1 Figure 2: Results of opinion surveys on coal phase-out, conducted in 2019 (Author’s own depiction). 2 Figure 3: The Multi-Level Perspective (Author's own depiction)...... 11 Figure 4: The interrelation between Sustainability Transitions and Spatial Dimensions (Author’s own depiction; based on Levin-Keitel et al. 2018, p. 8)...... 14 Figure 5: Mapping of Social Movements within the Multi-Level Perspective (Author's own depiction; mapping of social movements based on Smith 2012, p. 189)...... 16 Figure 6: Linkages of the Concepts (Author’s own depiction)...... 18 Figure 7: Analytical Framework (Author's own depiction)...... 19 Figure 8: The Hambach Forest and the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine (Source of Maps: OpenStreetMap; Additions by author)...... 21 Figure 9: Hambach Opencast Coal Mine with Hambach Forest (RWE 2018; Addition by author) ...... 22 Figure 10: Timeline: Resistance for the Hambach Forest (Author's own depiction)...... 28 Figure 11: Map of the Hambach Forest and the places of activism (Source of map: OpenStreetMap; Additions by author) ...... 30 Figure 12: The Network of the Hambach Forest Movement on Local, National and Global Scale (Author's own depiction). Actors with a dark blue background are discussed in this thesis...... 32 Figure 13: Support for the Hambach Forest in the Czech Republic: A group of Supporters Outside the Train Station in Prague (Stastna 2018) ...... 37 Figure 14: Poster and Sticker ‘Stop Brown Coal’. Under one of the trees it is written ‘’Hambach Forest stays’...... 43 Figure 15: The Activists Perspectives’ of the Hambach Forest as a Symbol (Author's own depiction). 45 Figure 16: Poster with photos of tree houses and the slogan 'Hambi stays! The freedom we now know no one can take away from us.' (Poster available at the Mahnwache)...... 47 Figure 17: The New York Times: Why 'Green' Germany Remains Addicted to Coal (by Melissa Eddy, Oct. 10, 2018)...... 48 Figure 18: Conclusion: The Hambach Forest Movement within the Changing Energy Regime in Germany (Author’s own depiction)...... 65 Figure 19: The Multi-Level Perspective with the Niche-Regime-Level (Author’s own depiction)...... 71 Figure 20: Results of Voting Surveys in Germany: 'If next Sunday were parliamentary elections, I would vote for the Greens' (in percentage) (Author's own depiction; source of Data: infratest dimap, n.d.) ...... 73 Figure 21: The Hambach Forest Movement and the German Energiewende. Findings on Conceptual Linkages (Author’s own depiction)...... 76 VI
List of Acronyms BUND Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (German Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation), the German member group of ‘Friends of the Earth International’
BUND NRW Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland Nordrhein-Westfalen (German Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation North Rhine-Westphalia)
CO2 Carbon dioxide
DNR Deutscher Naturschutzring (Umbrella organisation of the German nature and environmental protection organisations)
MLP Multi-Level Perspective
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NRW Nordrhein-Westfalen (North Rhine-Westphalia)
NGO Non-Governmental Organisation
RWE Electricity Company (founded in 1898 as Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG; Rhenish-Westphalian Power Plant; since 1990 called RWE AG)
LEE Landesverband Erneuerbare Energien e.V. (State Association for Renewable Energies)
VII
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1. Introduction The introduction is divided into several parts. First, the German Energiewende and its latest changes are introduced. Second, an overview of the Hambach Forest as a key site of conflict on the future of coal is given. Afterwards, the aim of the research and the conceptual framework are shortly introduced. This is followed by the research questions. Finally, a roadmap of the thesis is outlined.
The German Energiewende Currently, Germany is undergoing an energy transition (Energiewende) towards renewable energies by phasing out fossil fuel power plants as well as nuclear power plants. This transition includes not only the electricity generation sector but also the heat sector and the transportation sector (Unnerstall 2017, p. 13). The Federal Government decided in 2011, as a reaction on the nuclear meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, to phase-out nuclear power plants in Germany until 2022. However, the government did not decide on a phase-out year for fossil fuels until recently (Renn and Marshall 2016, p. 224).
Especially the phase-out of fossil fuels caused several conflicts between different political parties over the usage of coal and coal-fired power plants as well as over the costs for the Energiewende. A question that was always raised was concerning the time span, for example when switching off the first coal- fired power plants and when switching off the last coal-fired power plant. The actors were usually divided in the environmentalists (Green Party, environmental NGOs) lobbying for a quick phase-out and the coal companies, business associations and mining unions all supporting the status quo (Buschmann and Oels 2019, p. 10).
According to the coalition agreement of the fourth cabinet of Chancellor Merkel, which was signed in March 2018, the government continues the path of the Energiewende (Bundesregierung 2018, p. 14). The government plans to reduce and finally abandon coal- fired electricity generation (Bundesregierung 2018, p. 142), which will be an engraving change in the electricity generation in Germany, as in 2018 fossil fuels still contributed 41% to the electricity mix in Germany
(see Figure 1). The change will especially affect the four Figure 1: Electricity Mix in Germany in 2018 (Author’s own depiction). regions in Germany where coal is excavated. To find a
1 broad civil consensus for the coal phase-out, the government implemented the commission ‘growth, structural change and employment’2 (the so-called ‘Coal Commission’3), including government representatives, representatives from civil society, from workers’ unions and scientists. The Coal Commission suggests a phase-out of coal-fired power plants until 2038 (Kommission "Wachstum, Strukturwandel und Beschäftigung" 2019, p. 64).
Even though the Coal Commission called its decision to phase-out coal-fired power plants until 2038 a ‘consensus’, this does not seem to reflect the situation in Germany. Currently, the vast majority of people in Germany agrees on the statement that a phase-out of coal in Germany as fast as possible is (very) important (see Figure 2). Hence, even though there is a majority supporting a fast phase-out of coal-fired power generation in Germany, the government plans to Figure 2: Results of opinion surveys on coal phase-out, implement the decisions by the Coal Commission and conducted in 2019 (Author’s own depiction). therefore plans to continue using coal-fired power plants for almost 20 years (Zeit Online 2019).
The Hambach Forest as a Key Site of Conflict on the Future of Coal Within the controversy surrounding the future of coal in Germany, the Hambach Forest is one of the key sites of conflict. The Hambach Forest, situated in the ‘Rheinische Revier’, one of the four regions of coal mining in Germany, used to be the largest forest in North Rhine-Westphalia. However, the largest part of the forest was cleared and transformed into a huge opencast coal mine by the electricity company RWE4, which is one of the major electricity companies in Germany. Half of the remaining forest is also planned to give way for the opencast coal mine. To prevent the continuous clearing of the forest, there are several actors and actor groups active in the Hambach Forest region. Amongst them are activists who occupied the forest in 2012 by building and living in tree houses. The occupation started with a few persons and has grown over time as several loosely organised groups and NGOs joined the fight for preserving the Hambach Forest. All these groups, NGOs and individuals form the
2 German original: Kommission „Wachstum, Strukturwandel und Beschäftigung“ 3 In German the so-called ”Kohlekommission“ 4 founded in 1898 as Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG; Rhenish-Westphalian Power Plant; since 1990 the company is called RWE AG. 2
Hambach Forest Movement. Whereas some actors refer to it as the ‘Hambach Movement’ (e.g. #04; #06, P2; #09; #11, Andreas Büttgen; #14, Antje Grothus; #15, Michael Zobel; #17; #18; #20) others denied being part of a movement (#22). However, the term ‘movement’ is used in this thesis.
In summer and autumn 2018, while the Coal Commission tried to find a consensus on the coal phase- out, the energy supplier RWE wanted to continue clearing the Hambach Forest to extend the opencast coal mine. This plan raised public interest in the Hambach Forest in September and October 2018. Moreover, it triggered people to join the forest occupation and led to demonstrations against the clearing. The demonstrations peaked on October 6th, 2018, when 50.000 people joined the protest.
These demonstrations against the clearing influenced the way the Hambach Forest was seen in public and furthermore changed the way coal mining and coal-fired power plants are seen in public. Therefore, a shift in the public perception and discussion on coal mining took place. The Hambach Forest can be regarded as a symbol in the debate on coal mining and the coal phase-out. The way how the Hambach Forest is discussed and perceived can also be clearly seen in the final report of the Coal Commission. In the report, it is stated that ‘the Commission considers it desirable that the Hambach Forest should be preserved’5 (WSB Kommission 2019, p. 63).
Aim of the Research The aim of the research is to understand how and why the sense of place of the Hambach Forest changed for different actor groups. Moreover, the thesis aims to understand the changes in the Energiewende in Germany and the influence of the Hambach Forest Movement on these changes.
Conceptual Framework The conceptual framework of the research links the Multi-Level Perspective (developed mainly by Geels and colleagues) with concepts of Geographies of Social Movements, mainly described by Koopman (2015) and Nicholls (2007; 2009) in order to indicate that transitions are not only influenced by technologies developed in niches or by changes on the landscape-level but are rather influenced by social movements. Moreover, social movements and their attachments to places can also influence how places, e.g. the Hambach Forest are discussed in public. Two concepts of the Geographies of Social Movements are applied to the case study of the Hambach Forest. First, the idea of a sense of place.
5 German original: „Die Kommission hält es für wünschenswert, dass der Hambacher Forst erhalten bleibt“. 3
This concept builds on the idea that social movements influence the way a place is perceived and discussed, not only within the social movement but also in the more general public. Hence, a place has more attributes than the physical characteristics. Applying this idea on the Hambach Forest means that the place is not only an old forest in Germany but is rather a distinct place of conflicts and a distinct place for the Hambach Forest Movement. Second, the Geographies of Social Movements also analyse the networks of social movements and how the actors of such a movement are linked.
The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) is used to analyse socio-technological transitions, here the German Energiewende. The MLP is based on the idea that there are three levels, the niche-level, the regime- level and the landscape-level. The interrelation of different parts of the Hambach Forest Movement with these different levels of the Energiewende will be analysed.
The two concepts, MLP and the Geographies of Social Movements, are combined to analyse how social movements can influence the regime-level, hence how a movement demanding a coal phase-out can have an impact on the actual coal phase-out policy. Moreover, it is questioned whether a movement can also influence the landscape-level.
The analysis of the Hambach Forest Movement can be seen as an example for other places within and outside Germany where conflicts over the preservation of forests instead of clearing forest for mining might take place, while the country/the region undergoes a transition towards renewable energies. As such sustainability transitions have to take place in most countries to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming well below 2°C, other countries might face the same struggles as Germany.
Research Questions The overarching research question for the thesis is:
How did social-environmental movements related to the Hambach Forest influence the discourse on this forest and the Energiewende in Germany?
The following sub-questions will contribute to answering the overarching research question:
SQ1: How are the actors of the Hambach Forest Movement linked?
SQ2: How did the Hambach Forest Movement shape the ‘sense of place’ of the Hambach Forest?
SQ3: How did the Hambach Forest Movement influence the prospective energy regime in Germany in the context of the report from the Coal Commission?
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Roadmap of the Thesis In the following chapter, the conceptual framework will be described. The conceptual framework combines the Multi-Level Perspective, which is a key concept of transition literature with the Geographies of Social Movements that focuses on the concepts of sense of place and the development of multi-scalar networks of social movements.
In the third chapter, the methodology chapter, a background on the research area, the Hambach Forest and the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine is given. Moreover, the methods applied during the research are described as well as the researcher’s positionality is shortly discussed and reflected.
Chapters four to six are empirical chapters, based on the research findings. Chapter four analyses the network of the Hambach Forest Movement, thus, it maps the movement’s actors and the linkages of these actors on a local, national and international level. Chapter five applies the concept of sense of place on the Hambach Forest. Hence, it is scrutinised how the movement changed and changes the narrative of the forest. Moreover, the perspective of people outside the Hambach Forest Movement is studied. Chapter six analyses the Hambach Forest Movement’s interrelation with the Multi-Level Perspective of the German Energiewende. The influence of the movement on the different levels is examined as well as the influence of the landscape-level on the development of the Hambach Forest Movement.
In chapter seven, the discussion, the findings of this study are compared with other studies on the Hambach Forest Movement as well as with findings on place attachments in a Czech coal region. Moreover, the movement is compared with an occupied forest in Poland. Additionally, the conceptual framework is questioned regarding the influence that movements can have on landscape-level and regarding the (un-)clear allocation of actors to one of the three levels of analysis. Furthermore, the methodology used for the thesis is discussed and open questions for further research are raised.
The final chapter eight concludes the main findings of the thesis, answers the research questions and gives a short outlook for the forest and the Energiewende in Germany.
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2. Conceptual Framework The conceptual framework combines two approaches: the literature on Geographies of Social Movements and the Multi-Level Perspective (MLP) which is embedded in the transition literature. Whereas the first one is mainly used to understand the development of the Hambach Forest into a symbolic place within the German Energiewende and into a symbolic place for the future of coal in Germany, the latter one is a helpful perspective to analyse the demanded and politically planned energy transition in Germany and the influence that the Hambach Forest Movement had on this transition.
The chapter is separated into several parts. First, the Geographies of Social Movements and its two concepts, the sense of place and multi-scalar networks of social movements are explained. Second, the MLP is explained, including the ways how a transition can evolve, how the concepts of place and space are related to the MLP and including the role that civil society and social movements can play within a socio-technical transition. Third, the linkages between the concepts are described. In the fourth part of the chapter, the analytical framework for the thesis is given.
Geographies of Social Movements The Geographies of Social Movements literature is part of the broader field of Political Geography and raises questions such as “How do movements use space? How does space shape movements? How do movements shape space?” (Koopman 2015, p. 341). The aim of geographers working on social movements is to understand the concept of place used by social movements (Nicholls 2007, p. 615). The term social movements is not a clearly defined category. This paper refers to the definition by Nicholls (2007): Social Movements are collectives/ groups of people working towards
“achieving political goals through non-traditional means (e.g. protest, boycotts, public campaigns versus strictly electoral politics) [...]. They are collective in the sense that individuals and organizations establish networks with one another in the hopes of attaining their common objective” (Nicholls 2007, p. 607).
The collectives are connected through networks and can be formed by individuals and/ or organisations sharing the common political objective which is in conflict with the current political situation (Nicholls 2007, p. 607). This definition indicates that social movements have the aim to change the current political situation and by doing this, social movements conflict with groups or persons having contradicting opinions.
Even though this definition seems to be straight forward, the definition is contentious amongst scholars. Elements of the debate are the questions whether social movements can have paid staff, how
6 and if at all they should be organised and whether they should include NGOs (Koopman 2015, p. 341). Hence, the debate is whether a movement is still a movement once NGOs joined the movement, especially NGOs with paid staff. As the Hambach Forest Movement did already exist for several years without the support of such NGOs, it is still considered to be a movement in this thesis, especially since the affiliation of large NGOs in 2018 was viewed critically by several activists.
Social Movements and the Sense of Place Social movements are often related to places and around the question of how a distinct place is valued. This means that different people or groups of people have different ways to value a place. This idea is called the ‘sense of place’ (Nicholls 2007, p. 616).
However, before describing the concept of sense of place in more detail, it is important to explain how ‘place’ is understood by geographers, especially as place plays a central role for the “birth, development, and death of social movements” (Nicholls 2007, p. 610).
Whereas the traditional concept of space used to understand space as a container, since the 1980s, the ‘spatial turn’, space is regarded from a relational perspective (Levin-Keitel et al. 2018, p. 6). According to Hansen and Coenen (2015) the idea of regarding space as an empty container implies that space is “waiting to be filled, e.g. with various forms of economic activity” (Hansen and Coenen 2015, p. 94). Thus, space is seen as a given, environmental and unchanging category that is independent of time and matter (Levin-Keitel et al. 2018, p. 5).
In contrast to this empty container to be filled with characteristics, the idea of relational space implies that spaces are socially constructed through interactions between various actors (Hansen and Coenen 2015, p. 94). Therefore, space is socially produced through social relations and structures (Martin and Miller 2003, p. 145) and, therefore, space is “an integral part of all social life, both affecting and affected by social action” (Martin and Miller 2003, p. 145). Similar to space, according to Convery et al. (2014), also places have more characteristics than the naturally given ones:
“Places […] can be thought of as being made up of a range of factors which include the topographical, the cosmological and spiritual, the built environment and people's emotional and psychological engagement with place. Theoretical and methodological considerations of place include social construction of place, how place meanings develop over time and how people become attached to places ” (Convery et al. 2014, p. 2).
Thus, people identify and form bonds with particular places (Storey 2001, p. 17). Based on these bonds, people derive meanings from their experiences and their routines (Knox and Marston 2001, p. 237) and through these routines and experiences the places and the identities are constructed and
7 constituted. Hence, a place and its characteristics are rather linked to its inhabitants and their activities and are less characterised by the natural environment. However, ties with a place can also be derived from the natural environment but these ties are considered to be weaker than the ties based on a mix of natural and cultural ties and the people occupying the place (Convery et al. 2014, p. 1).
To conclude, the social movements literature conceptualises space as socially produced through social relations and structures (Martin and Miller 2003, p. 145) and place as “the terrain where basic social practices … are lived out. Place is where everyday life is situated” (Merrifield 1993, p. 522 as cited in Martin and Miller 2003, p. 147, emphasis in original).
Having in mind this concept of place, the concept of sense of place can be better understood. The way people see and perceive places is related to the interactions and social practices they experience(d) at this place:
“The concept of a sense of place refers to the feelings evoked among people as a result of the experiences, memories, and symbolism that they associate with a given place. It can also refer to the character of a place as seen by outsiders: its unique or distinctive physical characteristics and/or its inhabitants” (Knox and Marston 2001, p. 237, emphasis in original).
Knox and Marston (2001) differentiate between the insiders and outsiders and their sense of place. Insiders, the people who stay at this place or are closely attached to this place, share common patterns such as a dress code or speech patterns. Additionally, insiders are often born at this place or celebrated an event that is important for them, e.g. marriage, funeral of ancestors, at this distinct place. Insiders are part of the community that is attached to the place and ‘feel at home’ at this distinct place (Knox and Marston 2001, p. 238). This shared sense of place serves “as a common reference point for unifying groups against ‘outside’ forces” (Nicholls 2007, p. 616). Outsiders are not part of this community and usually do not share this sense of place. However, if a place evokes a strong common meaning, the sense of place can also be shared by outsiders (Knox and Marston 2001, p. 239): “For outsiders, such details add up to a sense of place only if they are distinctive enough to evoke significant common meaning for those with no direct experience of them” (Knox and Marston 2001, p. 239, emphasis in original).
This concept of ‘sense of place’ can be applied to study social movements and how they use place. Different actors have a different sense of place and often social movements, that are contesting the political situation, value a place different than the political institutions value the same place. Such differences can refer to different norms, ethics or different beliefs over places and the usage of places. This conflicting idea of sense of place shapes different mobilisations, such as environmental mobilisations, religious mobilisations or anti-gentrification struggles (Nicholls 2007, p. 616).
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Such a sense of place is linked to a person’s individual meaning of the place in his/her particular world (Nicholls 2009, p. 79). Additionally, there is also a collective layer based on cultural and cognitive frames. The ‘sense of place’ is the basis on which people decide whether to actively defend their interests or not:
“Cultural representations of place (i.e. ‘sense of place’) provide people with categories to make normative evaluations of what battles are worth fighting for, what battles are best left to others, who to cooperate with, and who to dispute” (Nicholls 2009, p. 80)
Within social movements, actors having the same individual or collective understanding of a place are bound together and may work towards a common political project (Nicholls 2009, p. 80). Therefore, places and the discursive frames can unify a group and at the same time can help to demarcate oneself from outsiders (Nicholls 2007, p. 616).
Another important aspect of places and movements are emotions, as they bring and tie together a movement. Bosco (2007) evaluates the “emotional intensity that binds activists together […] as important in facilitating collective action as […] other kinds or more tangible resources (such as money, expertise and so on)” (Bosco 2007, p. 558). Emotions are not only important to bind activists together but moreover create a shared identity and can ensure that the movement is effective over time (Bosco 2007, p. 558). This emotional understanding and these emotional attachments towards a place are also used for strategic mobilisation (Koopman 2015, p. 344). Moreover, emotional bonds can strengthen, sustain and enlarge networks, even across physical proximity (Bosco 2007, pp. 558–559).
Multi-Scalar Networks of Social Movements As the Hambach Forest is often described to have a symbolic meaning and as the Hambach Forest Movement is a movement being active far beyond the geographical boundaries of the forest and its near surrounding, the Hambach Forest Movement shaped the sense of place of the Hambach Forest in such a way that the forest and the movement managed to achieve solidarity across distance.
Social movements often use multi-scalar strategies to build up “social networks across geographical and social boundaries” (Nicholls 2007, p. 614). Such a network consists of nodes and ties. The nodes are the different actors or actor groups and the ties are the relationships between the nodes/ actors. Usually, actors have ties to at least one other actor (Crossley 2016, p. 159). Moreover, the actors are linked by cooperating towards the same goal, by planning activities in cooperation with each other, and by an overlap in their memberships, hence people being a member in several actor groups of the same network (Crossley 2016, p. 164).
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The process of building up a network across scales is called ‘scale shift’. There are two ways to achieve such a scale shift: ‘relational diffusion’ and ‘brokerage’. ‘Relation diffusion’ uses existing relational ties (trust, shared identities) to spread social movements (Nicholls 2007, pp. 614–615). This dependency on existing ties, on the one hand, limits the scale shift and therefore also the impact of the movement, but on the other hand, existing relational ties are considered to be long-lasting and therefore enable a sustainable mobilisation of the movement across scales (Nicholls et al. 2016, p. 10). The other way of scale shift, ‘brokerage’ refers to mobilising previously not linked actors across traditional geographical and social boundaries by using various brokers. These brokers build new relations and therefore enhances the effect and the reach of collective actors (Nicholls 2007, pp. 614–615). Moreover, brokers expand the scope of a movement (Nicholls et al. 2016, p. 10). Compared to the pre-existing linkages used for the relational diffusion, the linkages by brokers are fragile (Nicholls 2007, pp. 614–615).
Scale shift does not only require pre-existing relational ties or brokers to extend the scope of a social movement but also requires a framing of the contested political topic that is in accordance with the circumstances at the geographical scales not being included in the scope of the social movement (Nicholls et al. 2016, p. 10). These circumstances include the “participants’ relations to one another, their capacities to achieve goals, and the way in which they frame their struggles” (Nicholls et al. 2016, p. 10). Thus, the growth, development and decline of a social movement depend on the scalar strategies of the movement (Nicholls et al. 2016, p. 10).
