Frankfurt: Police clear Fechenheimer Wald | hessenschau.de

The police have started their operation in the Fechenheimer forest. Trees are to be felled there for the expansion of the A66. The adjacent highway was closed, SEK forces get activists from tree houses.

video post

Video

00:29 mins

Fechenheimer forest is cleared


Construction workers with safety vests clear the forest.

End of video post

“You are staying illegally in a clearing area,” it echoed early Wednesday morning from a police loudspeaker through the Fechenheim forest in the east of Frankfurt. “Your life is in danger,” the officials shouted at the opponents of the planned motorway expansion: “You now have the last opportunity to leave the site voluntarily.”

Further information

Live ticker for the police operation in the Fechenheim forest

In our ticker we keep you up to date on the current events in the Fechenheim Forest in the east of Frankfurt.

End of further information

Several activists have been in tree houses in the forest that is to be cleared for the expansion of the A66 for months. The police assumed a low double-digit number of activists. Task forces from all Hessian headquarters and the federal police were on site.

Because of their use, a section of the A66 between Maintal-Dörnigheim and Frankfurt-Bergen-Enkheim was closed, as was Borsigallee in the direction of Hessen-Center. However, subways and buses run there.


Graphic on the clearing of the Fechenheimer forest

The aim of the operation is clear: the opponents of the expansion should leave the forest so that the federal Autobahn GmbH can cut down the trees and create two construction roads on the area. Parallel to the operation, clearing has already begun on the edges of the site.

Rhein and Beuth get a personal impression

Prime Minister Boris Rhein and Interior Minister Peter Beuth (both CDU) also came to the forest in the morning to get an impression of the operational situation. Rhein thanked the police for their work. The operation was “politically heated”, but absolutely necessary for the implementation of the “democratic order”. At the same time, he appealed to the activists to leave the forest and not to defy the instructions. “Peaceful protests are not only permissible in our country, they are encouraged,” he emphasized. “I have the impression that things are very peaceful and level-headed here.”

“The Hessian police are primarily concerned that no one is harmed during operations in the Fechenheim forest,” said Beuth. The officials therefore proceeded “extremely cautiously and carefully”.

Police rely on communication

The police had said in the morning that everyone who was still in the forest had been addressed. They were also repeatedly given the opportunity to leave the forest voluntarily. If the expansion opponents refused to go, emergency services should bring them out of the forest. “The police claim is that no one is injured during the operation – no opponent of expansion, no police officer, no uninvolved citizen,” emphasized the police.

The environmental activists had previously reiterated their resistance. “You’re going to have a hard time with this eviction,” they said. They wanted to keep the forest occupied for as long as possible. To do this, they erected tree houses in the oaks and beeches, some 25 meters high, and stretched ropes. “We feel compelled to defend the forest with our bodies,” the activists said.

State chairmen of the left taken out of the tree house

The police used high-altitude forces to get the activists out of the tree houses. The state chairman of the left, Jakob Migenda, was also carried out of the forest. Migenda had been protesting in a tree house since Tuesday. “I’m part of the activists in the Fechenheim Forest who are committed to preserving the valuable natural space that is to be sacrificed for a pointless motorway,” he explained.

According to hr information, there were still around six to ten protesters in the trees at noon.

Court stay previously failed

Efforts by environmentalists to get the eviction postponed through the courts had previously failed. On Tuesday, the Administrative Court (VGH) in Kassel rejected an urgent application from Naturefriends Germany, in which a postponement of the planned clearing work was demanded. The objection of a forest squatter had already been rejected by the Frankfurt Administrative Court (VG) on Monday.

Form

hessenschau update – the newsletter for Hesse

end of form

Further information

End of further information

source site