A first defendant who says he didn’t hear anything, not a single word, and a second defendant who doesn’t even show up for the trial – that doesn’t happen often in court cases. In the district court in Neustadt an der Aisch, the judge decides that day anyway that the case will be heard. A tinnitus that is said to lead to total hearing loss overnight, according to one of the two accused farmers? “I won’t let myself be fooled,” says the judge and asks for the indictment to be read out.
The point is that two brothers, both farmers, deposited objects in fields, especially corn fields, with several colleagues in western Central Franconia, and are said to have seriously damaged machines, including corn choppers. The alleged total damage amounts to more than 80,000 euros, and such sabotage is also extremely dangerous.
Attacks on corn choppers? Farmers all over Bavaria took notice when the public prosecutor’s office held two suspected perpetrators responsible for a series near Neustadt in 2020. Because there are such acts of sabotage throughout Germany, exact numbers do not exist, the damage should be in the millions. Metal bolts, screws and nails are placed in fields, if they collide with one of the giant machines, metal parts can become dangerous projectiles. Conspicuous remains of a fabric hose in the field and DNA traces are said to have been transferred to the brothers.
A person affected speaks of militant “corn haters”
In Nittendorf, an hour and a half by car from Neustadt in Franconia, Andreas Sußbauer held his breath when he heard about the success of the investigation. A steel pole with a cable tie was also placed in his corn field in 2020. To this day, Sußbauer does not know who that was. After the deed, he had a suspicion: militant “corn haters” could be responsible, fundamentalists, who are fighting the excesses of corn cultivation in their own way, the spoiled landscape, the “maize” and the monocultures.
So eco-fundis? At least for the Neustadt case, this is unlikely to be the case. The only accused who appeared – 63 years old, cap, work trousers, sturdy shoes – is silent about possible motives. But a police officer reports that the two brothers grow corn themselves. And disputes with all affected professional colleagues.
Sometimes a farmer’s rapeseed spraying is said to have given one of them a headache, sometimes dust that was thrown up caused nosebleeds, sometimes a field was “leased away” from them. One of the aggrieved farmers holds a bulging folder in front of the judge’s eyes: all regional proceedings that had to do with the brothers’ belligerence. So probably rather querulous quarrels, not militant Ökofundis. An expert who was at the brothers’ home reports that the yard was completely “littered”. The investigating police officer says it’s only good that “no personal injury” was reported in the attacks.
The 63-year-old regained at least part of his hearing during the process, and the myth of hearing nothing at all is no longer tenable. He is innocent, he lets know. His brother failed to appear at the trial for the second time and his trial will be separated. A verdict in the remaining proceedings is expected next week.