Within the multi-scalar networks of a social movement, different places play different roles for the movement, depending on their material, structural and symbolic power (Nicholls et al. 2016, p. 12). Powerful places, which can be considered to be places with a strong shared sense of place, have a driving force for the movement’s network (Nicholls et al. 2016, p. 12). Thus, a shared sense of place supports a social movement to scale up its network and strengthens the movement.
Multi-Level Perspective The Multi-Level Perspective (MLP), developed by Frank W. Geels and colleagues, is used to explore socio-technological transition processes. Such a transition is characterised by a change in the current system, by substituting an existing technology by a new technology (Geels 2002, p. 1258) e.g. replacing coal-fired power plants with renewable energies such as solar, wind and hydro-power plants. The MLP is often used to analyse this transition and its management towards renewable and low-carbon energy (Paul 2018, p. 2). A socio-technological transition includes not only technological changes but also “changes in elements such as user practices, regulation, industrial networks, infrastructure […], symbolic meaning” (Geels 2002, p. 1257), belief systems and research agenda (Cohen and Ilieva 2015,
10 p. 201). Hence, a transition can be defined “as fundamental change in structure, culture and practices” (Grin et al. 2010, p. 109) and thus covers the alteration of material as well as non-material components (Cohen and Ilieva 2015, p. 201). A transition usually takes one to two generations (25-50 years) with periods of slower and faster changes, consequently, it is a gradual process (Grin et al. 2010, p. 128). To analyse transformations, the MLP focuses on innovations and how they interfere with the existing regime (Vögele et al. 2018, p. 2). In the above-given example, the renewable energies are the innovation and the coal-fired power plants used to be the regime. The analysis is based on three levels: landscape, regime and niche (see Figure 3).
Viewed through the lens of the MLP, the landscape is considered as an external structure, the broader structure of a society (Geels 2002, p. 1260). The landscape-level, the macro-level is given by external factors (Geels 2002, p. 1261) such as “demographic trends, political ideologies, social values, macro-economic patterns” (Vögele et al. 2018, p. 3). Moreover, international agreements, such as the Kyoto Protocol (Grin et al. 2010, p. 131) and the Paris Agreement are part of the landscape-level. Regarding the environment, environmental problems (Geels 2002, p. 1260) are also part of the landscape-level.
The landscape-level is more or less fixed and Figure 3: The Multi-Level Perspective (Author's own “beyond the direct influence of regime and niche depiction). actors” (Grin et al. 2010, p. 23). Hence, the landscape cannot be influenced at short-term (Grin et al. 2010, p. 24). Even though the landscape is often considered as being relatively stable, it can change (Geels 2002, p. 1261). These changes can be distinguished based on their dynamics. First, there are factors that do not change at all or that change only slowly, an example of such a factor is the climate. Second, long-term changes. An example of such a change is the industrialisation in Germany in the 19th Century. Third, external shocks that cause a rapid change. Examples for such shocks are wars and high fluctuations in the oil price, e.g. during an oil crisis (Grin et al. 2010, p. 24).
Amongst scholars, there are different understandings on the extent of influence that niche and regime actors can have on the landscape-level. Whereas amongst others Hölsgens et al. (2018, p. 3) and Grin et al. (2010, p. 24) clearly stated that the landscape cannot be influenced by niche and regime actors,
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Raven et al. (2012, p. 66) stated that influencing the landscape-level on short term is not possible. However, “in the long-term, due to regime-changes that emerge as an outcome of changing actor practices, landscapes will also move” (Raven et al. 2012, p. 66). Thus, there is a possibility for the regime- and niche-actors to influence the landscape. Nevertheless, Raven et al. point out that the landscape-level itself does not provide room for actors and agencies (Raven et al. 2012, p. 67).
Changes at the landscape-level can pave the way for new technologies by pressuring the regime (Geels 2002, p. 1261). Regarding climate change, not only the changes of climate itself but also the discourses on climate change are part of the landscape-level. These discourses shape the perception in society and can put pressure on policy and on the energy sector and therefore on the regime-level (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 191).
The regime-level is also dynamically stable, as the elements within a regime are closely linked and these linkages are constantly (re-)produced through the activities of social groups within the regime (Geels 2002, p. 1259). The regime is formed by actors, such as “users, policy makers, societal groups, suppliers, scientists, capital banks” (Geels 2002, p. 1260) and by technologies, institutions, infrastructure and their usage (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 191). Moreover, the perceptions and norms shared by the regime-actors are also part of the regime-level. Processes on the regime-level further stabilise the regime and lead to a lock-in of the current regime and disadvantages for innovations (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 191). Actors within the regime are considered to be the most powerful, as “they are part of the stable ‘institutionalized’ system and usually they have financial and/or political reasons to keep the system as it is” (Hölsgens et al. 2018, p. 3). Moreover, regime actors can strengthen their power by shaping public discourse (Geels 2014, p. 29). “Although social movement organizations, citizens, labour unions and other groups also try to shape public discourses, the ‘discourse coalition’ […] of policymakers and incumbent firms is particularly powerful in this respect […], because of their positions and media access” (Geels 2014, p. 29).
Regarding the German Energiewende, the regime-actors are, e.g. the companies running the opencast coal mines and the coal-fired power plants as well as the consumers using the electricity produced by these companies. Additionally, the political level which approves opencast coal mining and the resulting consequences, such as forced resettlement and forest clearing, is a regime-actor.
Niches are considered as the micro-level, where radical innovations can emerge within protected areas. Radical innovations need to be protected from the regime as they are often highly complex and expensive (Geels 2002, p. 1261). In the niche, innovations are protected from selection criteria of the markets or institutionalised evaluations such as standards on security, environment or ethical
12 standards (Vögele et al. 2018, p. 3). Furthermore, the niche also offers space for learning processes and space to develop social networks supporting niche innovations (Geels 2002, p. 1261).
Following Hölsgens et al. (2018), there can be two types of niches, niches that aim to replace the existing regime and hence having a competitive relationship to the regime and niches having a symbiotic relationship with the regime as they may function as an add-on to the existing regime (Hölsgens et al. 2018, p. 3). Within the protected environment of the niche, both types of niche- innovation can grow until they have the opportunity to grow as strong as they need to be to replace the regime technology or to align with the existing regime (Hölsgens et al. 2018, p. 3). Especially technologies having the symbiotic nature can achieve their goal without destabilising the regime but this process usually takes longer and is more difficult compared to a situation where a window of opportunity opens (Hölsgens et al. 2018, p. 3).
Within the German Energiewende, renewable energies can be considered to be the niche-innovation. Renewable energies will, on the one hand, replace the current, and currently still stronger, fossil fuel electricity generation, but on the other hand, renewable energies also act as a symbiotic niche, as several actors of the regime promote renewable energies. The Energiewende, as well as low-carbon transitions in general, deviates from historical transitions because they are goal-oriented and policy- driven (Geels et al. 2017, p. 464). Nevertheless, the Energiewende is often analysed through the lens of the MLP.
Windows of Opportunity: Creating a Chance for Transition Transitions are complex processes and consist of interactions between all three levels (Geels et al. 2017, p. 465). The regime-level can be influenced by windows of opportunities, either by changes on the landscape-level or by radical innovations in the niche-level. Such new technologies, radical innovations, can find their way out of the niche-level once a ‘window of opportunity’ opens. Such a window opens through an ongoing process within either the regime-level or the landscape-level. These ongoing processes can be processes that create tensions on the regime-level or shifts in the landscape- level. In both ways, they put pressure on the regime, which loses its stability and due to this instability a ‘window of opportunity’ for niche-technologies opens (Geels 2002, p. 1262).
Whether a change on landscape-level opens such a window of opportunity depends on how the change is perceived and negotiated by actors and whether the change is set on the (political) agenda or not (Grin et al. 2010, pp. 25–26). If landscape changes put pressure on the regime, this creates the opportunity for niche-innovations to break through (Grin et al. 2010, pp. 54–55). Once regime actors
13 will recognise such a transition, which is a threat for regime actors, “the regime actors will mobilize resources from within the regime, and in some cases from within niches to respond to it” (Grin et al. 2010, p. 110). If such a breakthrough transforms or replaces the regime, a transition has occurred (Grin et al. 2010, p. 110). If there is no niche-innovation that is ready to break through, the window of opportunity closes again without a transition (Grin et al. 2010, pp. 54–55).
Dynamics on the landscape-level are more important drivers for the transition than niche-innovations (Grin et al. 2010, p. 27). Changes on landscape-level do not always put pressure on the regime and, therefore, open a window of opportunity, instead, they can also reinforce the regime. A reinforcement of the regime stabilises the regime and cannot lead to a transition (Grin et al. 2010, p. 55).
The Multi-Level Perspective and Concepts of Place and Space The first generation of MLP did not refer to the concepts of places having different meanings for different actor groups as they are used in Human Geographies (Paul 2018, p. 2). Due to these missing references to place and space, the MLP was often criticised and therefore, the second generation of MLP developed. This second generation includes different levels of space frames (Raven et al. 2012, p. 65; Murphy 2015, p. 74). It “explicitly theorises developments in and between regional, national and international contexts” (Raven et al. 2012, p. 65).
Most scholars including geographical concepts into an MLP focused on the concepts given by economic geography, urban geography or political ecology (Murphy 2015, p. 74), as a transition is mainly understood as a change in production and consumption patterns, hence by economical aspects. Murphy (2015) values the combination of MLP and Political Geographies as useful because
“the political dynamics of transition can be understood as a form of relational place-framing and making – a multi-scalar, networked political process through which the proponents of competing visions for the future of a region, community, or country struggle for control over the direction, pace, and scope of its development” (Murphy 2015, p. 74).
As stated by Levin-Keitel et al. (2018) transitions transform spaces but at the same time, transitions are also dependent on space and special conditions (as shown in Figure 4). In their understanding, space is Figure 4: The interrelation between Sustainability Transitions and Spatial Dimensions (Author’s own relational and produced and reproduced through depiction; based on Levin-Keitel et al. 2018, p. 8).
14 human action and structures social processes (Levin-Keitel et al. 2018, p. 7). Thus, space includes not only physical structures but also social and cultural characteristics and changes of these characteristics during a transition process (Levin-Keitel et al. 2018, p. 2).
Murphy (2015) criticised that place is often understood as a ‘spatial container’ instead of including the social aspects of the place. This critique is in line with the above-explained ‘spatial turn’ in geographies, during which the understanding of place changed. Following Murphy (2015), “places serve as critical contexts wherein the practices, norms, conventions, rules, etc. associated with socio-technical regimes are situated” (Murphy 2015, p. 83). This understanding of place implies that within a socio-technical system, actors have a feeling about a place or a sense of place (Murphy 2015, p. 83). If a transition occurs, “places can be ‘re-made’ […] – a process that is often fraught with conflict and which may lead to reconfigured power structures, institutions, and positionalities of regime actors” (Murphy 2015, p. 83). Hence, there can be conflicts about places once a transition occurs.
To conclude, embedding the concepts of place and space in the analysis of socio-technical changes can help to understand the spatial differences of transition dynamics. Spatial differences can include aspects such as the “embeddedness and durability of incumbent regimes/systems, and the multi-scalar constellations of actors, materials, structures, [and] power asymmetries (Murphy 2015, p. 75). All these factors shape the direction of socio-technical changes (Murphy 2015, p. 75).
The Role of Civil Society and Social Movements within a Socio-Technical Transition Viewed through the lens of the MLP, a transition is not only analysed based on factors such as changes in prices, but the approach also considers social, political and environmental dimensions e.g. social acceptance, regulations, infrastructure and industrial framework. Furthermore, different actors and their constellations are included in the approach (Vögele et al. 2018, p. 3). These actors are, according to Geels et al. (2017), not only “firms and consumers but also a wider range of actors such as civil society groups, the media, local residents, city authorities, political parties, advisory bodies, and government ministries” (Geels et al. 2017, p. 463).
Actors from both the regime-level and the niche-level refer to discourses that are based on the landscape-level but adjust the discursive framings according to their understanding (Geels 2011, p. 30). The landscape-level can be changed by changes in societal values or political coalitions. Such changes could increase or decrease the chances of niche technologies (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 191). Another factor that can have an influence on the landscape-level is “[c]limate change and the
15 discourses that mediate its perception in society […], because they pressure the energy sectors and trigger policy changes” (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 191).
Civil associations play a distinct role for changes in user practices and cultural discourses, which are part of a socio-technical transition. Depending on their (political) orientation, they can either conserve and reproduce the incumbent practices and social norms and, therefore, stabilise the current regime (Smith 2012, p. 181), or they can generate pressure on the incumbent regime (Smith 2012, p. 181). Moreover, civil associations can either “form partnerships with businesses who are working towards similar goals” (Smith 2012, p. 184) in order to achieve their goals, or they can avoid such partnerships and corporate funding in order to stay independent and secure the credibility of their messages (Smith 2012, p. 184).
Depending on the aim and the activity of civil actors, they are placed on either the niche-level, the regime-level or the landscape-level (see Figure 5). Actors that are promoting grassroots innovations and radical ideas for a new lifestyle, e.g. transition towns or alternative milieu, are considered to be a niche-actor. Less radical activities, e.g. consumer boycotts, protests, lobbying and community aspirations are regime-level activities. Activists aiming for changes in the broader societal system, such as awareness raising, (environmental) knowledge-producing activities, and social pressure are considered to be activists at the landscape-level.
Figure 5: Mapping of Social Movements within the Multi-Level Perspective (Author's own depiction; mapping of social movements based on Smith 2012, p. 189).
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As analysed by Smith (2012), citizens’ initiatives, as part of the civil society, are important actors within a transition. Being independent of commercial interests, citizens’ initiatives can be regarded as a moral force (Smith 2012, p. 184). Citizens’ initiatives can increase public awareness through documentation. Often citizens’ initiatives
“document the harm to local community livelihoods and environments from existing energy practices, such as open-cast mining, oil, shale, fracturing gas, or palm oil plantations, [citizens’ initiatives] disseminate these issues to wider publics” (Smith 2012, p. 184).
Hence, by increasing public awareness, e.g. with information campaigns or consumer boycotts citizens’ initiatives can offer new paradigms to societies. Such new paradigms are required for transition because often societies are trapped in the current regime (Smith 2012, p. 184). Being trapped or locked-in in the current regime means that the infrastructure, the institutional settings and the practices are set up in such a way that they fit and support the current regime but are not applicable/useable for other kinds of technology (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 191). Such a lock- in is self-perpetuating (Geels 2014, p. 26). To overcome such a lock-in, which also causes a path- dependency, environmentalist protests play an important role:
“Environmentalist protests and lobbying campaigns can be a destabilizing force working against regime path-dependency and lock-in […]. Institutionalizing this societal concern within energy policies and market processes can serve to re-order the evaluative criteria of government policy, investor strategy and consumer behavior, and consequently unsettles regimes relative to niches, where the latter perform better against the revised criteria.” (Smith 2012, p. 188)
Thus, environmental protest can have an impact on the regime and can destabilise the energy regime by raising and institutionalising awareness, as this awareness raising can influence governmental decisions.
Linking the Concepts The three introduced concepts, (1) multi-scalar networks of social movements, (2) sense of place and (3) Multi-Level Perspective on transitions are all interlinked (see Figure 6). For analysing the Hambach Forest Movement, linking concepts focusing on places and transitions is essential to understand the role of the Hambach Forest within the German Energiewende. This is the case because the Hambach Forest became the centre of attention for a coal phase-out in Germany during summer and autumn 2018 due to the contesting understandings of place by different actors.
The sense of place and the movement’s network influence each other, as a social movement shapes the place and the sense of place, whereas the place also shapes a movement. Moreover, a strong
17 shared understanding of a place, thus a shared sense of place, strengthens a movement. Thus, a movement can build a geographically broader network without losing its influence and its attachment to the distinct place of contestation. These Figure 6: Linkages of the Concepts (Author’s own depiction). linkages are used to understand how and why the Hambach Forest Movement could grow across distances and the role that the sense of place of the Hambach Forest played in this development.
The movement’s network and the MLP are linked as a movement can trigger transitions and vice versa. Different actors of the movement can influence different levels of a transition. This linkage is used in the thesis to analyse the influence that the different actors of the Hambach Forest Movement had on the different levels of the changing energy regime in Germany. The Hambach Forest Movement is considered to be a movement that might have accelerated the transition. However, there are also movements which might be triggered by transitions, such as movements which are contesting renewable energy plant in their neighbourhood.
The third link is between the sense of place and transitions. Transitions always occur in a specific place and transitions are influenced by the conditions at this distinct place. Thus, the sense of place of a distinct place can influence the transition, whereas a transition can also influence the sense of place. With this linkage, the role of the Hambach Forest as a distinct place of conflict within the changing energy regime is analysed.
Analytical Framework From these linkages of the three concepts, the analytical framework can be derived (see Figure 7). The analytical framework will be used to analyse the discourses on the Hambach Forest and the Energiewende which are shaped by the social-environmental Hambach Forest Movement. Furthermore, it will be analysed how the Hambach Forest Movement changed the sense of place of
18 the Hambach Forest and how this influenced the final report of the Coal Commission and the Energiewende.
Figure 7: Analytical Framework (Author's own depiction).
The analysis is a three-step process. In each step, another concept will be added. The first step of analysis focuses on the Hambach Forest Movement’s network. Thus, the network and the different actors, as well as their linkages, will be analysed. The Hambach Forest Movement unites a variety of actors who all demand the preservation of the Hambach Forest and an acceleration of the coal phase- out. Even though they are united under these goals, they follow a variety of activities and aims. In this step, the different actors are analysed based on their range of action. Moreover, the linkages between the different actors are analysed.
The second step of analysis focuses on the different perspectives of the sense of place of the Hambach Forest. Thus, the influence of the Hambach Forest Movement on these discourses and the sense of place and how they changed over time will be analysed. Moreover, the impact of the Hambach Forest Movement on these changes will be analysed.
The third step of analysis builds up on the strong shared sense of place of the Hambach Forest and analyses how the movement and the sense of place could influence the Coal Commission and the Energiewende. In this step of the analysis, the Hambach Forest Movement is analysed from the landscape-level, the regime-level and the niche-level in order to point out how the different levels interacted and influenced the different levels of the Energiewende.
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Within this step, it is analysed whether in 2018 a window of opportunity was opened by the Hambach Forest Movement, the sense of place of the Hambach Forest and the Coal Commission, which is considered to be a regime-actor. According to Geels (2002), a window of opportunity opens for example by changes in the discourse on the regime-level, by changes on the landscape-level or by innovations in the niche-level. The regime-level can be changed due to pressure from either the landscape-level or the niche-level. Such changes happen once a window of opportunity opens.
Why the Hambach Forest is a forest around which a movement demanding its preservation could develop is put forward in the following chapter, the methodology chapter, as it introduces the research area, the Hambach Forest and the coal mine, as well as the research that was conducted.
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3. Methodology In this chapter, the research area, the Hambach Forest, will be introduced. As the conflicts regarding the Hambach Forest cannot be understood without knowing the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine and its historical development, the evolvement of the mine as well as consequences that go along with coal mining, the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine will also be introduced. The introduction of the research area will be followed by an explanation of the methods applied during the research. This includes a discussion of my positionality and a reflexion on the research and the methods.
Research Area The research focused on the Hambach Forest (North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany, see Figure 8) and the social movements demanding the preservation of the forest and demanding a fast phase-out of coal-fired power plants for electricity generation in Germany.
Figure 8: The Hambach Forest and the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine (Source of Maps: OpenStreetMap; Additions by author).
The Hambach Forest The Hambach Forest used to be the largest forest in North Rhine-Westphalia, having high biodiversity and more than 4100 ha, of which 3900 ha were cleared (Ehlerding et al. 2018). The forest is characterised by hornbeam, English oak and Lily of the valley, which is a rare combination in Europe and therefore might to be preserved under the Natura 2000 guidance under European Nature Conservation Law (Guhlemann and Schreiber 2018, p. 147). Besides the rare combination of trees, the Hambach Forest is, moreover, home to rare animals that are red-listed and are protected under
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European Law. An example is the Bechstein bat, which is not only red-listed but also classified as strongly endangered (Guhlemann and Schreiber 2018, p. 148). Other animals living in the forest and that should be protected are the common dormouse, the common pipistrelle, the agile frog and different kinds of toads and various kinds of bats (Jansen 2008, p. 2). In addition, the Hambach Forest is an important habitat for the middle-spotted woodpecker, which will be extinct in the area if the clearing of the forest continues (Jansen 2008, p. 2).
Moreover, many trees in the forest are 300 years old and the soil beneath is even 12.000 years old. This means that since the Last Glacial Period, which ended 12.000 years ago, the area has only been covered with forest (#15, Michael Zobel). The Hambach Forest used to be a semi-natural forest “whose development has hardly been disrupted since the reforestation after the ice age” (Jansen 2008, p. 2).
However, even though the forest should be protected, lignite mining was always given priority over nature protection in the Rhineland of which the ‘Rheinische Revier’ is a part of (Jansen 2008, p. 1). The Hambach Opencast Coal Mine is an example of this priority of lignite mining over nature conservation.
The Hambach Opencast Coal Mine In 1975 the plan for the opencast coal mine Hambach and the spatial planning regarding the mine were approved. The time frame for mining was set until 2045 (RWE Power 2012, p. 5). Therefore, the coal belongs to RWE and according to the contracts RWE is allowed to extract the coal (RWE Power 2012, p. 10). In 2016, the State Government of NRW confirmed the decision for coal mining in the Hambach mine until 2045 (Ehlerding et al. 2018).
Figure 9: Hambach Opencast Coal Mine with Hambach Forest (RWE 2018; Addition by author)
The excavation of the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine started in 1978 (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 36). The biggest part of the Hambach Forest was already cleared and transformed into an opencast lignite mine by RWE. The opencast coal mine covered, according to RWE, in 2017 an area of 4.380 ha (RWE
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2018). Having this size, it is not only the biggest opencast coal mine in the Rhineland (Jansen 2008, p. 2) but even the largest opencast coal mine in the world (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 33). Half of the area used to be covered by forest (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 36).
Not only large parts of the forest were cleared to give way to the mine but also several villages had to relocate and two more villages, Manheim and Morschenich (see map, Figure 8), are planned to be relocated (RWE Power Aktiengesellschaft 2013, pp. 11–12). The relocation is, according to RWE, ‘undoubtedly the most serious encroachment on the intensively used and densely populated cultural landscape of the Lower Rhine Bay’6 (RWE Power Aktiengesellschaft 2013, pp. 11–12). Relocating a village means that the village is destroyed and for the inhabitants, RWE builds new villages. This is problematic, as the inhabitants are expropriated – against their will – and are, according to an initiative representing those inhabitants, not be provided with equivalent living space in the new villages (cf. Initiative Alle Dörfer bleiben!7).
Resistance against the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine already started in the 1970s. There are manifold kinds of resistance, such as citizens’ initiatives, mass-protests and the occupation of the Hambach Forest (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 33). Additionally, annual climate camps and mass civil disobedience take place since 2010 (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 33). Other activists organise nature walks or human chains, calling them the red-lines, or fight legal battles against RWE (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 33).
Methods and Research The thesis is based on qualitative research in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the Hambach Forest Movement and its influence on the sense of place of the Hambach Forest and on the coal phase- out in Germany. Moreover, the qualitative interviews enabled me to analyse the linkages between the sense of place of the Hambach Forest and the coal phase-out in Germany. Thus, the impacts that the Hambach Forest Movement had could be analysed.
The main method for the thesis were semi-structured interviews. As this type of interviews is content- focused but also allows flexibility within the interview, it allows the interview partner to openly answer
6 German original: “der unbestritten gravierendste Eingriff dieses Industriezweigs in die intensiv genutzte und dicht besiedelte Kulturlandschaft der Niederrheinischen Bucht.“ 7 As part of the field trip I went to an evening event called ‘All Villages stay and the forest, too’ (Alle Dörfer bleiben und der Wald auch) in Aachen (3.04.2019). During this event members of the initiative Alle Dörfer bleiben (All Villages Stay) explained the situation of their villages and the, according to them, inappropriate circumstances for the resettlement, especially as it is most likely that resettlements are not necessary anymore, if the final report by the Coal Commission is implemented. 23 the questions, whereby the interviewer only directs the interview in the direction that is relevant for the research but still leaves the interviewee enough flexibility to explain the situation/the events in his/her own words (Dunn 2010, p. 110). Hence, the interviewees can focus on the aspects that they think are important (Longhurst 2010, p. 103).
The interviews were conducted in the Hambach Forest, at the ‘Mahnwache’, at the ‘Hambi-Camp’8 and at the ‘Wiese’ (see map, Figure 11). Moreover, interviews were conducted in Cologne, Düsseldorf, Aachen, Buir, Bonn and as phone interviews. The interviews were conducted in German, except for two which were conducted in English.
To understand the motivations for the protests and how the protests changed the discourse, I conducted interviews with persons living in the tree houses in the Hambach Forest, with persons being active close to the Hambach Forest and with people being active in various kinds of networks or organisations in regard to the forest. In and around the forest, some of the interviews were group interviews. This is indicated in the overview of all interviews (An overview of all interviewees is given in Annex 1). Whenever a group interview is quoted, additionally to the interview number, the interviewee is indicated with a P (Person) and an additional number, e.g. #27, P2 would mean ‘Interview 27, Person 2’. Individual interviews are quoted only with the interview number, e.g. #28.
In total, I conducted 25 interviews. 16 interviewees or groups of interviewees were directly involved in the Hambach Forest Movement as they stay either in the forest, in the Hambi-Camp, at the Mahnwache or on the Wiese. These interviews were conducted in a face-to-face setting. In Buir, an urban district close to the forest, I conducted interviews with Andreas Büttgen and Antje Grothus, both are members of the local citizens’ initiative ‘Buirer für Buir’ (meaning ‘citizens of Buir for Buir’). Antje Grothus was moreover a member of the Coal Commission. Two interviews were conducted in Düsseldorf, one with Dirk Jansen, the Managing Director Environmental and Nature Conservation Policy, Press and Public Relations for the BUND NRW (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Nordrhein- Westfalen; Engl. German Federation for Environment and Nature Conservation North Rhine- Westphalia), and one with Reiner Priggen, the chairperson of the Landesverband Erneuerbare Energien NRW e.V. (State Association for Renewable Energies), and also member of the Coal Commission. Moreover, two people being part of two different Hambi-Support Groups were interviewed. One person during a face-to-face meeting in Cologne, the other interview was a telephone interview. In Aachen I interviewed Michael Zobel, a nature guide and forestry educator, who organises walks through the Hambach Forest and the neighbouring villages. I conducted two more phone interviews,
8 Hambi, short form for Hambach Forest, is the nickname used by activists. 24 one interview with Guido Steffen, a spokesman of RWE, and a final interview was conducted with Kai Niebert, President of the DNR (Deutscher Naturschutzring), Professor for Science and Sustainability Education at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and a member of the Coal Commission.
The face-to-face interviews were conducted between the 30th of March and the 9th of April. The phone interviews were conducted between the 16th of April and the 2nd of May 2019. All interviews were recorded. As a means of security, several people living in the forest or being active in regard to the forest explicitly asked me to never hand over their voice record to a third person as they feared to be recognised by their voice and therefore might fear police consequences for their activism in the forest.
The interviews were conducted based on a topic list which was adapted to the interviewees (Annex 2). As the first step of the analysis, the interviews were to almost full extent transcribed and afterwards coded using the software MAXQDA. The codes are based on the topic lists (an overview of codes is given in (Annex 3). Additional codes were used if a specific aspect or topic that was not part of the topic list was mentioned by several interviewees. If an additional code was introduced, all interviews were checked on this code once again. Hence, the coding process included several steps.
Additionally, to verify statements by the interview partners and to gain a broader understanding, the interviews are embedded in literature including newspaper articles as well as policy papers (such as the final report by the Coal Commission) and scientific literature focusing on the German energy transition and on social movements in general. The literature study is not an extensive, stand-alone method, but was used as an additional source to triangulate and better understand the interviews. Moreover, some literature was used in the thesis to visualise statement.
Positionality and Reflexivity During conducting the interviews, I tried to be neutral and bringing in a critical scientific perspective, but at the same time, I had to build trust with my interviewees, especially with the interviewees living in the forest, as their activism is on the verge of legality9 and they always fear reprisals from the police and security officers of RWE. How tense and insecure the situation for the activists in the forest is, was made clear by an interviewee, who said ‘the domestic intelligence service will read your work with interest’10 (#09). Other interviewees said “but yeah, you have good energy, so I trust you. […] I don’t
9 The legal situation of the tree houses is highly complex and is related to the question whether the tree houses are structural facilities according to the building regulations and hence need emergency staircases and rails or not (Spiegel Online 2018a). 10 German original: „Der Verfassungsschutz wird interessiert deine Arbeit lesen“ 25 mind answering questions. Some people here are very strange about this” (#03), or ‘I don’t know you, but I trust you’ll just do this as a study and not for the NSA’11 (#24). These statements make clear that they are sceptical about interviews but answered my questions because they trusted me.
In order to build trust, the interviews were more open and less structured than they were planned before the field trip because this opened the chance for the interviewees to emphasise the topic that they felt comfortable to talk about. Moreover, whenever I was asked about my opinion about the movement or the German environmental or energy policy, I answered the questions giving my personal opinion, because I think this also increased the level of trust.
To ensure the interviewees’ full anonymity none of the records will be handed over to a third person and from the persons in or next to the forest, neither the name nor the gender/sex is mentioned. The time span they are already in the forest or their age is only included in the overview of the interviewees (Annex 1) if the interviewees explicitly mentioned it during the interview and allowed me to write it down. All the interviewees that are mentioned with their name were explicitly asked whether they agree to be named. Moreover, they had the chance to go through the transcription of the interview and to adapt the transcript. However, this was only done by a few interviewees.
Regarding my positionality and the impact of my research, it is to be mentioned that according to Koopman (2015) doing research on a social movement can be seen as a contribution to the researched movement because on the one hand interviewees might reflect on the movement and its strategies due to the interview and on the other hand a research might help the movement to be more accountable for their action and trigger discussion about it within the movement (Koopman 2015, p. 346). The idea that my research and my thesis contribute to the movement or that I am even part of the movement was also mentioned by some interviewees. Michael Zobel e.g. referred to the action that different people are doing in regard to the Hambach Forest Movement:
‘Everyone has a power, you do this work now, I think it's totally important, I do these guided tours, other people live in a tree house, Antje goes to the commission, gives presentations, and the next one makes a film and the next one draws pictures, and the teacher can do something in school and the pupil goes out on the street and the parents perhaps support that’12 (#15, Michael Zobel).
11 German original: „Ich kenne dicht nicht, aber ich vertraue mal darauf, dass du das einfach als Studie machst und nicht für die NSA“ 12 German original: “Jeder hat eine Macht, du machst jetzt diese Arbeit, finde ich total wichtig, ich mache diese Führungen, andere Leute wohnen in einem Baumhaus, Antje geht in die Kommission, macht Vorträge, und der nächste macht einen Film und der nächste malt Bilder, und der Lehrer kann in der Schule was machen und der Schüler geht auf die Straße und die Eltern unterstützen das vielleicht“ 26
4. The Network of the Hambach Forest Movement In this chapter, the Hambach Forest Movement is described, including how the occupation started and how the occupation is characterised. Therefore, the Hambach Forest Movement with its activists and active groups is mapped based on the conducted interviews. While some of the actor groups are structured as associations, others are loose groups without hierarchical structures.
The different actors being all active in order to protect the Hambach Forest and to achieve an early coal phase-out in Germany can be considered as a social movement, as they are a collective of individuals and organisations working towards a common objective (the preservation of the forest and the coal phase-out). The common objective is opposing the current political situation, at least the political situation as it was during summer 2018. However, as neither the preservation of the Hambach Forest is set in stone nor is the coal phase-out date early enough for the activists, they still oppose the current political situation.
Occupation of the Hambach Forest In this subchapter, a historical overview of the Hambach Forest occupation, as well as some information on the current situation, is given. Afterwards, the occupation is characterised as a project on how people can live together. Finally, the places of activism next to the forest are introduced.
History of the Occupation and Current Situation The occupation of the Hambach Forest started seven years ago, in April 2012 (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 33), with just a few people building a handful of tree houses in the Hambach Forest to avoid the forest’s clearing by RWE. According to one activist, in the beginning, there might have been around five to ten people in the forest, but from time to time, there were only two activists in the forest (#05, P1). The activists in the forest come from various social backgrounds and various countries throughout the world (#20). I talked to two non-Germans13 in the forest, but according to some of my interviewees, there have already been people from many different countries. During the years of occupation, the character of the occupation changed, as always people left the forest and other (new) people joined
13 This statement is based on the language skills of my interviewees. I conducted all but two interviews in German and the interviewees were all fluent in German and did not have an accent indicating that they are non-Germans. Two interviews were conducted in English of which one interviewee was from the US, the other interviewee did not want to tell me where s/he is from, but instead answered on this question “from the wild” (#08). 27 the occupation. Even though, there are also still people in the forest from the start of the occupation (#11, Andreas Büttgen).
Shortly after my field trip, there were, following the police, around 40 tree houses in the Hambach Forest (Dumke 2019)14. One interviewee said that there might have been between 50 to 80 people living in the forest during my research time (#05, P1). The interviewee explained this comparably low number with the winter season, during which usually fewer people stay in the forest and added that more people would join once a clearing season or an eviction would be announced. During the last eviction, there were approximately 150 to 200 people staying in the forest (#05, P1).
At the beginning of the occupation, the tree houses were quite close to each other and formed a kind of camp. This structure changed over time. Currently, the tree houses are spread throughout the forest and form approximately 8 to 10 tree house districts, which the activists call ‘barrios’ (#05, P1).
Since the start of the occupation, the forest was evicted several times, allowing RWE to clear parts of the forest (Dalkowski 2018; Graßl et al. 2014; see Figure 10). The first eviction of the occupation was in November 2012. This eviction was followed by the re-occupation of the Wiese later in the same year and the forest’s re-occupation in September 2013 (Graßl et al. 2014; Dalkowski 2018) and by ‘occupying’ the Wiese, a meadow which is the private ground of a citizen of Buir (#14, Antje Grothus). This re-occupation was followed by another eviction in March 2014 and the re-occupation of the forest only four weeks later (Graßl et al. 2014; Dalkowski 2018). In October 2014 the forest was evicted another time (Diehl 2014; Dalkowski 2018) and re-occupied shortly afterwards (Dalkowski 2018).
Figure 10: Timeline: Resistance for the Hambach Forest (Author's own depiction).
14 I did not count the tree houses. As the houses are widely spread over the forest and are not that easy to find as long as one does not know the place very well, I think I might not have seen all the houses. 28
The most significant event in the long-term occupation was the eviction in autumn 2018. According to Parth (2019), an activist even said that there is a new era. Now, there is the time before and after the clearing, as so much in the forest has changed due to this eviction of the forest. During the eviction, a lot of tree houses and structures, as well as the community, were destroyed (Parth 2019). However, at the same time, the ‘major eviction’ triggered many people to come into the forest and therefore, the occupation achieved its historical maximum of people staying in the forest (#05, P1).
During the major eviction, the Higher Administrative Court made a decision that totally changed the situation in the forest: ‘Based on a decision of the Higher Administrative Court dated 5 October 2018, the use of managed areas of the Hambach Forest is currently not permitted within the scope of the current main operating plan’15 (WSB Kommission 2019, p. 42). This decision meant that RWE was not allowed to continue its planned work to clear the forest. Moreover, this made an eviction of the forest unnecessary. On the following day, 6 October 2018, there was the major demonstration to which around 50.000 protestors came. According to Buschmann and Oels (2019), this was the first time that so many people joined the anti-coal movement in Germany (Buschmann and Oels 2019, p. 10).
Characterisation of the Occupation: A Project on How People Can Live Together For many people staying in the forest, the occupation of the forest is not only an occupation to protect the forest but rather a ‘project’ on how people can live together, how an anti-capitalist community can work and it is, moreover, a testing ground for how a society with as little hierarchy as possible can live together. Hence, for many activists, the occupation and the way of life they experience, and they experiment with, is an anarchistic way of life.
Most of the activists in the forest that I talked to, stressed that they prefer to be seen as individuals and not be generalised as ‘the occupation’ or ‘the activists’. One reason for this is that many activists in the forest try to reduce hierarchy wherever possible. Once one of the activists would be considered to be a spokesperson for the occupation, this position would create a hierarchy between the spokesperson and the non-spokespersons. Another way to avoid creating hierarchies is that several interviewees did not want to answer the question of how long they already stay in the forest. For many activists, such a question implies that people staying in the forest for a longer time period would be a more experienced person and being more capable of explaining the situation.
15 German original: „Aufgrund eines Beschlusses des Oberverwaltungsgerichts vom 05. Oktober 2018 ist im Geltungsbereich des aktuellen Hauptbetriebsplans die Inanspruchnahme von bewaldeten Flächen des Hambacher Forsts derzeit nicht zulässig“ 29
The tree houses and living in the tree houses are on the verge of legality and the activists always fear reprisals from the police and security officers of RWE. Due to this, people in the forest usually do not use their real name in the forest, but have special nicknames, calling these names ‘forest names’. Additionally, many activists cover parts of their faces in order not to be recognised by police officers.
Places of Activism next to the Forest The activism opposing the clearing of the Hambach Forest and opposing the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine does not only take place directly in the forest but also at places next to the forest and has moreover a far-reaching network, covering a whole range of different actor groups.
While the tree houses are on the verge of legality, there are three legal places of activism next to the forest: The Wiese (Meadow), the Mahnwache (picket/vigil) and the Hambi-Camp. These three places and their function within the Hambach Forest Movement are described here. For their location next to the coal mine and the forest see Figure 11.
Figure 11: Map of the Hambach Forest and the places of activism (Source of map: OpenStreetMap; Additions by author)
The ‘Wiese‘ (‘meadow’) is a place close to the forest on a field. The Wiese offers some sleeping-places, as there are some caravans. There is the ‘roundhouse’ which is a place for meetings, a kitchen and a free shop filled with donations. As the meadow is a private place, it is a safe place not only for the regular meetings of the activists but also for supporters donating food and other supplies (#03).
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The ‘Mahnwache’ (‘picket/vigil’) is a legally registered permanent demonstration located on a field next to the road passing by the forest. It is situated in a central junction. As it is legally registered and protected by law, the police cannot just walk in without an important reason. The interviewee stressed this point because in the forest it regularly happens that the police walks in and searches the activists’ infrastructure. The aim of the Mahnwache is to be a centre point of information, both for people from within the forest and for people coming to the forest for the first time or who have already been in the forest quite often. Furthermore, the aim of the Mahnwache is to send out reminders of what is happening in the forest. As it is protected by law, people can also easily come to make a donation and people from the forest can come and collect these donations (#06, P2).
The Hambi-Camp is placed in the closest village, Morschenich, in an old lady’s backyard. The backyard is legally sublet by a group of activists. The Hambi-Camp is a place of information, but also offers a place for people to sleep and a kitchen. From time to time, workshops take place.
Multi-Scalar Networks in the Hambach Forest Movement The Hambach Forest Movement is a movement with support from a variety of people with a variety of interests and ways to express their protest. In addition to the activists in the forest and the direct surrounding, there are many organisations and groups of people linked to the activists and therefore also part of the Hambach Forest Movement. Some of these organisations are already active in the area for more than ten years and hence are even older than the occupation. Others newly joined the movement. In particular, these organisations which have only recently joined the movement were often criticised by activists in the forest.
One interviewee described the Hambach Forest Movement the following way: ‘We are an alliance of very, very many groups and many active individuals. And this has taken on a great dynamic, especially in the last year’16 (#14, Antje Grothus). Some of the groups were mentioned by a number of interviewees. Based on the empirical data their role within the movement can be further assessed. Other groups were only mentioned by one or two interviewees. As the data is not sufficient to make statements about them and neither have I conducted interviews with these actors, these actors are not further described here.
16 German original: “Wir sind ein Bündnis aus sehr, sehr vielen Gruppen und vielen aktiven Einzelpersonen. Und das hat vor allem im letzten Jahr noch mal eine ganz große Dynamik aufgenommen“ 31
All actors that were mentioned by interviewees are part of Figure 12. Due to the above-mentioned reason, only the actors in a darker blue background will be described in the following sub-chapters. It is to be mentioned, that Figure 12 is not to be understood as a complete list of all stakeholders, there might be more activist groups that were not mentioned by the interviewees. Additionally, as also identified by Diani (2013), it is difficult to clearly define the boundaries of social movements. Thus, there are no characteristics that an actor has to fulfil to be part of a movement (Diani 2013, p. 1). The categorisation of the actors in Figure 12 is based on the actors’ primary scale of action and was determined by the author.
Figure 12: The Network of the Hambach Forest Movement on Local, National and Global Scale (Author's own depiction). Actors with a dark blue background are discussed in this thesis.
Actors that are not described in more detail are for example AusgeCO2hlt17, a group having a nation- wide anti-coal campaign and existing for more than seven years now (#05, P1), or political parties (the German Green Party and the Left Party) that also supported the movement at some point of time based on their political interest (#11, Andreas Büttgen). Two interviewees (#11, Andreas Büttgen; #23, Guido Steffen) mentioned the local churches that supported the movement at some point.
The actors that were mentioned and described by more interviewees will be analysed in the following sub-chapters, based on their geographical range of action. Hence, whether it is a local actor, an actor on the national level or an international actor.
17 Refused to do an interview with me. 32
Hambi-Support Groups and Individual Supporters There are several groups directly linked to the occupation of the forest, the ‘Hambi-Support Groups’. Hambi is the short form of Hambach Forest, which is used by activists and people supporting the activists. The Hambi-Support Groups are loosely linked groups of people supporting the activists in the forest with different kinds of support, such as public actions or collecting donations, food and non- food items such as sleeping bags, clothes etc. or supporting activists being accused during court trials. Such Hambi-Support Groups exist in several cities close to the forest (such as Cologne and Aachen) but also other cities throughout Germany (e.g. Freiburg, Hamburg, Würzburg and Frankfurt).
Besides these more or less organised support groups, there are also many individual supporters assisting the activists with all kinds of different support such as buying/bringing food and other supplies, especially climbing robes and climbing harness, offering possibilities to wash clothes or taking a shower. A dentist offers free rides to his/her dental practice including free dental examinations (#20). There are also lawyers and other doctors that support the activists by giving them advice (#03).
The supporters are not only helpful for the activists as they support them with different supplies, but moreover, support them on an emotional level (#10, P2). Another person of the same interview group added to this point that without all these supporters the occupation would not be possible. They were very important especially after the major eviction in 2018 when many activists were struggling with their experiences and hence struggled with their daily life in the forest (#10, P1).
The supporters come from several financial backgrounds, some of them appear to be quite wealthy. One interviewee explained that once she/he saw a delivery of a donation with a lot of climbing material for around 2.500 euro. For her/him it appeared to be a large and expensive donation, but he/she was told that it was a comparatively small donation of climbing material (#20). The same interviewee gave other examples were supporters spent quite a lot of money for donations (#20).
Buirer für Buir The citizens’ initiative ‘Buirer für Buir’ (literally translated ‘citizens of Buir for Buir’), located in Buir (see map, Figure 11), an urban district of Kerpen which is close to the Hambach Forest, was originally founded 12 years ago to combat the relocation of the motorway due to the opencast mining. The initiative opposed the relocation because the new motorway is closer to the town and therefore makes the town noisier. Even though combating the relocation was their primary goal, the preservation of the Hambach Forest was straight from the beginning one of the goals by the initiative (#11, Andreas Büttgen). Thus, the initiative is still active, although the motorway was relocated in the meantime.
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Buirer für Buir started as a citizens’ initiative but changed its status into a registered association and with this status, it is the only active group in the Hambach region (#11, Andreas Büttgen). According to Andreas Büttgen, this status helped the association because they were often considered to be a trustworthy dialogue partner for the media and political representatives. Hence, Buirer für Buir has made a name for itself in and beyond the region and has been contacted again whenever questions concerning the Hambach Forest or opencast mining raised. Several members of the initiative have strong ties to activists in the forest. These ties were mentioned by both, members of Buirer für Buir (#11, Andreas Büttgen; #14, Antje Grothus) as well as by activists in the forest (#05, P1; #08).
The importance that the citizens’ initiative has not only for the region but also in regard to other coal regions in Germany can be seen by the appointment of Antje Grothus, a member of Buirer für Buir to the Coal Commission in summer 2018. Her appointment to the Coal Commission also indicated that the initiative is considered to be a reliable actor in the anti-coal movement.
Forest Walks Michael Zobel, a nature guide and forestry educator, organises forest walks through the Hambach Forest and the neighbouring villages for already five years. He started these tours on his own, and now has two people supporting him. The tours are not part of an organisation but are rather organised by himself. However, he receives support from other actors in the movement.
He started the walks merely as a nature tour, thus during the tour, he mainly focused on the nature of the forest and politics only played a minor role. However, over the years the forest walks turned out to be more and more political. Especially clearing activities in the forest increased the awareness on the situation in the forest and therefore increased the attention for the forest walks. Thus, more and more people came. Simultaneously the restrictions by the police increased. However, rather than scaring people, the restriction caused the opposite. They increased the interests for the forest walks once again (#15, Michael Zobel).
Hence, the forest tours started as nature tours, but this changed over time and nowadays, five years and 60 forest walks later, it is the other way around: it is more a demonstration and less about nature.
‘Yes, and a lot has changed there, and the character of these tours has also changed. It's actually in such a state now that I didn't really want it to be, now it's 90 per cent a demo and 10 per cent nature. And I actually want to go back to this old state. However, I have the
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impression without these big actions it doesn't work at all and they don't stop now, they can't stop now.’18 (#15, Michael Zobel)
As these forest walks take place monthly, during the eviction in summer and autumn 2018 even weekly, and as people can easily join the walks, it is a low threshold way for people to get to know the movement. At the end of the walks, participants meet with activists living in the forests. According to Michael Zobel, already around 55.000 people joined these forest walks during the last five years.
Dirk Jansen agreed that the forest walks are a low threshold offer and that this has led to so many people taking part and making them so successful. Another reason why these tours are successful is that they are really focused on the forest and apparently, something like this was needed (#13, Dirk Jansen). Furthermore, he admitted that it would have been the role of the environmental organisations to mobilise so many people for this forest. Although, at the same time he added that the environmental organisations are always sceptical about so many people walking through a forest ‘because one can also love such a forest to death’19 (#13, Dirk Jansen).
BUND NRW The BUND NRW (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland Nordrhein-Westfalen), the Friends of the Earth Germany section in North Rhine-Westphalia already fights for decades against different opencast coal mines in North Rhine-Westphalia by going to court due to several reasons such as expropriations due to mining and the protection of the forest and endangered species (#13, Dirk Jansen).
Dirk Jansen, Managing Director Environmental and Nature Conservation Policy of BUND NRW, stressed during the interview, that the BUND with its 600.000 members and supporters represents the broad civil society including ‘grandmas, grandpas, kids’. The BUND is recognised as a charitable nature conservation association and uses exclusively constitutional means and does not call for civil disobedience as other groups related to the Hambach Forest do. Moreover, the BUND cannot justify any form of violence, neither against things nor against people. Therefore, they strongly differentiate themselves from groups supporting such ideas. Additionally, Dirk Jansen also pointed out that the
18 German original: „Ja, und da hat sich ganz viel verändert und da hat sich auch der Charakter dieser Führungen geändert. Es ist jetzt eigentlich in so einem Zustand, den ich eigentlich gar nicht wollte, jetzt ist es so zu 90 Prozent eine Demo und 10 Prozent Natur. Und ich möchte eigentlich wieder zu diesem alten Zustand. Aber ich habe den Eindruck ohne diese großen Aktionen geht das gar nicht und die hören ja jetzt auch nicht auf, die können jetzt nicht aufhören.“ 19 German original: “weil man kann so einen Wald auch zu Tode lieben“ 35
BUND does not provide logistical support to groups or persons following such ideas. According to Dirk Jansen, BUND was accused of such support by the Minister of the Interior of NRW (#13, Dirk Jansen).
While Dirk Jansen strongly denied such linkages, he stressed that there are linkages to different citizens’ initiatives. Especially regarding the Buirer für Buir, he pointed out that they are contentwise highly qualified and even managed to create ‘symbolic figures’ that are heard in public. Summarising the linkage between BUND and Buirer für Buir, he described the relationship as a ‘mutual fertilisation’ (#13, Dirk Jansen).
Ende Gelände Ende Gelände is an action group that was mentioned by several interviewees20 (e.g. #05, P1; #06, P2; #08; #10, P1; #11, Andreas Büttgen; #19). Ende Gelände is a blockade alliance, aiming for climate justice (#19). It has several subgroups, being either part of Ende Gelände or supporting Ende Gelände, spread all over Germany. Ende Gelände e.g. tried to block to coal-fired power plants with their bodies so that the power plants have to shut down (#19). Ende Gelände had its first action in 2015 (Ende Gelände 2017).
Other interviewees also stressed the strong linkages between Ende Gelände and the Hambach Forest Movement that were build-up for years (#06, P2) and that actions by Ende Gelände triggered media attention, which was ‘wonderful’ for the movement (#10, P1):
“Ende Gelände, which are not a campaign, but they are a good tactic of civil disobedience also really helped bringing that media attention. And although Ende Gelände hasn’t always been based in Hambacher Forest, it always had had huge links with Hambacher Forest. So that also helped with the media spread” (#08).
Networks to other Occupied Forests in Germany and International Support The network within the occupation scene connects other occupied forests within Germany but also beyond the national boundaries. Other forests in Germany that are occupied or used to be occupied are for example the ‘Eppenburg Forest’21 or the ‘Trebur Forest’22 (#01, P3).
20 The press spokesperson of Ende Gelände was approached for an interview, but the person never responded to my email, so there was no interview conducted with a person being part of Ende Gelände. 21 The protest in the forest in the Eifel is not against coal mining, but it is against clearing the forest to build a huge industrial area to generate jobs, which is not needed according to an interviewee, as there are no problems with unemployment in that region (#07). 22 The Trebur Forest was occupied to protect the forest from the expansion of the Frankfurt Airport. 36
‘And there is also networking with other occupations. [When] in Trebur the forest was occupied before it was cleared, there were also always some connections between the two occupations then, collaborations and so on. Just like now with the Eppenburg Forest in the Eifel, there are always some of us who drive over and occupy there for a while, before they come back to support here. And if there are less [people], then there will be a few there again. So, there are also real connections to the other occupied forests.’23 (#01, P3)
One point of collaboration is for example that activists from the Hambach Forest travel to e.g. the Eppenburg Forest and support the activists there with building up tree houses (#04). The interviewee explained that the different occupations support each other because they have the protection of the environment as their common goal. The interviewee described it as a strong network (#04).
This network of forest occupiers also crosses national boundaries. One interviewee explained that there were also activists from the Hambach Forest who went to Białowieża in Poland: “So, between there and here, we also have people going back and forth between the Hambi Forest and what's going on in Poland in Białowieża” (#03). The network between the Białowieża Forest in Poland and the Hambach Forest in Germany was described by the interviewee as being based on communication and people travelling between the two forests (#03).
Another interviewee listed a variety of different countries, regions and continents from which people are in the Hambach Forest or already have been in the forest, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Scandinavia, Russia, Australia, Southern America, Bolivia, Chile, Canada, Alaska, the United States of America and Japan (#20).
Moreover, there were also solidarity actions in other countries (#04). Figure 13 is an example of such a solidarity action in the Czech Republic during which supporters gathered in front of the main train station in Prague holding a banner saying ‘Hambi bleibt’ (‘Hambi Stays’) (Stastna 2018).
The different examples given by the interviewees make clear that even though most of the actors are located in the close area, there is a network crossing national boundaries. Figure 13: Support for the Hambach Forest in the Czech Republic: A group of Supporters Outside the Train Station in Prague (Stastna 2018)
23 German original: „Und es gibt auch eine Vernetzung mit anderen Besetzungen. [Als] in Trebur der Wald besetzt wurde, bevor der geräumt wurde, gab es auch immer irgendwelche Verbindungen zwischen den beiden Besetzungen dann, Zusammenarbeiten und so. Genauso wie jetzt mit dem Eppenburger Wald in der Eifel, da gibt es immer welche von uns die rüberfahren und für eine Weile da mitbesetzen, bevor sie wieder hierhin kommen zum Unterstützen. Und wenn es da weniger [Menschen] werden, dann sind wieder ein paar dort. Also es gibt auch richtige Vernetzungen zu den anderen besetzten Wäldern.“ 37
Environmental Organisations in Germany and Abroad The Hambach Forest Movement acted almost without the support of major NGOs until the major eviction in 2018 (#09), except the BUND, which has been taking legal action against the opencast coal mine for a very long time. The first time that major environmental NGOs supported the Hambach Forest Movement was the eviction time in 2018 and the time heading towards the major demonstration in October 2018.
This support is valued differently by different actors within the movement. Antje Grothus for example, a member of Buirer für Buir explained that without the NGOs’ support it would not have been possible to handle such a major demonstration. Therefore, Buirer für Buir appreciated the support by e.g. Greenpeace (#14, Antje Grothus). Activists in the forest, however, were highly critical towards support by these NGOs. One interviewee, for example, explained that such NGOs got interested in the forest and the movement only for economic reasons (#09). As stated by this interviewee, the ‘products’ of these environmental NGOs are peoples’ ‘clear conscience’, which they can achieve by donating or becoming a member of an NGOs. Hence, the interviewee assumed that the support of the Hambach Forest Movement of these NGOs was based on the hope to generate further donations and memberships (#09). Another interviewee argued that NGOs being part of the capitalist system might not be an appropriate actor for cooperation in the forest (#22, P1).
Michael Zobel also mentioned that not everyone has a positive attitude towards the support of NGOs for the movement. On the one hand, it can be considered as a success if many actors join a movement, but on the other hand, such big players might also be perceived as taking over the movement. Following Michael Zobel, this aspect of ‘taking over the movement’ is highly debated between the activists in the forest (#15, Michael Zobel), especially during the major demonstration in October 2018. Another interviewee criticised NGOs for using the Hambach Forest in public for their own work in a ‘disrespectful way’ and not taking into account the values that the activists in the forest want to show and the values they live in the forest (#22, P1), e.g. by selling sausages on this demonstration while most activists in the forest are vegans or vegetarians (#09; #15, Michael Zobel; #22, P1).
The demonstration was rather a party than a normal demonstration, as the day before the demonstration, the court declared that RWE is not allowed to clear the forest until a final decision by the court can be made. Another aspect of why the demonstration was more a party than a demonstration is the fact that the demonstration was initially not allowed (Wernicke and Tanriverdi 2018). When the demonstration was finally allowed and took place, the main topic, the clearing of the forest, was less a threat anymore due to the court decision.
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Another point of criticism, mentioned by interviewees (#02, P3; #15, Michael Zobel; #22, P1), is that Greenpeace had a big stage and lifting platforms on the major demonstration. The demonstration took place immediately after the eviction time during which activists were taken down from the forests and out of the tree houses with exactly the same kind of lifting platforms. For activists being traumatised by the eviction, the installation of such a lifting platform during the demonstration was completely incomprehensible (#15, Michael Zobel).
One interviewee summarises the behaviour and the taking over by the NGOs during the big demonstration: ‘But it wasn’t in the hands of the people who live here anymore, they were just a figurehead’24 (#09).
Fridays for Future Fridays for Future is a global movement that follows the example of Greta Thunberg, a Swedish 16- year old girl who started protesting instead of going to school each Friday in summer 2018. The aim of the movement that developed based on her example is to achieve more progressive steps to combat climate change on the political level. In Germany, Fridays for Future organises itself on city level via social media (Reinhardt 2018, p. 1; Fridays for Future n.d.).
Even though the demands of Fridays for Future are broader political demands and not directly linked to the Hambach Forest, 15 of my interviewees referred to Fridays for Future at some point of the interview. There are some links between the Hambach Movement, not only as Fridays for Future in general demands a rapid coal phase-out in Germany but also on the local level as some of the local Fridays for Future groups came for a demonstration to the Hambach Forest (#19). Moreover, Fridays for Future received support by other organisations of the Hambach Forest Movement. Andreas Büttgen, for example, explained that Buirer für Buir supported the local group of Fridays for Future with the registration of the demonstration and with flags for the demonstration (#11, Andreas Büttgen).
Another interviewee mentioned that there were several ‘Hambi bleibt!’ (Engl. ‘Hambi stays!’) flags all over Germany on Fridays for Future protests (#17). As such a young movement, the Fridays fur Future was seen by several interviewees as a powerful movement, that also supports similar ideas as the
24 German original: „Aber da lag es schon gar nicht mehr in der Hand der Menschen, die hier wohnen, die waren nur noch Aushängeschild“ 39
Hambach Movement and ensures its continuance. An interviewee said ‘I think without the Fridays for Future movement, we'd be pretty screwed’25 (#21, P1).
According to two interviewees (#06, P1, #17), a remarkable moment for the Hambach Forest Movement was when Greta Thunberg, the Swedish girl that started the Fridays for Future Movement dedicated her ‘Golden Camera’ award26 to the people in the Hambach Forest (ZDF 2019).
Conclusion: The Hambach Forest Movement’s Network The Hambach Forest Movement grew over several years and at the beginning without any recognition or support by environmental NGOs (except the BUND). Antje Grothus stressed this point, as apparently in a newspaper’s article it was stated that NGOs and environmental associations worked for several years towards making the Hambach Forest a symbol, instead of acknowledging that the Hambach Forest became a symbol due to the work and the engagement by local citizens. According to her, the whole movement has ‘grown together organically’27 (#14, Antje Grothus).
The movement’s network unites a variety of small and larger, structured and less structured organisations based within the region and beyond. As different as these actor groups are, as different are the linkages between them. One interviewee, an activist in the forest, explained that the linkages are different, but are often based on individuals being active in several groups:
‘connections [are] on an individual level, [as] there are people here who are also active in other groups. […] And there are just people here who are active in some of the groups or go to networking meetings of them or something. There is a bit of contact between them.’28 (#05, P1)
The connection to the citizens’ initiatives was described as quite intense and on a personal level. There is regularly contact as for example activists staying in the forest from time to time visit members of the initiatives at home, take a shower, wash their clothes and have a chat with them. Hence, the linkages to the citizens’ initiatives are mainly informal linkages (#05, P1). Another interviewee also stressed the
25 German original: „Ich glaube ohne die Fridays for Future-Bewegung wären wir ziemlich im Eimer“ 26 German original „Die Goldene Kamera“. It is a German television and movie award. Greta Thunberg won this award in the newly created special category climate protection. 27 German original: „organisch zusammengewachsen“ 28 German original: „Unterschiedlich, also... Verbindungen auf individueller Ebene, es gibt hier auch durchaus Leute, die auch in anderen Gruppen aktiv sind. […] Und es gibt halt Leute hier, die sind in manchen von den Gruppen aktiv oder fahren mal zu Vernetzungstreffen von denen oder so. Es gibt so ein bisschen Kontakt untereinander.“ 40 close links to the citizens’ initiative Buirer für Buir: “they are also locals from the village next door, really. They are very, very linked” (#08).
The interviewee furthermore stressed that the network consists of many more people than just the activists in the forest: “But it is also all of this network of people that do not need a name of a group, but they are still huge, not just supporters, but activists within the campaign, even if they are not living in a tree” (#08).
The analysis of the Hambach Forest Movement’ network reveals that the movement has over time built up multi-scalar networks which cross geographical and social boundaries. These networks are mainly based on an individual level. The linkages between the occupation, the Hambi-Support Groups, Buirer für Buir, other occupied forests and the Forest Walks are all based on individual levels, which makes them long-lasting and intense. The linkages of these actors with the environmental NGOs are less intense and not on an individual level.
Even though not all of the actors are based in the Hambach Forest or its close surrounding, all actors have close ties to the Hambach Forest and follow the same framing of the political situation. This, as well as the symbolic power of the Hambach Forest, which is the focus of the following chapter, strengthens the network of the Hambach Forest Movement across social and geographical boundaries.
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5. The Sense of Place of the Hambach Forest The Hambach Forest Movement not only gained attention in Germany but also in international media. In order to understand the importance of the Hambach Forest for the German Energiewende, in this chapter, the concept of ‘sense of place’ is applied to the Hambach Forest.
The main argument of this chapter is that at the latest since the major eviction in autumn 2018, the Hambach Forest is more than a forest. As mentioned previously, RWE is contractually allowed to mine coal in the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine until 2045 (RWE Power 2012, p. 5; Ehlerding et al. 2018). With the first occupation of the forest in 2012 and especially during the major eviction in 2018, the sense of the forest in the general German public, from the government’s perspective and also within the movement changed. Since the major eviction, the Hambach Forest is often seen as a symbol. During the eviction, in several German newspapers the Hambach Forest was described as a political symbol (Bonnen 2018), as a symbol for the fight against coal (Ehlerding et al. 2018) or as a symbol for the climate crisis (Sawicki 2018).
As abovementioned, the sense of place differs for different actors, as the sense of place is related to the question of how a distinct place is valued by different actors or actor groups. Regarding the Hambach Forest, there are several actors and aspects that influence the sense of place (1) the collective imagination of forests in Germany, (2) the activists’ perspective, (3) the outsiders’ international perspective, (4) the outsiders’ national perspective, and (5) RWE’s perspective. All these aspects and perspectives influence the sense of place attributed to the Hambach Forest by different people within Germany and beyond.
Even though also the external description of the movement and the ‘outsiders’ perspective’ are analysed in the chapter, the chapter is mainly based on the activists’ perspective as the activists of the Hambach Forest Movement were the central actors of the research and therefore the main focus group for the interviews.
The Hambach Forest and Collective Imagination The collective layer, the overarching layer of the sense of place, is characterised by cultural and cognitive frames. Within these frames, emotions play a role. Especially for the Hambach Forest Movement emotions played and play a central role. Two interviewees mentioned the general emotional attachment that Germans have with forests (#15, Michael Zobel; #25, Kai Niebert). Michael Zobel explained that this attachment that is historically grown can be seen in arts, poems, songs and
42 paintings (#15, Michael Zobel; cf. Classen (2014)29; Breuer (2018)). Moreover, in Germany, forests can even be regarded as a source of national identity (cf. Wilson 2012; Breuer 2018). For one interviewee the roots of the old trees of the Hambach Forest represent the source of culture. Therefore, clearing the forest would imply an uprooting of the culture (#02, P1). According to Breuer (2018), forests in Germany represent ‘the epitome of pure nature’ and are perceived as places of peace and tranquillity and thus stand in contrast to the hectic pace of the modern cities (Breuer 2018).
The emotional bond to forests might be the basis for statements by interviewees stressing that the Hambach Forest might be the place of conflict because the clash between the opencast coal mine and nature is so obvious at this particular place:
‘The German as such has an intensive, emotional, cultural connection to the forest, so I believe that there could not have been a better culturally charged symbol than a piece of forest. So, if there is a piece of forest standing against these huge coal excavators, then that is, indeed, a very powerful symbol’30 (#25, Kai Niebert).
Being such a ‘powerful symbol’ helped the Hambach Forest Movement to strategically mobilise new people to join the movement. An example of using this powerful picture for mobilisation is the picture of the coal excavator digging away the soil beneath the forest and the villages (see Figure 14). This picture is distributed as a sticker at events and is available Figure 14: Poster and Sticker ‘Stop Brown Coal’. Under one of the trees online for printing in poster size. it is written ‘’Hambach Forest stays’. (Source: http://5.35.240.175/fotos/l/Fenster_A3_Fin_1Internet.jpg). To sum up, the Hambach Forest as a distinct place of protest and as a symbol for a much broader protest gained such an outstanding role inter alia because of the cultural imagination and the cultural importance that forests have in Germany. Here, the fact helped that the forest is such a special forest with old trees and high and rare biodiversity. The cultural imagination of forests could be used and is used for strategic mobilisation by the movement.
29 Classen (2014) analysed the importance of forest in German literature which started in medieval times. 30 German original: „Der Deutsche an sich hat ja eine intensive, emotionale, kulturelle Bindung zum Wald, von daher hätte es, glaube ich, kulturell kein besser aufgeladenes Symbol geben können wie ein Stück Wald. Also wenn da dann ein Stück Wald gegen diese riesigen Kohlebagger steht, dann ist das schon ein sehr wirkmächtiges Symbol“. 43
Activists’ Perspective: The Hambach Forest as a Symbol The Hambach Forest was often mentioned to be a symbol, not only by the interviewees but also in several newspapers and media. However, there are various points of view on the aspect what the Hambach Forest symbolises. Such a symbolic description of the Hambach Forest can be seen as different ways to perceive and value the forest and hence as different understandings of the sense of place of the Hambach Forest.
Comparing and analysing the different aspects that the interviewees had for valuing the forest, there can be distinguished six categories of what the Hambach Forest symbolises: (1) Nature Conservation; (2) Climate Protection and Climate Policy; (3) Coal Mining and Energy Policy; (4) Politics; (5) Civil Society Engagement; (6) Alternative Way of Life (see Figure 15).
Most interviewees mentioned aspects that are part of more than one of these categories. Thus, the aim of the categorisation was not to categorise the interviewees but to categorise the different ways of explaining why the Hambach Forest became a symbol and, therefore, why the Hambach Forest could develop such a strong sense of place, not only within the movement but also for the broader civil society. Moreover, the different categories are related to each other. The aspect of symbolising an alternative way of life was e.g. only mentioned by interviewees that also mentioned other aspects that the Hambach Forest symbolises, such as civil society engagement and the contestation of the current political situation, climate policy as well as energy policy. Furthermore, this contestation was also a driving force for civil society engagement. The nature conservation explanation is also linked to the critique of the politics, as it was a political decision to not declare the Hambach Forest as a nature conservation area.
Interviewees who argued that the Hambach Forest is a symbol for nature conservation (e.g. #04; #17; #19), referred to the extremely old trees (#02, P1) and the high biodiversity (#04) in the forest. For them, the Hambach Forest represents a place where the “ongoing worldwide struggle against […] eco- terrorism” (#03) can be seen, thus, the destruction of nature that should be preserved instead.
44
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45
In addition to the forest, that should be protected and preserved, the forest is also a symbol for climate protection (#13, Dirk Jansen; #17; #25, Kai Niebert) and climate policy (#12, Reiner Priggen; #13, Dirk Jansen). Activists who argued that the Hambach Forest is a symbol for climate policy highlighted e.g. that the forest is a symbol because the debate regarding the forest made clear that the current climate policy as implemented by companies and the Federal Government cannot be continued (#12, Reiner Priggen) because politics does not have answers on current questions on climate protection (#13, Dirk Jansen). Some activists saw the Hambach Forest even as a symbol on a global scale, as a symbol for the growing global climate change movement (#14, Antje Grothus #20; #21, P1). Moreover, a change on political level regarding the future of the Hambach Forest was also seen as an indicator for a transition. If the forest will be cleared, this could be understood as a ‘yes’ to climate change, but if the forest will stay this would indicate a shift in dealing with climate change (#24).
The third way of arguing that the Hambach Forest is a symbol focuses on the future of coal mining and energy policy. Interviewees argued that the forest is a symbol because the conflict between the forest and the huge coal excavators is so obvious at this place (#25, Kai Niebert) or because of the conflict between the forest against the backward electricity generation by using coal (#05, P1). Following other interviewees, the Hambach Forest is a symbol for the fight against coal (#06, P1; #09; #14, Antje Grothus; #17) and a symbol for the anti-coal movement (#08). Moreover, the forest is also a symbol for the ‘misleading’ (#13, Dirk Jansen), ‘senseless’ (#12, Reiner Priggen) energy policy in Germany. At the same time, the forest can also be a symbol for a change within this senseless energy policy (#12, Reiner Priggen).
For the fourth group, the Hambach Forest symbolises the need for changes in politics in general. The Hambach Forest was for example seen as a symbol for miss-leading politics and for old, but still powerful structures (#15, Michael Zobel). Moreover, the conflicts in the forest made clear, that politics cannot be the way as it is at the moment (#19). The forest symbolises the needed change in politics. The conflict in the Hambach Forest is also regarded as an eye-opening moment for many people (#15, Michael Zobel).
The Hambach Forest as the central point of the Hambach Forest Movement, symbolises, according to the fifth group, civil society engagement. Interviewees e.g. pointed out that the forest is a symbol for what civil society can achieve (#14, Antje Grothus) or that due to the forest and the movement people started to think carefully about their surroundings and their environment (#02, P1). Moreover, the forest was also seen as a symbol for peaceful (#19) and persevering resistance (#03; #09; #19) and a symbol for the courage of the people being active (#04). Thus, it is a symbol for the fact that the commitment for certain things is worthwhile, that something can be achieved (#17).
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The last group of interviewees considered the Hambach Forest as a symbol for their aim for an alternative way of life. For these interviewees, the Hambach Forest represents a fight against food waste (#17), a fight against capitalism (#04; #06, P1; #08; #19), a fight against fascism (#06; P1), against the repression by state (#04). Moreover, the Hambach Forest is a symbol for a different way of living together (#04; #17), e.g. a basic democratic way (#06, P1) and for social justice (#19). Thus, the Hambach Forest symbolises a system change movement (#08; #09).
To sum up, as the six categories of insiders’ perspectives indicate, there are, according to the activists, several aspects that the Hambach Forest symbolises. This variety of aspects demonstrates that the sense of place of the Hambach Forest even within the movement slightly varies, which could also have enhanced the support as different activists evaluate different aspects more important than others. However, the activists are unified by their main goal to Figure 16: Poster with photos of tree houses and the preserve the Hambach Forest. slogan 'Hambi stays! The freedom we now know no one can take away from us.' (Poster available at the According to one interviewee, the symbolic meaning is Mahnwache). already that strong that the forest will even stay a symbol if the forest will be cleared completely (#20):
‘The Hambach Forest has simply become a symbol and even if it is still cleared, if it really falls completely, which I assume it won't stay, then ... the symbol stays. And as long as excavators are dredging here, there will always be a form of protest here, even if people may no longer live here, but e.g. Ende Gelände, that won't stop here’31 (#20).
International Perspective Regarding the international perspective, Germany wanted to be perceived as a green country, a forerunner in green electricity generation and climate change mitigation. This image was mentioned by two interviewees (#08; #25, Kai Niebert) and according to them, this picture might have changed
31 German original: „Der Hambacher Forst in einfach ein Symbol geworden und selbst wenn der noch gerodet wird, wenn er wirklich komplett fällt, wovon ich mal ausgehe, ich glaub nicht, dass er stehen bleibt, dann ... das Symbol bleibt. Und solange hier Bagger baggern, wird hier immer eine Form des Protestes sein, auch wenn die Leute vielleicht nicht mehr hier leben, aber z.B. Ende Gelände, das wird hier nicht aufhören“ 47 during last year’s eviction because the eviction gained a lot of international media attention and hence not only within Germany but also across the borders, people could see that seemingly green Germany still wanted to clear a forest for opencast mining (#08; #25, Kai Niebert).
Kai Niebert explained that he has received inquiries from the international press that did not understand what was going on in Germany:
‘So over the summer I had several inquiries from the New York Times, from the LA Times, really international press, […] who looked at Germany, who looked at former climate world champions […] and asked themselves, how can it be that in times of climate protection and coal exit you still want to cut down forest there to mine a coal seam underneath. This is internationally not comprehensible’32 (#25, Kai Niebert)
An example of such a newspaper article that expressed this puzzling on the international level is the article “Why ‘Green’ Germany Remains Addicted to Coal”, published in The New York Times by Eddy (2018) (see Figure 17). In this article it was stressed that Germany promoted its Energiewende internationally and that this even helped the German chancellor Angela Merkel to be called ‘the climate chancellor’. Moreover, the articles pointed out that, nevertheless, Germany was still “the world’s leader in the mining and burning of lignite” (Eddy 2018). Hence, on an international level, the action by the German Figure 17: The New York Times: Why 'Green' government was not understandable. Germany Remains Addicted to Coal (by Melissa Eddy, Oct. 10, 2018) At the same time, the debate on the forest could have initiated a critical debate on coal mining:
“Hambacher Forest, or the campaign around Hambacher Forest, might bring a change in how people feel about coal mines. […] Certainly, Hambacher Forest makes people think about coal mines, but also really helps with pinpointing maybe Germany isn't a that green country, that we believe it is” (#08)
Another interviewee also explained that representatives of various foreign newspapers were already in the forest to get a picture of the situation and to report about the forest back in their countries.
32 German original: „Also über den Sommer hinweg hatte ich diverse Anfragen von der New York Times, von der LA Times, also internationale Presse wirklich, […] die da auf Deutschland geguckt haben, auf ehemaligen Klimaweltmeister […] angeschaut haben und sich gefragt haben, wie kann es sein, dass man in Zeiten von Klimaschutz und Kohleausstieg da noch Wald abholzen will um darunter einen Kohleflöz abzubauen. Das ist erstmal international nicht nachvollziehbar“ 48
Such representatives came from newspapers such as Boston News or New York Times or from different countries, such as Russia, Chile, Canada (#20).
One interviewee from the United States of America mentioned that ‘a major celebrity’ hosting the talk show ‘democracy now’ also came to the forest to interview people and made an episode on the forest. “So, yeah, there is a lot of major figures like this, that come here. And it is kind of cool. I think, especially to get attention from over here to there” (#03).
To sum up, international attention supported the Hambach Forest Movement and thus also influenced the sense of place. The outsiders’ international perspective mainly focused on the aspect that Germany usually presented itself as a ‘climate world champion’ but at the same time planned to clear an ancient forest for coal mining. For many years, the German government internationally promoted its renewable energy policies and took a leading role at the European Union promoting renewable energy policies (Cox and Dekanozishvili 2015, p. 167) to achieve “spillover effects from the Energiewende to other countries” (Steinbacher 2019, p. 128). Thus, the clearing of the Hambach Forest to expand on opencast coal mine conflicted with the international picture of Germany as a leader in promoting renewable energy policies.
National Perspective: External Perception of the Hambach Forest Movement This sub-chapter focuses on the external characterisation and perception, of the Hambach Forest Movement as a whole and of the activists being part of the Hambach Forest Movement, especially the activists staying in the forest. Thus, how the Hambach Forest Movement was presented and described by the news and by actors not being part of the movement. Whereas the previous subchapter focused on the international perspective, this subchapter focuses on the outsiders’ perspective in Germany.
For a long time, there was no public awareness of the forest and its clearing on a national level (#05, P1). At the beginning of the resistance, the resistance was described as a left-wing protest. Activists in the forest were called ‘eco-terrorists’33 (‘Öko-Terroristen’; #15, Michael Zobel) and attempts were made to play down the role of the activists and their demands. However, this changed recently, as the activists were supported by a broad civil society (#15, Michael Zobel). The public perception of the forest changed within the last years of conflict. Several interviewees mentioned that in autumn 2018
33 The usage of the term ‘eco-terrorists’ refers back to an interview given by the head of RWE to ‘BILD’, a populist German newspaper (Parth 2017). 49 the broad public was, finally, aware of the situation in the Hambach Forest (e.g. #01, P3, #05, #06, P1, #17).
The sense of place of the Hambach Forest is also shaped by the tree houses that were built and rebuilt after every eviction since 2012. As there was no major eviction for several years before 2018, the tree houses were complex buildings, some of them having three floors and being connected with traverses. Hence, people outside the forest were also fascinated by these constructions (#11, Andreas Büttgen).
The major eviction in 2018 and the planned clearing of the forest had two immediate impacts. The eviction was accompanied by the destruction of these fascinating tree houses and the clearing of the forest would have meant that the seven-year resistance was, in the end, ineffective (#22, P1). These aspects can be seen as a factor for people joining and/or supporting the Hambach Forest Movement during the major eviction.
This fascination for the tree houses was for example expressed by the head of a police task force team who was in the Hambach Forest during the eviction. In an interview with a newspaper, he compared the tree houses in the Hambach Forest and their set-up with a fairy-tale world:
‘[It] had become a city in the trees. With larger and smaller settlements as well as bridge- like connections. It looked like a little fairy tale world. Or a film set at the Lord of the Rings. Very fascinating, especially for the younger colleagues’34 (Cwiertnia 2018).
Another situation, that increased the public support of the activists in the forest was the official reason for the eviction. Officially the forest was evicted due to fire protection reasons. However, according to interviewees, this explanation was not the actual reason why the activists should leave the forest and why the tree houses had to be destroyed. The official framing made clear, that only something should be framed as dangerous (#11, Andreas Büttgen):
‘[...] and then they [the State Government] had found out as a possible reason the danger of fire protection. That was of course so absurd, the last one in Germany really noticed that it wasn't at all about something being dangerous, but that something should be described as dangerous so that one could create some reason to legitimise this eviction’35 (#11, Andreas Büttgen)
34 German original: „[Es] war daraus eine Stadt in den Bäumen geworden. Mit größeren und kleineren Siedlungen sowie brückenartigen Verbindungen. Das sah aus wie eine kleine Märchenwelt. Oder eine Filmkulisse bei Der Herr der Ringe. Sehr faszinierend, gerade für die jüngeren Kollegen“ 35 German original: „[...] und dann hatten sie [die Landesregierung] als möglichen Grund dann ja die Gefährdung Brandschutz herausgefunden. Das war natürlich so absurd, das hat dann auch wirklich der letzte in Deutschland gemerkt, dass es überhaupt nicht darum geht, dass da irgendetwas gefährlich ist, sondern dass etwas als gefährlich bezeichnet werden soll, damit man irgendeinen Grund kreiert, um diese Räumung dann legitimieren zu können“ 50
The official justification for the eviction seemes even more puzzling if one believes the activists who said that shortly before the eviction the fire extinguishers were taken away from them (#06, P1).
Another aspect of the collective layer defining the sense of place in public is that people did not only realise that something was going wrong in the Hambach Forest (#15, Michael Zobel), but people could actually do something there. Michael Zobel gave examples for this: he started the Forest Walks, students write their thesis about the forest36, pupils and students demonstrate on the streets (Fridays for Future demonstrations), and parents might support them. So, there are many ways one can be active regarding the Hambach Forest (#15, Michael Zobel).
To sum up, in the national perspective, there took place a shift from describing activists as ‘eco- terrorists’ to wide civil support being fascinated by the activists fighting for the Hambach Forest and to the wide civil support for a coal phase-out. Both made the Hambach Forest to a distinct place of protest.
RWE’s Perspective Before the work of the Coal Commission and still during the time of the Coal Commission, RWE argued that the clearing of the forest is ‘inevitable’ to secure the electricity production in the coal-fired power plants. To stress this point, RWE wrote a letter to the Coal Commission (Ehlerding et al. 2018). According to the company, the coal of the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine contributes 15% to the electricity demand of NRW (Ehlerding et al. 2018). Thus, during the major eviction, RWE argued that clearing the forest and the coal beneath the forest is needed and that it is not possible to keep the Hambach Forest (Spiegel Online 2018b). According to Guido Steffen (#23), the energy supplier changed its argumentation with the results of the final report by the Coal Commission. RWE declared that the company will examine whether the forest can be kept and, moreover, the company agreed that the propositions made by the Coal Commission should be implemented. Guido Steffen, the press spokesman of RWE, explained this shift:
‘[...] because we now have a new situation due to the proposals of the Coal Commission, the situation looks like this... the Hambach Forest is to be preserved, according to the Commission, and that is, of course, a wish that we cannot simply sweep away now, we cannot sweep it off the table, the Coal Commission is also, even if it is not, so to speak, elected, it is ... After all, it had a mandate and, in a certain function, it also represents the entire breadth of society. We are in favour of these proposals by the Coal Commission being
36 Other interviewees (#04; #05, P1; #11, Andreas Büttgen; #13, Dirk Jansen) also told me that they received many interview requests by students writing a thesis about the forest. 51
implemented now by and large, as they have been pronounced there, and that is why we are now also dealing with the preservation of the Hambach Forest. We are looking into this and are not saying 'this cannot be done'. It was a little different last autumn, when we said relatively clearly that the Hambach Forest could not be preserved, but that was then only in relation to the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine and not to the entire district planning, which is now being changed by the proposals of the Coal Commission that change everything... there has been created a new situation’37 (#23, Guido Steffen).
Hence, the energy company does not deny anymore that preservation of the Hambach Forest is possible. Moreover, the company will negotiate with the Federal Government until when which of their power plants should be switched off and how much coal will still be needed and which mine the coal will come from (#23, Guido Steffen). According to RWE, in order to preserve the Hambach Forest the Hambach Opencast Coal Mine will stand still in a few years, if no more coal will be extracted (#23, Guido Steffen). Leaving the Hambach Forest would mean that the coal extraction in the whole region, the ‘Rheinische Revier’, has to be planned completely new (#23, Guido Steffen).
However, it is questionable if the energy company will preserve the Hambach Forest, as the coal excavators are still getting closer and closer to the Hambach Forest. Whereas during the field trip in April 2019, the distance between the nearest excavator and the forest was 170 meters (#20), this distance has shrunk to 50 meters at the beginning of July 2019 (Müllender 2019).
Conclusion: Sense of Place of the Hambach Forest To conclude, the Hambach Forest Movement was able to shape the sense of place of the forest, for both outsiders and insiders of the movement, in such a way, that the movement continuously grew, even over distance (e.g. Hambi-Support Groups, international activists joining the forest occupation and international media attention) due to strategic mobilisation. These are all characteristics that Koopman (2015) highlighted as being important for social movements to grow and maintain (Koopman 2015, pp. 339–340). Even though the Hambach Forest Movement acted detached from the forest to
37 German original: „[…] weil wir ja jetzt durch die Vorschläge der Kohlekommission eine neue Lage haben, die Lage sieht so aus, dass diesem... der Hambacher Forst erhalten werden soll, wenn es nach der Kommission geht und das ist natürlich ein Wunsch, den wir jetzt nicht so einfach, den können wir nicht vom Tisch fegen, die Kohlekommission ist auch, auch wenn sie nicht sozusagen gewählt ist, ist sie doch... hat sie doch ein Mandat gehabt und bildet in einer gewissen Funktion auch die ganze Breite der Gesellschaft ab. Wir sind dafür, dass diese Vorschläge der Kohlekommission im Großen und Ganzen jetzt umgesetzt werden sollten, so wie sie da ausgesprochen worden sind und deswegen befassen wir uns jetzt auch mit dem Erhalt des Hambacher Forstes. Wir prüfen das und sagen nicht 'das geht nicht.' Das war im letzten Herbst noch ein bisschen anders, da haben wir relativ deutlich gesagt, dass der Hambacher Forst nicht erhalten werden kann, das war dann aber bezogen allein auf den Tagebau Hambach und nicht auf die gesamte Revierplanung, die ja jetzt durch die Vorschläge der Kohlekommission, die alles ändern, verändert also... da ist eine neue Situation geschaffen worden.“ 52 some extent, the close links to the forest, especially by the activists in the forest, strengthened the movement. This relation is described by Nicholls (2009) as “[p]laces are sites where […] spatial imaginaries form to give people a sense of meaning in their particular worlds” (Nicholls 2009, p. 79). Thus, “place-based solidarities motivate people to join and stick to social movements even when risks to life, liberty and property mount” (Nicholls 2009, p. 79). Hence, having the forest as the ‘common reference point’ (cf. Nicholls 2007, p. 616) has strengthened the Hambach Forest Movement. As the movement’s reference point, the forest represents the wider goals of the Hambach Forest Movement and unified the movement against the ‘outsiders’, the energy company and the government.
That there is such a strong shared sense of place that developed due to the Hambach Forest Movement and the strategies that the State Government of NRW and RWE used in order to evict the forest could also be seen in the results of a representative opinion survey conducted in September 2018. According to this survey, 75% of the population in Germany agreed on the statement that the government should stop clearing the Hambach Forest (Zeit Online 2018). According to another representative opinion survey, conducted in June 2019 on behalf of Greenpeace, even 83% agreed that the Federal Government should preserve the Hambach Forest (Greenpeace 15.06.2019; taz 2019).
Moreover, the open-ended statement by the Coal Commission, which in the end is likely to preserve the forest, made clear that the forest was during the working time of the commission more than only a forest (the role of the Coal Commission is discussed in more detail in the following chapter) and due to the commission’s report, even RWE agreed that the forest should be preserved as the preservation is seen as the broad civil consensus. However, whether RWE will really preserve the forest is yet to be seen.
The findings demonstrate that the movement shaped the sense of place of the forest and that the forest shaped the movement. More people are engaged in the broader anti-coal movement due to the Hambach Forest as a key site of conflict. This relation that was introduced in the conceptual framework is a focus of the Geographies of Social Movements: the linkage between movements shaping spatialities and spatialities shaping movements (Koopman 2015, p. 339).
The Hambach Forest played and still plays a central role in the debate on the coal phase-out in Germany due to the achievements of the Hambach Forest Movement to place their topics and their demands in media and to stress their sense of place of the Hambach Forest. In the following chapter, it will be analysed how the Hambach Forest Movement influenced the different levels of the German Energiewende.
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6. The Hambach Forest Movement within the Changing Energy Regime in Germany The role of the Hambach Forest Movement viewed through the lens of the MLP of the German Energiewende will be worked out in this chapter. It is analysed how the Hambach Forest Movement influenced the energy regime in Germany and how the Hambach Forest Movement interacted with the landscape-level and with the niche-level. As elaborated in the previous chapters, the Hambach Forest Movement is a broad movement with a variety of different actors who are aiming for slightly different aims and with more or less radical ways of action, however, their goal of preserving the Hambach Forest unites them.
As described in the conceptual framework, civil society activities can be part of the niche-level, the regime-level and the landscape-level. Hence, the activities by the Hambach Forest Movement can be analysed from the niche-, the regime- and the landscape-perspective. Moreover, the Hambach Forest Movement can and did, as it will be shown in this chapter, influence all three levels. However, the influences between movements and regime and landscape are not one-dimensional and linear and, therefore, the aim of the chapter is rather to give several options and findings that can be concluded from the findings than a straightforward analysis of the interlinkages.
The chapter is based on interviews which were mainly conducted with activists; thus, the chapter is mainly based on the activists’ perspective. The part of the chapter focusing on the Coal Commission is mainly based on interviewees who were either member of the Coal Commission (Antje Grothus, Reiner Priggen and Kai Niebert) or have close connections to them (Andreas Büttgen and Dirk Jansen).
The structure of the chapter is as follows: the first two parts focus on the Hambach Forest Movement and the regime-level. The first part considers the Coal Commission and the second one the government (both, the Federal Government and the State Government of NRW). Part three focuses on climate change as a change on the landscape-level and its role for the Hambach Forest Movement. Part four analyses the occupation of the Hambach Forest as a niche-action that influences the landscape-level. In part five, the role of renewable energies in the Hambach Forest Movement is analysed. Finally, part six concludes the chapter.
The Hambach Forest Movement and the Regime-Level: The Coal Commission Viewed through the lens of the MLP, the Coal Commission can be regarded as a regime-actor. The regime-level of the Energiewende can be characterised by energy suppliers, consumers, scientists, policymakers and societal groups. As most of these actors have representatives as members of the Coal Commission, the commission can be seen as a regime-actor.
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According to several interviewees, the appointment of the Coal Commission itself can be seen as an impact of social-environmental movements, especially the anti-coal movement as a broader movement (#05, P1), and in particular the Hambach Forest Movement (#05, P1; #24). Even though the major eviction in 2018 and the latest plan to clear the forest did take place after the Federal Government announced that there will be a Coal Commission, as it will be shown in this chapter, the work of the Coal Commission was significantly affected by the Hambach Forest Movement.
The Hambach Forest Movement’s Influence on the Coal Commission The Coal Commission was composed of a variety of different stakeholders, such as representatives from workers’ unions, business representatives, scientists, representatives from environmental NGOs and representatives of civil society organisations (WSB Kommission 2019, pp. 6–7). Regarding the background of the members of the Coal Commission, it is clear that the members working towards an early phase-out of coal (the environmental associations and the representatives from civil society initiatives) were the minority, while the majority of the commission was made up of representatives of lobby groups (#25, Kai Niebert). The commission’s final report must, therefore, always be evaluated in light of this composition of the commission (an overview of the commission’s members and their background is given in Annex 4).
At the beginning of the commission’s work, the environmental representatives together with Antje Grothus, member of Buirer für Buir, tried to set the Hambach Forest on the agenda. For this actor group, it was unacceptable that eviction and clearing of the Hambach Forest were imminent and could possibly be carried out at the same time as the commission worked. Especially as the commission discussed the future of coal, a deadline year for phasing out coal, the German climate protection goals and the pathways to achieve these goals (#12, Reiner Priggen; #13, Dirk Jansen).
Once it was on the agenda, the majority of the members of the commission decided that the Hambach Forest was not part of the mandate of the commission (#11, Andreas Büttgen; #14, Antje Grothus). Hence, the forest was officially not part of the commission and for many members, the forest, indeed, did not play a role (#25, Kai Niebert). Even though behind closed doors, it seemed to be clear for all members of the Coal Commission that politically it is not possible to clear the forest anymore, however, not all members could openly agree on this (#25, Kai Niebert). Since the forest did not fall in the mandate of the Coal Commission, the sentence in the final report stating that the preservation of the forest is ‘desirable’ can be seen as a success of the environmental associations in the commission and therefore as a success of the Hambach Forest Movement.
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There are several reasons why the forest was discussed in the commission even though it was officially not part of the commission’s mandate. The environmental associations (BUND, Greenpeace and DNR38) unofficially agreed on leaving the commission if the forest would be cleared, but they never officially declared this. Without them, the whole Coal Commission would no longer have had any legitimacy and, therefore, the commission had to discuss the forest (#13, Dirk Jansen).
As it became clear to the members of the commission that the forest cannot be cleared anymore, it was more a strategic matter of negotiations to leave the sentence about the Hambach Forest open until the very end of the negotiations (#25, Kai Niebert). Being a strategic matter of negotiations means that it was clear to some members that the environmental organisations would make at least some concessions to other aspects of the negotiations in order to preserve the forest.
The interviewees had a divided opinion on the outcome of the Coal Commission. Whereas the stakeholders being part of the commission or closely linked to members of the commission evaluated the outcome positively, most activists in the forest were more critical about the outcome. Especially the finale date for phasing out coal, 2038, is not acceptable for many activists (e.g. #03; #5, P1; #07; #18, #19). The environmental organisations, BUND, Greenpeace and DNR, and Antje Grothus agreed that the end date is too late, as they added a dissenting opinion to the final report. In this dissenting opinion they state that they agreed on the compromise even though the final phase-out date is too late, due to three positive aspects; (1) the report can break the climate-political deadlock of recent years in Germany, (2) the compromise includes short term shut down of coal-fired power plants already in 2019 and the upcoming years, and (3) the preservation of the Hambach Forest was negotiated (WSB Kommission 2019, p. 119).
The question why the Hambach Forest Movement had such an impact on the outcome of the Coal Commission can be answered mainly with the mobilisation that was done by the movement with different kinds of actions also during the time of the Coal Commission (#05, P1), with the fact that the eviction was during the time of the commission (#05, P1), the major demonstration for preserving the forest (#14, Antje Grothus), and with the courage of people resisting the eviction (#04).
38 DNR – Deutscher Naturschutzring: Umbrella organisation of the German nature, animal and environmental protection organisations; representing 90 member organisations and 11 Million people (Deutscher Naturschutzring n.d.). 56
Criticism on the Coal Commission by the Hambach Forest Movement Even though the Movement appeared to have had an impact on the Coal Commission and its final report, the interviewees were highly critical towards the Coal Commission. Activists criticised the final report and decision by the Coal Commission as well as the existence and the composition of the commission.
Besides the final phase-out date, several activists criticised the phrase that it is ‘desirable’ to preserve the Hambach forest, as it seemed to be a vague phrase not entirely securing the preservation of the forest. An interviewee, for example, said that the phrase is meaningless (#05, P1). Other interviewees defended the phrase as a success of the engagement of civil society and NGOs (#14, Antje Grothus) or said that the phrase especially indicated the effect that for example, Antje Grothus had on the Coal Commission (#17). Even though the wording ‘desirable’ seems to be vague, it is a clear statement in a final report by such a commission, since the report was also signed by leading industry umbrella organisations. Therefore, the phrase is a central political statement (#12, Reiner Priggen). Some activists understood the importance of the statement and said that with this statement it will be politically more difficult to enforce a clearing of the Hambach Forest (e.g. #05, P1).
Other points of criticism were, for example, the existence of the commission. The existence was criticised as it would have been the job of the Federal Government to make the decisions that were handed over to the commission. Hence, interviewees questioned whether it was a legitimate way to hand over the decision to such a commission (#05, P1; #13, Dirk Jansen). Moreover, the composition of the commission was also criticised as not democratic, because the commission did not reflect the voting shares in Germany, but indeed did cover a cross-section of civil society (#25, Kai Niebert). The composition was also criticised because there was, for example, no person from the Global South in the commission, even though they are the ones who suffer most from climate change (#05, P1), and because there was no person from the forest part of the commission (#18; #22, P1). However, the interviewee speculated that no activist from the forest would have been interested to be part of the commission as this would have included a collaboration with the other members of the commission. Due to this, the interviewee thought that a member of a citizens’ initiative was part of the commission instead (#18). According to the interviewee, the only thing that changed with the commission is ‘that it has been tried to sell the so-called coal compromise better to society. Since more people were and
57 are interested in phasing out coal, they had to make more effort to sell this so-called compromise well’39 (#18).
The Hambach Forest Movement and the Regime-Level: Influence on the Government The policies of the Federal and State Governments and their actions were sharply criticised by many activists. The critique mainly focused on the Minister of the Interior of NRW as the Ministry of the Interior instructed the police to evict the forest and on the Prime Minister of NRW.
At the same time, however, the Minister of the Interior of NRW is also said to have strengthened the movement with his ‘disproportionate’ (#13, Dirk Jansen) eviction actions, as this increased the rejection of his action and increased and broadened the support of the movement through all social groups (#13, Dirk Jansen). Other interviewees also mentioned that the Minister of the Interior strengthened the movement with his ‘unnecessary’ police operation (#14, Antje Grothus) and moreover he strengthened the movement by repetitively talking about it (#19). Hence, people wanted to see the situation personally and came into the forest. According to an interviewee, people who came to the forest realised that the negative picture promoted by the minister was not the truth (#19). Other interviewees hoped that the Federal Government would have intervened by calling the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior and telling them to stop the eviction (#16).
Several activists said that the situation in the Hambach Forest had a major impact on the state and on politics (e.g. #07: #14, Antje Grothus; #19) because the situation in the forest is a centre of attention (#07). A specific moment having such a major impact is the demonstration for the Hambach Forest in which 50.000 people participated (#19), many of them might have joined the demonstration because they did not agree with the way the State Government proceeded during the eviction (#14, Antje Grothus) and because the way the State Government proceeded was not in line with their understanding of democracy (#11, Andreas Büttgen). After this demonstration, no State Government could ‘survive’ further evictions or clearing of the Hambach Forest (#05, P1).
Other interviewees went one step further, and imagined that people would become more radical (#09; #14, Antje Grothus) or they imagined even civil war-like conditions in the case that the State Government would allow RWE to evict and clear the forest once more (#13, Dirk Jansen; #16). One interviewee said that the Federal Government was more aware of this danger of civil war-like conditions than the State Government (#16).
39 German original: „[…] dass der Bevölkerung versucht wurde der sogenannte Kohlekompromiss besser zu verkaufen. Dadurch, dass mehr Menschen an einem Kohleausstieg interessiert waren und sind, mussten sie sich mehr Mühe geben diesen sogenannten Kompromiss gut zu verkaufen“. (#18). 58
The Landscape-Level and the Hambach Forest Movement: The Role of Climate Change The landscape-level is the external structure, the broader structure of a society, which is beyond short- term influence. The landscape-level is characterised by demographic trends, social, cultural and normative values, political ideologies, international agreements and climate. Changes on landscape- level are for example climate change, oil crises or the industrialisation. Activities by civil society on landscape-level are awareness raising and social pressure.
As above mentioned, climate change can be considered as a slow process of change on landscape-level that can put pressure on the regime. The question to be answered here is, whether climate change did influence the Hambach Forest Movement, hence, if more people joined the movement because of the changing climate.
Even though climate change is a slow process and no singular event can be attributed with certainty to climate change, the drought and the heat during summer 2018 were often described in the media as an output of climate change (Wecker 2018; Frey 2018; Rothe 2018; Deutschlandfunk 2019). Moreover, summer 2018 changed the debate about climate change in Germany (Rothe 2018). Especially because the year 2018 was the warmest year ever recorded in Germany (Deutscher Wetterdienst 2018).
All interviewees, except for one interviewees group, with whom climate change was discussed, agreed that climate change is a serious problem40. According to some interviewees, summer 2018 was a remarkable moment, as the dry and hot summer made clear, that climate change happens, even ‘on our doorstep’ (#11, Andreas Büttgen; #13, Dirk Jansen). One effect of the long dry period in summer 2018 was that the river Rhine had low water (#11, Andreas Büttgen; #13, Dirk Jansen), which caused gasoline prices in Germany to rise (#11, Andreas Büttgen). According to Andreas Büttgen and Dirk Jansen, this influenced people and changed the debate in Germany (#11, Andreas Büttgen) and also resulted in the desire to be active (#13, Dirk Jansen). As reported by Dirk Jansen, a comparatively low threshold offer for many people was to participate in one of the forest walks (#13, Dirk Jansen). Moreover, since summer 2018 it is more difficult to argue, that there are still villages and the Hambach Forest being destroyed in order to mine lignite while burning this lignite accelerates climate change (#13, Dink Jansen).
Other interviewees also agreed that there are more people being aware of climate change since summer 2018 (e.g. #01, P1; #03; #04; #05, P1; #06, P1; #14, Antje Grothus). Michael Zobel could
40 Climate Change and its linkages with the Hambach Forest Movement was discussed in 13 interviews, of which one group were climate change deniers. 59 imagine that the increasing awareness of climate change in public could strengthen the movement (#15, Michael Zobel).
Another interviewee said that people did not realise by their own that the climate changed but they only knew about it because it was that often in the news, especially regarding the farmers struggling with the drought (#21, P1). Besides this, other interviewees imagined that there might have been people just being happy because the weather was that nice (#15, Michael Zobel; #21, P1).
According to one interviewee, climate change did not hit Germany so hard yet, so people could not experience the outcomes of climate change yet (#08). Another interviewee argued that people are on the one hand more aware of climate change, but on the other hand the people that joined the major demonstration have not been there due to climate change. The interviewee predicted that these people will come, once they seriously perceive climate change e.g. because tourists do not come anymore due to low water in lakes that might make it impossible for tourists ships to cross the lakes. Such problems already occurred in summer 2018 but might become more severe in the upcoming years (#01, P1).
Other interviewees argued the other way around. Thus, not climate change impacting the Hambach Forest Movement, but the movement strengthening the public awareness for climate change (#05, P1; #17; #15, Michael Zobel). As reported by interviewee #17, especially since the major eviction and the major demonstration in October 2018, which were both widely discussed in public, topics such as climate change are of public interests (#17).
To conclude, the interviewees mainly saw the Hambach Forest Movement as a movement related to climate change and many interviewees also agreed that the level of public awareness regarding climate change did increase in 2018. An increase of environmental and climate awareness was also found by a representative public survey conducted by the Environment Ministry. According to their study, 64% of Germans rate environmental and climate protection as a very important challenge, which is an increase of 11 p.p. compared to 2016 (Rubik et al. 2019, p. 9). Moreover, according to the survey, 72% think that environmental and climate protection should play an overriding role in energy politics (Rubik et al. 2019, p. 8).
The question of whether the dry and hot summer really increased the number of people joining the Hambach Forest Movement cannot clearly be answered based on the interviews.
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The Occupation of the Hambach Forest as a System Change Movement: Niche-Action influencing the Landscape-Level The niche-level is a protected area where radical innovations develop. Moreover, the niche offers space for learning processes and for developing social networks supporting niche innovations. Civil society activists in the niche are for example grassroots innovations or citizen science.
As it was described in the characterisation of the occupation as a project on how people can live together (chapter 4.1.2), several activists of the Hambach Forest Movement aim for changes that go beyond the preservation of the Hambach Forest or the phase-out of coal in Germany. Such activists aim for a system change, which would be a change on the landscape-level, such as an anarchist system or a basic democratic, non-hierarchical system. Interviewees that mentioned such aims can be regarded as actors being active in the niche. They follow radical innovations and are, therefore, part of an alternative milieu and grassroots innovations. As actors of the niche, they aim for changes on landscape-level. Interviewees who mentioned this aim were either active in the forest or at the places next to the forest (Hambi-Camp, Wiese and Mahnwache).
Interviewee #08 described his/her vision of a system change as followed:
“Also, as a system change movement on which, you know, we don't want the state and we don't want the government and we don't want capitalism. So, he [the Hambach Forest] was born out of so many different concepts.” (#08).
The main point of criticism regarding the system, hence the landscape-level, is a critique of the capitalist system that was mentioned by several interviewees (#04; #06, P1; #06, P2; #07; #08; #18; #19). Interviewees mentioned various points of criticism of the capitalist system, for example, the power of large companies (#04), the capitalist system would place companies’ interests above human needs (#18), and within the capitalist system, capital is more important than environmental protection (#19). Others clearly stated that a capitalist system cannot go along with climate protection (#07). The already above mentioned critique of NGOs within the Hambach Forest Movement is also linked to the critique of the capitalist system (#09). An interviewee did not see a way how NGOs could work together with the activists of the occupation, as NGOs work within the capitalist system but the occupation tries to act outside the capitalist system (#22, P1). Another point of criticism was that especially people in the Global South suffer under the capitalist system being the predominant system in Western societies (#18). Another interviewee saw strong linkages between capital and media and, therefore, as movements like Fridays for Future or the Hambach Forest Movement would be a danger to the capital, they are rarely mentioned in the media. The interviewee compared the visit of the pope in Germany, which was mentioned in every detail in the news, while the students demonstrating every Friday are rarely mentioned in the media (#06, P1).
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Many activists who wanted to change the system described the occupation of the Hambach Forest as an anarchist project or an anarchist resistance (#06, P1; #08; #09; #18; #21, P1). Even though anarchy was mentioned by several interviewees, only very few explained why anarchy is important for them or what anarchy means for them personally. Interviewee #09 explained that usually anarchist projects are not as open as the Hambach Forest occupation. This openness of the occupation led people get in touch with an anarchist project and hence they realise that the common image of anarchy meaning chaos and destruction is not appropriate. This experience is something that would usually not be possible, as most anarchist projects do not get as much attention as the occupation of the Hambach Forest and, therefore, the term anarchy still has a negative connotation in public discourses (#09). For this interviewee, anarchy would be the favourite system as she/he is convinced that it would be the best way if every person could organise his/her own life on her/his own instead of others doing it (#09). Another interviewee mentioned as his/her motivation to come to the forest and stay there, to experience anarchist structures (#21, P2).
Three of the activists who mentioned anarchy as one of the motivations and goals for the occupation of the Hambach Forest referred with their criticism of the Coal Commission to their actual demand for a system change which cannot be achieved by such a commission (#08; #09; #18). This would not be possible, because
“it [the Coal Commission] is yet another theatre from within the political sphere, which is within the capital’s sphere. [...] Change doesn't come from the government, it doesn't come from the lawmakers, it doesn't come from that system that basically exists to perpetuate themselves as the system to follow. So, coal Commission, the German government, European Union, NATO, [...] I don't care. I am an anarchist, you see, I want to talk to people and see how we can help and how we can change things so that people are better and our relationship with the environment and with animals around us are better.” (#08)
Another interviewee was also convinced that change cannot come from within the system, as the party-political system focuses on preserving and protecting itself (#18). The interviewee further explained that he/she would be active in a political party if she/he would be convinced that political parties could achieve changes such as the urgent coal phase-out (#18). This explanation matched with the idea of a different interviewee, who also criticised the Coal Commission for still being ‘system- immanent’ and, thus, not able to achieve a change (#09).
Other aims of the Hambach Forest Movement, especially of activists occupying the forest, are fighting food waste or living with less consumption (#17), fighting sexism (#04; #06, P1), fighting state oppression (#04), fighting exploitation (#04) or fighting for a basic democratic system (#06, P1). To achieve these aims, changes on the landscape-level are needed. The Hambach Forest Movement can also be considered as a feminist movement (#08) and an animal-liberation movement (#08).
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Following an interviewee, to achieve such a change, movements would be needed that attack current power structures in such a way that they feel compelled to move. The interviewee did not answer the still open question of whether the Hambach Forest Movement is such a movement (#22, P2).
The Role of the Renewable Energies in the Hambach Forest Movement Within the German Energiewende, renewable energies can be considered to be the niche-level, even though they already contribute 40% to the electricity mix in Germany. However, as they were still a niche when the politically driven German Energiewende started in the 1980s they are the niche of the Energiewende. Nevertheless, renewable energies were only mentioned by very few interviewees. In the forest, only three activists talked about renewable energies. In addition to them, renewable energies were discussed with Reiner Priggen (#12) and Guido Steffen (#23). Reiner Priggen was chosen as an interviewee because he is the chairperson of the Landesverband Erneuerbare Energien NRW e.V. (LEE; State Association for Renewable Energies in NRW) and, moreover, he was a member of the Coal Commission. Guido Steffen, a spokesperson of RWE explained the company’s plan to increase the renewable energies within the company.
In the interview group #02 were the only activists that talked about the alternative way that would be needed to generate the electricity and the importance of energy storage that would be needed due to fluctuations in the renewable energy generation. They discussed pumped-storage power stations as a way to store energy (#02). This was the only discussion about renewable energy during the interviews.
Interviewee #08 mentioned green energy generation only regarding the image that Germany had, and that might have changed due to the Hambach Forest Movement:
“I think one of the very, very, very interesting things that Germany has managed to convince so many people is, Germany is this incredibly green country, producing more green energy than any other country in Europe. And doing heaps of change for cleaner energy production. So, certainly, Hambacher Forest or the campaign around Hambacher Forest might bring a change in how people feel about coal mines” (#08).
Interviewee #05, P1 explained in the interview that RWE’s share lost value during the last 10 years. According to the interviewee, ten years ago the shareholders received a dividend of 9 Euro, in 2017 they did not receive any dividend and in 2018 they received 50 Cents (#05, P1). The interviewee added that the day of the court decision on the 5th October 2018 saying that RWE is temporarily not allowed to clear the forest, the share crashed and lost around 1 Billion Euro share value within one day (#05, P1; #18). The interviewee explained this situation to underline that RWE ‘simply overslept the energy
63 transition’41 (#05, P1) and instead insisted for several decades that electricity generation only based on renewable energies is not possible (#05, P1).
With Reiner Priggen the current situation of the renewable energies was discussed in more detail. The LEE is an association of medium-sized enterprises working in the field of renewable energies (wind power, Photovoltaic, biomass power plants, hydropower power plants, thermal pumps and geothermal power plants). The association also participated in the major demonstration in October 2018 and in the second demonstration in Cologne a few weeks after the major demonstration. The aim of the association is to expand renewables to the point of full supply, as this is needed to protect the climate (#12, Reiner Priggen).
According to Reiner Priggen, the renewable energies are no niche anymore, as they already contribute 40% to the total electricity generation in Germany and on a global scale, there are for five years already more investments in renewable energies than in fossil fuel power plants (#12, Reiner Priggen). Following his explanation, even though the majority of the German population agrees to expand renewable energies, it is difficult to implement this, as the industrial associations and trade unions have a lot of power and, hence, can influence politics. However, the Federal Government stated in its coalition agreement to expand the renewable energies up to 65% until 2030 (#12, Reiner Priggen).
The electricity company RWE does not only have coal-fired power plants but also renewable energies and some nuclear power plants. As the company already had several advertising campaigns promoting its renewable energies42, the role of renewable energies for Germany and for the company was discussed with RWE. The spokesperson argued that renewable energies cannot ensure full electricity supply so far, especially because ways to store the electricity are still missing (#23, Guido Steffen): ‘We're a long way behind in Germany in this respect. That is why I believe that we will be dependent on coal for a few more years, around 20 years, but [...] in a sharp decline.’43 (#23, Guido Steffen).
This is a remarkable statement, having in mind that RWE promoted its renewable energies and its investments in renewable energies already several years ago, e.g. in 2009, even though during this time renewable energies only contributed to the total company’s electricity generation by 2,7 % (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 40). Moreover, the statement is interesting, because during the interview Guido Steffen answered the question about their role within the renewable energies with the company’s plan
41 German original: „hat die Energiewende einfach verschlafen“ 42 These advertising campaigns were discussed by Brock and Dunlap (2018). The authors used the word ‘greenwashing’ to describe RWE’s way to promote its renewable energies even though they only contributed to a negligible part to the company’s electricity generation. 43 German original: „Da sind wir ja in einem argen Rückstand in Deutschland. Deswegen glaube ich, dass wir noch einige Jahre, rund 20 Jahre auf die Kohle angewiesen sind, aber [...] in stark rückläufigem Maße.“ 64 to buy back renewable power plants that were outsourced previously (#23, Guido Steffen). Thus, the company does not plan to build new renewable power plants to increase the total share of renewable energy generation in Germany but plans to buy already existing power plants which will only increase the share of renewable energies within the company but not in total.
Conclusion: The Hambach Forest Movement’s influence on the Energiewende To conclude, the Hambach Forest Movement influenced the Energiewende in several ways (see Figure 18). The results by the Coal Commission were clearly influenced by the Hambach Forest Movement, as the environmental organisations and civil associations being linked to the Hambach Forest demanded to discuss the Hambach Forest in the Coal Commission. Therefore, the statement that it is ‘desirable’ to preserve the Hambach Forest is clearly a success for the Hambach Forest Movement and the broad support of civil society for the Hambach Forest Movement. A central role played here the strong sense of place of the Hambach Forest which was mainly shaped by the movement. However, a final decision for the future of the Hambach Forest is yet to be seen and as long as a final decision to keep the forest and to transfer it into a nature conservation area is not made, the activists will stay in the forest.
Figure 18: Conclusion: The Hambach Forest Movement within the Changing Energy Regime in Germany (Author’s own depiction).
Regarding the landscape-level, climate change can be seen as a change that influenced people to be more active and to demand a more progressive energy policy and a transition towards renewable energies. As many interviewees explained that demanding a more progressive climate policy is (to
65 some extent) their motivation for being part of the Hambach Forest Movement, the changing climate can, indeed, be considered as having opened a window of opportunity for accelerating the transition. The increasing environmental and climate awareness that was also confirmed by a public survey (Rubik et al. 2019, pp. 8–9) supported the opening of the window of opportunity.
The occupation of the Hambach Forest can be considered as a niche-action criticising the landscape- level and aiming for changes on landscape-level. According to the MLP, the landscape-level is beyond the influence of niche- and regime-actors. If the landscape-level is changing due to the Hambach Forest Movement is yet to be seen because changes on landscape-level occur slowly. However, as the landscape-level is considered to be more or less fixed, such changes are unlikely to happen in the near future and are therefore long-term goals.
At least for the activists in the forest, the renewable energies as the alternative way for electricity generation did not play a major role. They focused more on the aspects within the regime-level and the landscape-level they are opposing instead of promoting the alternatives. This result is in line with findings by Leipprand and Flachsland (2018) who studied the role of NGOs in the future-of-coal debate in Germany and also found environmental and civil society NGO “act without direct link to the niche- level. Rather, they operate from within the existing regime in an attempt to change the broader landscape-level public and political discourse on energy and environment” (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 199). Even though the renewable energies did not play a major role in the Hambach Forest Movement, a destabilisation of the energy regime can be seen. This destabilisation of the regime being dominated by coal-fired power plants is a result of the Energiewende that already started in the 1980s.
From the global climate perspective, the decision to phase out coal in 2038 is probably too late to achieve the goal set in the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise well below 2,0°C and aiming for 1,5°C. According to Ehlerding et al. (2018), there is a consensus amongst climate scientists that Germany has to shut-down all coal-fired power plants by 2030 to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement (Ehlerding et al. 2018). However, as the decision of the Coal Commission includes two moments of review to check whether an earlier (or later) final phase-out is possible (is needed), phasing out coal after 2038 is considered to be little likely, as the review moments should take place at the same time as the review moments of the Paris Agreement take place. During the review process of the Paris Agreement countries can only increase their ambition, hence, during such a review process Germany cannot decide to shift its coal phase-out into the future (#25, Kai Niebert).
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7. Discussion In this chapter, the key findings of the thesis are discussed and are set into a broader context. Moreover, the limitations of the conceptual framework are discussed. The findings are compared and discussed in relation to other scientific literature discussing the Hambach Forest Movement. Moreover, the place attachment of the Hambach Forest Movement is compared with the place attachment of communities being endangered by a coal mine in the Czech Republic. The case of the Białowieża Forest, which was also mentioned by an interviewee as a forest occupation to which the Hambach Forest Movement as a connection, is discussed as another occupied forest with unique and old biodiversity.
Additionally, to these examples which are setting the Hambach Forest Movement in an international perspective, more conceptual questions are discussed. On the one hand, the current role of renewable energies viewed through the lens of the MLP is questioned. On the other hand, the influence of movements on the landscape-level is discussed. Moreover, the linkages between the three concepts are discussed.
The discussion of the methodology focusses on three main points, the decision to conduct qualitative interviews, the decision to conduct interviews in an occupied forest and the implications that researching an ongoing process might have. Finally, open questions for further research are raised.
The Hambach Forest Movement in Recent Literature So far, the Hambach Forest Movement was not extensively studied by scholars. Thus, the research and its findings contribute to the current scientific state of knowledge. To the best of my knowledge, there is no scientific paper that mapped and discussed the Hambach Forest Movement to a similar extent as it is done in this thesis.
Brock and Dunlap (2018) studied the operation of RWE around the Hambach mine with a focus on corporate counterinsurgency. To analyse this, the authors interviewed environmental activists. The authors also mentioned several kinds of resistance against side-effects of the mine (including resettlements of homes, air pollution and environmental destruction). According to them, the resistance already started in the 1970s with inter alia citizens’ initiatives, mass-protests, forest occupation, annual climate camps and mass-civil disobedience (Brock and Dunlap 2018, p. 33). Even though the authors interviewed several activists, they do not give an overview of the complexity of the movement. Instead, the authors focused on actions by RWE. Hence, the mapping can be seen as a
67 starting point for more in-depth studying of the Hambach Forest Movement by focusing on the actors that were not included in this research.
Schneidewind (April 2019) wrote in his short article on the great transformation and the role of civil society in the 21st century that the final decision by the Coal Commission would not have been possible without the protests in the Hambach Forest (Schneidewind 2019, p. 115). However, the author does not go into a detailed analysis of the protests in the Hambach Forest and their influence on the work of the Coal Commission.
In the same journal (‘politische ökologie’, in English: ‘political ecology’), Bosse (2019) also discussed the protests around the Hambach Forest and its influence. According to her, the convening of the Coal Commission indicates the ‘political impact’ of the protests in the ‘Rheinische Revier’ region (Bosse 2019, p. 31). She identified two factors leading to this success: increasing awareness for the climate crisis and the good networking of the anti-coal activists (Bosse 2019, p. 32). Bosse (2019) also pointed out that summer 2018 was a peak for the anti-coal movement, as the hot summer, forest fires and low-water in the river Rhine led to an increasing media awareness for the increase of extreme weather events. During this time, the Coal Commission had to find a compromise for the coal phase-out (Bosse 2019, p. 33). The eviction of the Hambach Forest which took place parallel to it received a lot of attention and was criticised by several actors. Amongst them, e.g. the police union, as according to the police union the costs for their police action was ‘disproportionate’ (Bosse 2019, p. 34). Moreover, the protests even achieved a reaction on the stock exchange, the RWE share lost value due to the eviction, which caused a loss of reputation for RWE. However, this link between the loss in share value and the eviction was strongly denied by RWE (Bosse 2019, pp. 34–35).
Nevertheless, even though the articles by Schneidewind (2019) and Bosse (2019), which are only short articles and published in German, both had similar key findings as this thesis, the in-depth study of the thesis has an added value as it analyses the Hambach Forest Movement in more detail. Moreover, this thesis presented in more detail the influence of the movement on the Coal Commission and on the energy regime in Germany. Additionally to the articles, the thesis examined the development of the sense of place of the Hambach Forest into a symbol for the German coal phase-out.
In the two articles by Schneidewind and by Bosse as well as in this thesis, it is illustrated that the anti- coal movement and environmental movements gained influence in the last years in Germany. For the anti-coal movement, a new phase started with the report by the Coal Commission (Bosse 2019, p. 35). Nonetheless, as long as the preservation of neither the Hambach Forest nor the villages is legally set in stone, more protests are to be expected (Bosse 2019, pp. 35–36).
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The Anti-Coal Movement in Other European Countries: Place-Attachment and Resettlement due to Coal Mining in the Czech Republic Comparing the findings of this study with the anti-coal movement in other European countries, there are some similarities. Frantál (2016), who studied two communities in the Czech Republic that are threatened by the expansion of an opencast-mine, concluded that people having a strong place attachment also have an anti-coal attitude (Frantál 2016, p. 385). The most common activity to express the anti-coal attitude was “to sign a petition against breaking the mining limits. Other activities include participating in protest meetings, memberships in protest organizations, and others” (Frantál 2016, p. 389). Moreover, the increasing level of people engaging in the anti-coal movement also increased the local place attachment.
The increasing engagement of people is remarkable as the majority of people opposing the expansion of the opencast mine were not convinced that their activities could have an influence, thus prevent the expansion of the mine (Frantál 2016, p. 391). Regarding the Hambach Forest Movement, it was rather the other way around; people engaged in the movement because they had the feeling that they really can achieve something there. For some activists, the Hambach Forest even is an indicator that civil society engagement can achieve something.
The finding by Frantál (2016) that the increase of activities opposing mining did increase the place attachment might also be applicable to the Hambach Forest, because the forest never received as much attention in national and international media as during the peak of protests in 2018. Moreover, the result that the strong sense of place might have strengthened the Hambach Forest Movement is in line with Frantál's study that also saw a link between place attachment and the anti-coal movement.
Occupied Forests: The Case of the Białowieża Forest As some of the interviewees mentioned, there are other forests that are also occupied or used to be occupied. As mentioned by an interviewee, there is an exchange of activists between the Białowieża Forest and the Hambach Forest. Therefore, the social actors in the Białowieża Forest might have some similarities with the Hambach Forest Movement.
The conflict regarding the Białowieża Forest is a different one than the conflict regarding the Hambach Forest. Parts of the Białowieża Forest are a nature conservation park, whereas other parts of the forest were used by local citizens. Before 2015, the debate regarding the forest was whether to expand the nature conservation park or not. Not expanding it would have allowed local citizens to continuously use the forest and its timber products (Blicharska and van Herzele 2015). In 2015, the debate and
69 conflict regarding the Białowieża Forest changed when the Polish Minister of the Environment announced large-scale logging in the Białowieża Forest. According to the Minister, this was to fight the bark beetle gradation (Bieńkowska et al. 2019, p. 38). Moreover, the Minister also regarded the Białowieża Forest as a large and economically valuable timber source (Bieńkowska et al. 2019, p. 37). This attitude was criticised by environmental organisations. With the support of social media, a protest action was organised and took place in March 2016 to highlight the ecological values of the Białowieża Forest (Bieńkowska et al. 2019, p. 37). The conflict around the Białowieża Forest was even discussed at the European Court, which ordered Poland to stop logging in July 2017 (The Guardian 2017).
As reported by Greenpeace (Roesle 2017; Greenpeace Austria 29.08.2017) there were several activists of Greenpeace and other organisations fighting for several months to protest against the destruction of the Białowieża Forest. Activists inter alia chained themselves to the logging machines and to the trees. Moreover, there was a protest camp for several months to document the logging activities and to block these activities whenever possible (Roesle 2017; Greenpeace Austria 29.08.2017).
This short introduction of the conflict in the Białowieża Forest shows that there are similarities between the Białowieża Forest and the Hambach Forest, as both forests are considered by environmental associations to be preserved under nature conservation and are at the same time endangered by political decisions. Both cases are conflicts about the contesting values of the forest (monetary value vs. natural/cultural values). To protect the forest, there were protests and protest camps in both places. Moreover, both cases were brought to court.
The Role of Renewable Energies in the German Energiewende The German Energiewende as a political long-term project started in the 1980s and its aim was a phase- out of nuclear power plants and oil in the energy supply. Since then, the meaning of the term Energiewende changed and “is mostly used today to refer to the transition in energy supply from fossil fuels and nuclear energy to renewable energies” (Unnerstall 2017, p. 13). Hence, the renewable energies play a central role in the German Energiewende and can be considered to be the niche in the transition, even though in 2018 they already contributed 40% to electricity generation. However, as a transition usually takes, according to Grin et al. (2010, p. 108) 25 to 50 years, the current contribution of renewable energies indicates that Germany is indeed undergoing an energy transition.
Therefore, it is remarkable that the renewable energies do not play a central role for the Hambach Forest Movement which understands itself as an anti-coal movement. Instead of promoting the niche,
70 the movement focuses on the rejection of the current status quo, the coal-regime. This finding is in line with Leipprand and Flachsland (2018):
“In the future-of-coal debate, they [the environmental and civil society NGOs] act without direct link to the niche level. Rather, they operate from within the existing regime in an attempt to change the broader landscape-level public and political discourse on energy and environment. In our case study, this appears to be a particularly relevant mechanism, given that actors who represent the renewable technologies challenging the existing regime (formerly niche actors) do not play a central role in the debate.” (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, pp. 199–200)
Regarding the German Energiewende and the role of renewable energies, Leipprand and Flachsland (2018), moreover analysed that Germany is on a substitution pathway. This finding is also in line with Geels et al. (2016). The substitution pathway means that there are new actors generating electricity and thus substitute the regime actors. In Germany, new actors entered the electricity generation with small-scale renewable electricity technologies and substitute the large-scale fossil fuel power plants (Geels et al. 2016, p. 896)
In the conceptual framework, the renewable energies were considered to be the technology of the niche that would replace the current power plants. However, as renewable energies already contribute 40% to the current electricity generation, they can hardly be called a niche anymore (cf. #12, Reiner Priggen)44. Even though Reiner Priggen said that the renewable energies are not a niche anymore, the renewable energies used to be the niche of the currently ongoing energy transition. As transitions usually cover at least one generation and can take up to two generations, hence 25 to 50 years, Reiner Priggen’s statement makes clear that the transition is currently ongoing. However, the transition will still need time until the electricity generation is only based on renewable energies. Instead of being considered as the niche, renewable energies can also be seen as the niche-regime or the empowered niche (see Figure 19). Grin et al. (2010) introduced the niche-regime as a niche, that is powerful enough to attack the regime (Grin et al. 2010, p. 136). Figure 19: The Multi-Level Perspective with the Niche- Regime-Level (Author’s own depiction).
44 According to Frauenhofer-Institut für Solare Energiesysteme ISE (2019) Renewable energies contributed with 41% to the electricity generation in Germany in 2018. 71
The niche-regime-level as a separate level makes clear that a transition is a process that takes time. Thus, looking at a transition at a certain point in time it is not always clear whether actors (still) belong to the niche or are already actors of the regime. Therefore, for certain points in time, adding the niche- regime-level is useful to understand the current state of transition. Moreover, the introduction of the niche-regime-level makes it clear that the three levels (niche, regime and landscape) are not as clearly separable from each other as the MLP theory implies. The three levels are rather a simplified analytical framework that is not always depicted in ongoing transition processes.
A further aspect clarifying that the categorisation of actors to one of the three levels is not always clear is the plan that, following RWE’s spokesman (#23, Guido Steffen), RWE plans to buy already existing renewable power plants to include them into the company. This can be seen as a reaction on the ongoing transition and is in line with a regime actor’s reaction described by Grin et al. (2010): “Once a threat is recognized, regime actors will mobilize resources from within the regime, and in some cases from within niches, to respond to it” (Grin et al. 2010, p. 110). Thus, it can clearly be seen that Germany is undergoing a substitution pathway and that new actors entered the electricity market aiming for replacing the former regime and that the former regime at the same times tries to stay a regime actor and therefore incorporates niche technology into its company.
Can a Movement Influence the Landscape-Level? As the findings of the Hambach Forest Movement point out, the landscape-level of the MLP is not an as clear level as it appears to be. Neither the influence that actors can have on the landscape-level nor the landscape and the changes on landscape-level is consistently described in the literature. Moreover, the findings suggest that the Hambach Forest Movement influences the landscape-level, although the landscape-level is often described as “beyond the direct influence of regime and niche actors” (Grin et al. 2010, p. 23).
Thus, even though this definition implies that movements cannot influence the landscape, Leipprand and Flachsland (2018), who refer to the same definition, wrote in their analysis of the future-of-coal debate in Germany that environmental and civil society NGOs “attempt to change the broader landscape-level public and political discourse on energy and environment” (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 199). Hence, the finding that the Hambach Forest Movement aims for changes on the landscape-level is in line with the analysis by Leipprand and Flachsland (2018). Their analysis, as well as the findings of this study, suggest that movements aim to influence the landscape-level.
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Whether the movement will change the landscape-level is yet to be seen but there are already small signs indicating a change on the landscape-level. An ongoing change on the landscape-level is the changing climate that continuously pressures the regime. This pressure might not only help the Hambach Forest Movement but also the broader anti-coal movement and environmental movements to be heard by politics and to achieve changes in the system which might also be changes on landscape- level.
Smith (2012) identified two civil society actions that take place on landscape-level: awareness-raising and social pressure (see Figure 5; Smith 2012, p.189). As social values are considered to be part of the landscape-level (Vögele et al. 2018, p. 3), social pressure and awareness raising can indeed have an impact on the landscape, as they both can influence the social values. As the Hambach Forest Movement already raised the awareness about coal mining in Germany as well as the awareness about climate change, the Hambach Forest Movement can be considered to have already changed the landscape-level to some extent.
Other aspects of the landscape-level are political ideologies (Vögele et al. 2018, p. 3) and changes in the political arena (Grin et al. 2010, p. 131). The monthly voting surveys asking citizens which party they would vote for if there were parliamentary elections next Sunday clearly indicate an increase in the percentage of people who would vote the Greens (Infratest Dimap n.d.; see Figure 20). Moreover, during the European Elections in Germany, the Greens won 20%. Between September 2018 and October 2018, thus after the start of the eviction, we can see an increase of 4 p.p. for the Greens. Since then, the percentage for the Greens grew continuously. This can be seen as a slight change in the political ideology or a shift in the broader political interests, as more and more people support the green party. This change might have been influenced by the Hambach Forest Movement and other movements, such as Fridays for Future.
Fridays for Future, students organising weekly protests in many cities in Germany (and also in other countries) were discussed in this thesis as part of the Hambach Forest Movement. However, they are rather a movement on its own than only Figure 20: Results of Voting Surveys in Germany: 'If next Sunday were part of the Hambach Forest parliamentary elections, I would vote for the Greens' (in percentage) (Author's own depiction; source of Data: infratest dimap, n.d.)
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Movement. Nevertheless, as some local groups of Fridays for Future also went to protest for the Hambach Forest and as flags supporting the Hambach Forest were often seen on Fridays for Future demonstrations, they were discussed in this thesis as part of the Hambach Forest Movement.
The students of Fridays for Future often demand, similar to the activists of the Hambach Forest Movement, a ‘system change’. However, unlike the activists in the forest that are often described as radical left activists, the students of Fridays for Future are described to be less radical, even though their demands clearly need a radical shift in the environmental policy. In general, they demand to meet the goals set in the Paris Agreement. For Germany, they demand explicitly inter alia a coal phase-out until 2030 and 100% renewable energy supply until 2035 (Fridays for Future 2019, p. 3). Moreover, Fridays for Future demands to declare the climate emergency on the municipal level, state level and federal level (Fridays for Future 2019, p. 3). There can already be seen first achievements by Fridays for Future, as according to a website hosted by a network of climate emergency action advocates (climateemergencydeclaration.org 2019), already 38 cities and towns in Germany have declared the climate emergency. For the city of Konstanz, which was the first city in Germany to declare the climate emergency, this declaration means that the municipal council recognises that they have the task to curb the climate crisis and its consequences and that this task has a top priority for the municipal council. Moreover, the municipal council acknowledges that the measures and plans that were taken so far to limit global temperature rise to 1,5°C were not sufficient (Stadt Konstanz 2019). Giving climate-related topics such a high priority in municipal decisions due to demands by an environmental movement, namely Fridays for Future, can be seen as another change on landscape-level.
The two examples, the Hambach Forest Movement and Fridays for Future, indicate that movements not only demand a change on landscape-level but that the landscape-level is currently slightly changing due to these movements. As the landscape-level usually only changes slowly, except due to a crisis like wars, a slow change is a normal process on the landscape-level and it will take time. Thus, the finding of the Hambach Forest Movement and the example of the ongoing Fridays for Future protests in Germany indicate that protests and movements can, indeed, influence the landscape-level to some extent and can, indeed, trigger changes on the landscape-level. Once more, this indicates that the MLP is an analytical framework that simplifies the three levels. However, transitions are more complex, and the three levels are more interrelated than the simplified framework might suggest.
Moreover, this finding that seems to deviate from the MLP clarifies a shortcoming of studies applying the MLP and focusing on the interaction with the landscape-level. Even though according to van der Vleuten and Högselius (2012), “transitions are believed to result from the interaction of regime, niche and landscape developments, only niche-regime interactions have been seriously studied” (van der
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Vleuten and Högselius 2012, p. 99, emphasis in original). In addition, the authors conclude in their study focusing on the European Energy Regime that it is not only the landscape and its dynamics impacting the (national) regime but it is rather a two-way process (van der Vleuten and Högselius 2012, p. 99). Thus, more studies focusing on the interactions between regime- and landscape-level and between niche- and landscape-level are needed. These studies might support the conceptual findings of this thesis.
Discussing the Conceptual Framework For the conceptual framework, three concepts of two disciplines were combined: The multi-scalar network of social movements and the sense of place, both part of the Geographies of Social Movements, and the Multi-Level Perspective, which is part of the transition literature. Combining these three concepts enabled an analysis of the specific place, the sense of place and the network of the Hambach Forest Movements within the German Energiewende as well as an analysis of the influence of the Hambach Forest Movement on the German Energiewende.
The combination of these theoretical approaches deviates from previous combinations by other scholars. Smith (2012), for example, analysed “civil society in relation to socio-technical systems. The approach links an analysis of social movements in civil society with niche development ideas within the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions” (Smith 2012, p. 182). However, Smith (2012) did not include the concepts of place and the relevance of place and place attachment for civil society actions. Another combination of geographical perspectives and the MLP is, as promoted by Coenen et al. (2012), a combination of economic geography and the MLP.
The findings of the study show that the social and environmental aspects are highly relevant to study transitions (see Figure 21). Other aspects, such as economic reasons, that would have been included e.g. by combining the economic geography and the MLP similar to the approach by Coenen et al. (2012) are not the driving factors of the Energiewende and, therefore, less relevant, at least from the perspective of social-environmental movements. The activists rather criticised that economic aspects supporting the current status quo, thus the coal-regime, were often overvalued.
Moreover, the combination of the different concepts provided insights into the values that motivate movements and how this can be analysed viewed through the lens of the MLP. Therefore, it can be seen as an answer to the call by Leipprand and Flachsland (2018), who conclude from their study that “values as a motivating force of actors who function as regime critiques might deserve more attention in the MLP heuristic” (Leipprand and Flachsland 2018, p. 200).
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In the conceptual framework, the linkages of the three concepts, (1) multi-scalar networks of social movements, (2) sense of place and (3) Multi- Level Perspective of transitions were introduced. Throughout the thesis, it could be seen that the concepts are indeed linked and each of the concepts as Figure 21: The Hambach Forest Movement and the German Energiewende. Findings well as the linkages could be on Conceptual Linkages (Author’s own depiction). used to explain parts of the Hambach Forest Movement. Moreover, the combination of all three concepts enriched the understanding of the evolvement of the Hambach Forest Movement and the influence the Hambach Forest Movement had on the final decision by the Coal Commission. For the Hambach Forest Movement, the forest and its characteristics as a very old forest with high biodiversity shaped the movement, and without the particular place of the forest, the movement would most likely not have gained as much attention as the Hambach Forest Movement did. This link between the sense of place of the Hambach Forest and the movement’s network is, therefore, a strong link that has an influence also the other way around. Without the Hambach Forest Movement and its large network, the Hambach Forest would not have such a sense of place that supports the preservation of the Hambach Forest and, therefore, without this sense of place, the forest might already be cleared further.
The linkages between the movement’s network and the MLP is more complex. The findings of the study illustrated that the Hambach Forest Movement clearly influenced the regime-level, e.g. by influencing the Coal Commission. This influence is in line with the general understanding of the MLP. However, the linkages between the movement’s network and the niche- and the landscape-level are not that clear in the literature. The findings of this study imply that the movement also had an influence on the landscape-level. Nonetheless, this influence is not yet elaborated in other studies. As most actors of the Hambach Forest Movement that were part of this study did not focus on renewable energies, no further statements can be made about the linkages between the niche-level and movements.
As this study of the Hambach Forest Movement illustrated, the sense of place of the Hambach Forest was taken into account on the regime-level of the German Energiewende, namely by the Coal Commission and as a result of their report also by the energy company. Moreover, the changes on the
76 landscape-level that were considered in this thesis as being influenced by the Hambach Forest Movement and other environmental movements, were also triggered by the strong sense of place of the Hambach Forest that was promoted by the Hambach Forest Movement. Thus, the combination of these three concepts is especially helpful if the key site of conflict for the movement is a particular place with a strong sense of place.
Reflection on Methodology This subchapter focuses on two points of discussion. First, the decision to conduct qualitative interviews and their limitations are discussed. Second, the decision to conduct research in an occupied forest is discussed.
Qualitative Interviews and Their Limitations The empirical findings are mainly based on interviews conducted during a field trip to the Hambach Forest and to surrounding cities. Additionally, phone interviews were conducted. By conducting a total of 25 interviews, I tried to cover a range of different actors and perspectives of the Hambach Forest Movement. However, this methodology clearly has limitations. Except for the interview with the spokesman of RWE, the interviews were conducted with people who have close links to the movement, are part of the movement or with members of the Coal Commission who were from the environmental supporters’ group. Thus, the results might be rather in favour of the movement’s perspective than being entirely neutral. Nevertheless, the findings of the research are clearly relevant and contribute to the current state of research as the Hambach Forest Movement was, as far as I know, not subject to extensive studies.
The alleged limitations of the research are general limitations of qualitative data collection and qualitative data analysis as this kind of research always limits the number of perspectives that can be included in a study, compared to quantitative studies. However, as this type of data collection opens the possibility to gain in-depth information, it was decided to conduct qualitative interviews as in- depth information was considered to be more relevant to analyse the Hambach Forest Movement than a high quantity but less in-depth information.
Moreover, the study can only draw on the perspective by the interviews on the day of the interview but cannot draw conclusions on how the sense of place or the network of the movement changed, because the study did not take place over a longer period (e.g. several years) and did not interview people several times in order to be able to depict the changes. Prior to the field trip, it was planned to
77 interview activists being active in and around the forest for already a long time as well as people who newly joined the movement. It was assumed that activists staying in the forest for a longer time period could better explain the changes in the discourses. However, the implementation of this plan was not as easy as it was expected as several people in the forest did not want to mention how long they already live in the forest. This is related to the idea to reduce hierarchies between people in the forest. The time period that people already spent in the forest can create a hierarchy between people staying there for long and therefore might be considered as more experienced than people joined recently. Thus, not everyone wanted to mention for how long she/he was already in the forest.
As already mentioned, the results of the study might be influenced by the opinion of people supporting the preservation of the forest. Hence, the outsiders’ role lacks the view of people not being involved in the movement. However, as opinion surveys indicate, the vast majority of Germans supports the preservation of the forest, therefore, also Germans not being part of the movement support the preservation of the forest and share the sense of place of the Hambach Forest as it was shaped by the movement. Conducting interviews with people not being part of the movement to point out their perspectives and their sense of place of the Hambach Forest is open for further research.
Research in an Occupied Forest I decided to do my research in the occupied Hambach Forest even though the occupation is at the verge of legality. Whereas people can walk through the forest, people are not allowed to build houses in the forest. The complicated legal situation became clear prior to the eviction of the forest in 2018. The official reasons for evicting the forest were fire safety concerns. Thus, it was not due to the tree houses itself but rather a political decision and in order to enable the clearing by RWE.
Doing research in an occupied forest can be understood as supporting the occupation, as it was, indeed, understood by my interviewees. However, supporting or even legitimising the movement was not an attempt of this study. The aim of the study was rather to understand the movement, which consists of more actors than the activists occupying the Hambach Forest, and to assess its influence. Being understood as supporting the movement, moreover, implied that I could not do the research as a neutral researcher but was regarded as supporting the movement and promoting the movement with my research.
Furthermore, the legally problematic status of the occupation led to the fact that several people in the forest did not want to openly answer my questions or did not want to talk to me at all. Due to this, all
78 interviewees in the forest are completely anonymised, without mentioning their age, the gender and the time already spent in the forest.
Open Questions: Further Research The case of the Hambach Forest is a special case, as the forest gained a lot of attention in a very short time. No other place, neither forest nor village, that is endangered due to coal mining in Germany is as famous as the Hambach Forest and none of them brought so many people on the streets in such a short time. Even though there is currently no other place that has become that clear a key site of conflict for the German coal phase-out, the conceptual framework could also be applied to other places of conflict inside or outside Germany. As Germany is not the only country undergoing an energy transition but at the same time still having a strong coal-regime, conflicts between the coal-regime, supported by government, and environmental activists/organisations aiming for a faster transition, might also take place in other regions. Case studies of movements in other places or regions might indicate whether the linkages between the three concepts are as strong as they are in this thesis.
Moreover, the Hambach Forest Movement can be seen as an example of how a movement can have an influence on a transition process. Such an influence could also be achieved by movements in other countries. Applying the conceptual framework to other case studies might answer questions such as can a sense of place trigger a transition or how can a transition shape the sense of place?
The findings of the Hambach Forest Movement made clear that the landscape-level can be influenced by movements and, therefore, is not beyond their influence as it was often stated in the literature. Therefore, the question arises to what extent a movement can influence the landscape-level and if such an influence can also be achieved by other movements. If this is the case, the characteristics of movements that enable them to exert this influence could be studied for better understanding the processes that lead to such influence. Moreover, if other studies also show an influence of movements on the landscape-level, the question raises what this means for the MLP as an analytical framework.
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8. Conclusion The aim of this thesis was to analyse the Hambach Forest Movement and its influence on the debate of the Hambach Forest as well as the influence on the German Energiewende, particularly the coal phase-out and the Coal Commission.
For the conceptual framework, three concepts were combined: The sense of place, multi-scalar networks (both part of the Geographies of Social Movements, a field within the Political Geographies) and the Multi-Level Perspective (part of the transition studies). Whereas at the beginning the MLP did not include the concepts of places, the second generation of MLP included them. The conceptual framework applied in this thesis with its combination of Geographies of Social Movements and MLP, therefore, contributes to the understanding of places and their roles at the different levels of the MLP. So far, the sense of place was not considered when applying the MLP-lens.
Social movements have a shared sense of place which serves to differentiate from outsiders of the movement. Moreover, social movements often have multi-scalar networks, hence networks across geographical and social boundaries. Strong ties and a shared sense of place can enable a movement to have a broader multi-scalar network. Viewed through the lens of the MLP, a transition process can be analysed from three levels (landscape-, niche- and regime-level). Civil society and social movements play several roles at all three levels; however, their role and influence depend on the kind of action.
As not only the empirical findings (based on 25 qualitative interviews) but also the conceptual understanding indicated, the three concepts are linked to each other. The sense of place strengthened the Hambach Forest Movement and was a driving force for the movement’s network. In turn, the movement’s network influenced the transition, thus the German Energiewende, especially as it raised awareness on energy and climate policy related to the coal mines in Germany. This awareness raising and even more the influence that the Hambach Forest Movement had on the final report by the Coal Commission would not have been possible without the strong sense of place of the Hambach Forest. This sense of place that was adopted by the German public, was strongly shaped by the Hambach Forest Movement. Moreover, the results imply that social and environmental aspects can play a central role in transition processes.
The Hambach Forest Movement is closely attached to the Hambach Forest, an ancient forest being endangered by the expansion of the neighbouring Hambach Opencast Coal Mine. Even though the Hambach Forest Movement is closely attached to the forest, the empirical findings of the thesis indicate that the Hambach Forest Movement has a large network. The network is a broad, internationally linked network. The centre of the network is the occupation of the Hambach Forest. The analysis of the Hambach Forest Movement and its network made clear that the movement grew
80 over time and has managed to build a network across geographical and social boundaries. These linkages are mainly based on individual persons being active in several actor groups or having close connections to them.
Several activists in the forest are critical towards the environmental NGOs being part of the movement. They criticised that the environmental NGOs joined the movement only shortly before the major eviction but presented the achievements of the movement as being their success instead of highlighting that the activists in and around the forest were the driving factor behind the success. This critique is in line with the debate amongst scholars whether NGOs with paid staff can be part of social movements.
One of the reasons why the Hambach Forest Movement could grow across geographical and social boundaries is the strong sense of place of the Hambach Forest that was mainly shaped by the Hambach Forest Movement. Even though different actor groups have a different sense of place, the Hambach Forest Movement could shape the sense of place in such a way that even outsiders of the movement mainly follow the movement’s sense of place. The sense of place of the Hambach Forest is closely related to the eviction plans and the strategies that the State Government and RWE used to evict the forest. The cultural, emotional attachments that Germans have with forests were helpful for the movement to build on and to mobilise activists. The Hambach Forest Movement could mobilise people to join the movement and shaped the sense of place of the Hambach Forest according to its interests.
For the activists, thus the insider perspective of the sense of place, the sense of place can be divided into different aspects. Most activists agree that the Hambach Forest is a symbol, but they argue in different ways for what the forest is a symbol. The arguments can be divided into the aspect of (1) nature conservation, (2) climate protection/ climate policy, (3) coal mining/ energy policy, (4) politics, (5) civil society engagement, and (6) alternative way of life. The different aspects the Hambach Forest symbolises are all to some extent part of the Hambach Forest Movement. This makes clear how different the sense of place of the forest is even within the movement.
The Hambach Forest Movement did not only influence the sense of place of the Hambach Forest but also influenced the Energiewende. The final report of the Coal Commission, an actor on the regime- level, was clearly influenced by the Hambach Forest Movement. Especially the statement that it is ‘desirable’ to preserve the Hambach Forest was influenced by the movement. This was possible due to the public sense of place of the Hambach Forest, which was clearly shaped by the movement, and by members of the movement who were also members of the commission. The members of the Coal Commission having environmental interests were the minority in the commission but, nevertheless, they managed to put the Hambach Forest on the commission’s agenda. This would not have been
81 possible without the strong sense of place of the Hambach Forest and the large movement crossing national boundaries. Moreover, the result that the sense of place played a central role for the Coal Commission and therefore for further political decisions regarding the Energiewende, indicates that social values can play an important role within transition processes.
Climate change and the awareness of climate change and the Hambach Forest Movement are interlinked, as the movement raises awareness about climate change but also raising awareness about climate change might have motivated people to join the movement. An increase of environmental and climate awareness was also displayed by representative public surveys. Due to this increasing awareness and the changing climate, a window of opportunity might have opened.
The niche-level of the Energiewende, thus the renewable energies do not play a role within the Hambach Forest Movement, as the majority of the movement rather focuses on contesting coal than promoting renewable energies. Nevertheless, Germany is on a substitution pathway with new actors replacing the regime actors, thus actors generating renewable energies replacing the coal-regime.
The occupation of the Hambach Forest can be seen as a niche-action that is aiming for changes on the landscape-level as they consider themselves as a system change movement. The findings imply that the movement indeed changed the landscape-level as there is a shift in the voting behaviour and in social values in Germany. Moreover, there is an increasing debate regarding more ambitious climate policies even amongst conservative politicians.
Comparing the Hambach Forest Movement with two other cases made clear that place attachment plays a role in the anti-coal movement also in other countries. Moreover, it illustrated that clearing of ancient forests can also trigger forest occupations in other countries and that these occupations are linked through individuals across national boundaries.
The findings suggest that the broader anti-coal movement, of which the Hambach Forest Movement is part of, has destabilised the energy-regime in Germany, which used to be based on fossil fuels. The German coal phase-out, which seems to be closer than ever before, is likely to be finalised in 2038, as suggested by the Coal Commission. However, this will not be enough to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, namely limiting the global temperature rise well below 2,0°C and aiming for 1,5°C. To achieve this, Germany would need to phase-out coal by 2030. Thus, not only the resistance in the Hambach Forest but also other protests in Germany will continuously demand an earlier phase-out of coal and more ambitious climate policy.
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RWE Power (2012): Rahmenbetriebsplan für die Fortführung des Tagebaus Hambach im Zeitraum 2020-2030. Information über die wesentlichen Inhalte. RWE Power. Available online at https://www.rwe.com/web/cms/mediablob/de/1232522/data/60012/2/rwe-power- ag/energietraeger/braunkohle/standorte/tagebau-hambach/Wesentliche-Inhalte.pdf, checked on 21.06.2019.
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RWE Power Aktiengesellschaft (2013): Tagebauch Hambach. Versorgungssicherheit mit heimischer Energie, Juni 2013. Available online at https://www.rwe.com/web/cms/mediablob/de/235948/data/0/3/Tagebau-Hambach.pdf, checked on 01.03.2019.
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Annexes
Annex 1: Overview of the Interviewees No. Number Date Name Age (only for Place of the Remarks: For how long of anonymous Interview already active/ place of Persons persons) action/ group etc. 1 3 30.03.2019 Person 1: 37 Mahnwache Person 1 comes to the years, Person Mahnwache from time to 2 & 3: no time; information Person 2 and 3 stay in the forest 2 3 30.03.2019 Person 1: 41 Forest Do not stay in the forest, years; Person but they come from time 2: 58 years, to time to the forest; also Person 3: app. active as supporters 30 years 3 1 30.03.2019 25 years Wiese Stays at the Wiese for approx. a month now 4 1 30.03.2019 Mid 20 Forest Stays in the forest for half a year now; since the major eviction 5 3 31.03.2019 Person 1: 30; Forest Person 1 stays in the Person 2 and forest for 7 years now; 3: no Person 2 does not want to information give information about it; Person 3 does not stay in the forest but is in the forest from time to time 6 2 31.03.2019 above 40 Mahnwache Since the major eviction years active 7 1 31.03.2019 22 years Mahnwache Stays in the forest for 7 months now 8 1 1.04.2019 Does not want Forest Does not want to give to give information about it information about it 9 1 1.04.2019 Does not want Forest Does not want to give to give information about it information about it 10 2 1.04.2019 No Forest Person 1: in the forest information since major eviction; Person 2 since mid- December in the forest 11 1 1.04.2019 Andreas / Buir Member of Buirer für Buir Büttgen 12 1 2.04.2019 Reiner / Düsseldorf Chairperson of the state Priggen association Renewable Energies (Landesverband Erneuerbare Energien);
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Member of the Coal Commission 13 1 2.04.2019 Dirk / Düsseldorf BUND NRW: Managing Jansen Director Environmental and Nature Conservation Policy, Press and Public Relations 14 1 3.04.2019 Antje / Buir Member of Buirer für Grothus Buir; Member of the Coal Commission 15 1 3.04.2019 Michael / Aachen Nature Guide and Zobel Forestry Educator; organises forest walk through the Hambach Forest for 5 years now 16 1 4.04.2019 / Cologne Hambi-Support since 1,5 years 17 1 6.04.2019 21 Hambi-Camp Stays in the Hambi-Camp since the end of September 2018 18 1 6.04.2019 In the 20s Hambi-Camp Stays in the forest since the major eviction 19 1 8.04.2019 25 Mahnwache Active at the Mahnwache; stays in the forest from time to time, starting 4 years ago 20 1 9.04.2019 / Forest Documents the clearing of the forest and the protests regarding the clearing 21 2 9.04.2019 Person1: mid Wiese Stay at the Wiese or in 20; the forest from time to Person 2: early time; Person 1 was here 20s for the first time 4 years ago; Person2 in summer 2018 22 2 9.04.2019 No Forest Both do not want to give information information about it 23 1 16.04.2019 Guido / (phone- Press Spokesman of RWE Steffen interview) 24 1 24.04.2019 / (phone- For 1,5 years active in the interview) Hambi-Support Gruppe Aachen 25 1 2.05.2019 Kai / (phone- President of the DNR; Niebert interview) Professor for Science and Sustainability Education at the University of Zurich, Switzerland; member of the Coal Commission
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Annex 2: Topic List and Questions for Interviews Remarks:
The following topics and questions of the general guideline were to some extent discussed with all interviewees. The questions and topics were adapted according to the interview process and the personal focus of the interviewee.
The interviews with actors from initiatives/NGOs and other organisations had additional questions or a specific focus; interviewees were explicitly asked whether they agree to be named and whether they want to read and comment on the interview transcript.
General Guideline for the Interviews with Activists in and around the Forest
General Questions:
- Why are you here? / What is your motivation?/ Are there more reasons why you came? - Since when are you active? / When did you come to the Hambach Forest for the first time? - How old are you? - What are you doing here? - Where do you stay?
The Hambach Forest (as a symbol):
- Why is the Hambach Forest a symbol (and not another forest)? - How did the Hambach Forest become a symbol? - For what is the Hambach Forest a symbol? - How has the meaning/perception of the Hambach Forest changed in the last years? - Which role did the media play for the Hambach Forest becoming a symbol? - Since when is the Hambach Forest a symbol? - What is the Hambach Forest for you? - Which role plays the media for the Hambach Forest/ the movement? - Do the activists have an influence on the German public/ citizen? / What do you think the activists in the forest can achieve?
Why the Hambach Forest and not the villages:
- Why are people more concerned about the Hambach Forest than about villages? - Why was the Hambach Forest always in the media but not the villages?
What has changed in/for the Hambach Forest in the last years?
- How did the Hambach Forest become famous? / Which factors contributed so that the Hambach Forest became famous?
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Major demonstration/major eviction in autumn 2018:
- Why did so many people join the major demonstration? - Which role played the media during the demonstration/ the eviction?
Politics/Governance/Coal Commission:
- What do you think about the (implementation of the) Coal Commission? - Why is the Hambach Forest explicitly mentioned in the final report by the Coal Commission? Why are other forests/places (such as villages) not as explicitly mentioned as the Hambach Forest? - Did the movement influence the (work of the) Coal Commission? How? - Which role did/does the Hambach Forest play in politics? - Which role did play the government (federal and state government) for the Hambach Forest Movement? - Did/ does the movement influence politics?
Climate Change:
- Are there linkages between climate change and people being active for the Hambach Forest/ people joining the major demonstration in autumn 2018? - Is the debate about climate change linked to your movement/ to the anti-coal movement? - Did people join the movement/ the major demonstration due to climate change/ because they ‘felt’ climate change last summer?
Linkages within the movement:
- How are the people in the forest linked to each other? - How are the people in the forest linked to other actors of the movement? - Have the linkages changed during the last years? Strengthened or weakened? - The role of environmental NOGs in the movement? - When did environmental NGOs join the movement? - What other actors are part of the movement? - Are there also international actors part of the movement? - Did you know other people here before you came here? - What is the role of the Mahnwache/Wiese/Hambi-Camp/Hambi-Support Groups?
The Future of the Hambach Forest:
- Will the Hambach Forest be preserved? - What has to change/ what is needed in order for the forest to be preserved/ protected? - Is the movement successful?
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Interview with initiatives/environmental NGOs
- For how long is the initiative/NGO already active regarding the Hambach Forest? - How is the initiative/NGO linked to the activists in the forest? To other actors? - Which role does the initiative/ NGO play for the Hambach Forest? - Coal Commission: o What role did the NGO/initiative play in the negotiations of the Coal Commission? o How did the initiative/NGO position itself during the negotiations?
Interview with LEE (interviewee was a member of the Coal Commission)
- What does LEE exactly and how is LEE linked to the Hambach Forest and to the other actors being part of the Hambach Forest Movement? - How was the Hambach Forest discussed in the Coal Commission? - What role do renewable energies currently play in Germany?
Interview with a spokesperson of RWE
- What does RWE plan to do with the Hambach Forest? Is it planned to clear the forest? - Is it possible to keep the Hambach Forest? - Did RWE discuss with environmental NGOs being part of the Coal Commission? What was discussed with them? - How does RWE see the future of coal in Germany? - How long will RWE continue mining coal? - Which role play renewable energies for RWE? - What is the position of RWE in regard to the protests to keep the Hambach Forest?
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Annex 3: Overview of the Coding - Is the forest saved? o How can the forest be saved? o What happens, if the forest will still be cleared? - Reasons for activism in/for the Hambach Forest - Fridays for Future - Forests and emotions - Police - Politics o Federal politics o State politics - Energiewende/Renewable Energies - General Information on the Hambach Mine and the Hambach Forest - General Information on RWE - General Information on the Occupation o International Context - Network/Support o Hambi-Support Groups o Forest Walks o Wiese o BUND o Hambi-Camp o Mahnwache o Buirer für Buir - Media - Influence/ What has changed? - Coal Commission - Climate Change - What has been achieved? - Symbol
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Annex 4: Overview: Members of the Coal Commission Chairpersons Matthias Platzeck Former state minister of lignite mining, Brandenburg, SPD Ronald Pofalla Board member at Deutsche Bahn, CDU Prof. Dr. Barbara Climate economists, former deputy director at Agora Energiewende Praetorius Stanislaw Tillich Former state premier of lignite mining, Saxony, CDU Members45: Prof. Dr. h.c. Jutta President of the Berlin Social Science Center Allmendinger46 Antje Grothus Buirer für Buir; coordinator for coal politics NRW at the Klima-Allianz Deutschland (climate alliance Germany) Gerda Hasselfeldt Presidency of the German Red Cross; Former chairwoman of CSU parliamentary group Christine Herntier Spokesperson for Lausitzrunde (Lausitz round table), mayor of coal mining town Spremberg Martin Kaiser Executive Director Greenpeace Steffen Kampeter Head of Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA; Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbände) Stefan Kapferer Head of German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW; Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft) Prof. Dieter Kempf President of Federation of German Industries (BDI; Bundesverband der deutschen Industrie) Stefan Körzell Member of executive board of German Trade Union Confederation (DGB; Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund) Michael Kreuzberg Head of district authority of mining region Rhein Erft Kreis Dr. Felix Matthes Research coordinator Energy and Climate Policy at Institute of Applied Ecology (Institut für angewandte Ökologie; Öko-Institut) Claudia Nemat Board Member Deutsche Telekom AG Prof. Dr. Kai Niebert Deutscher Naturschutzring; Professor for Science and Sustainability Education, University of Zurich, Switzerland Prof. Dr. Annekatrin Professor of Labour Market and Regional Research, Kiel University; Niebuhr Institute for Employment Research Nord Reiner Priggen Chairperson of the State Association for Renewable Energies NRW (Landesverband Erneuerbare Energien NRW); NRW Green Party Katherina Reiche Head of German Association of Municipal Enterprises (Verband Kommunaler Unternehmen) Gunda Röstel Director of Urban Drainage Utility Dresden (Stadtentwässerung Dresden), formerly leader of the Green Party Andreas Scheidt Member of Federal Executive Board of Trade Union Ver.di Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) Schellnhuber Christiane Regional Director of the Federal Employment Agency in NRW Schönefeld47
45 The members in bold were interviewed. 46 Member until the 21th August 2018. 47 Member starting of 22th August 2018. 97
Dr. Eric Schweitzer President of the German Chamber for Commerce and Industry (DIHK; Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag) Michael Vassiliadis Head of Industry Union for Mining, Chemistry and Energy (IG BCE; Industriegewerkschaft Bergabau, Chemie und Energie) Prof. Dr. Ralf Director of the Frauenhofer Institute for Microstructure of Materials and Wehrspohn Systems (IMWS; Frauenhofer Institut für Mikrostruktur von Werkstoffen und Systemen) Prof. Dr. Hubert Head of BUND; member of the council of sustainable development for the Weiger federal government Hannelore Wodtke Head of Citizen Group Green Future Welzow (Grüne Zukunft Welzow) Additional three Members of the German Parliament with a right to speak but without a right to vote Andreas G. Lämmel Member of Parliament, CDU Dr. Andreas Lenz Member of Parliament, CSU Dr. Matthias Miersch Member of Parliament, SPD Representatives of the following federal states also took part as persons with speech but without voting rights: Brandenburg Lower Saxony North Rhine- Westphalia Saarland Saxony Saxony-Anhalt In addition, the Federal Government has provided comprehensive support for the Commission's work. The Commission was accompanied by a Committee of State Secretaries composed of representatives of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi), the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU), the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI) and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (BMAS). The Federal Chancellery had guest status.
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