Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Rage and mourning across Germany

DIET SIMON | 08.11.2004 12:31 | Ecology | Repression | Social Struggles | World

Rage and sorrow have been manifested across Germany at the death of a 21-year-old Frenchman run over by a nuclear waste train in France.


In Berlin about 400 demonstrated at night. The people went to the French embassy to protest. They even tried to get into the area of the french embassy but police stopped them. Another police line stopped the protesters near Potsdamer Platz, where the protesters wanted to the Deutsche Bahn tower (Germany´s train company who is responsible for the transports of nuclear waste). People shouted "smash capitalism" or "sadness and anger turns into resistance".

In Bielefeld there was a mourning gathering and spontaneous demo procerssion through the city. About 40 took part.

There were also demos in Münster (40) and Waltrop (15). “Many people were shocked by the unscrupulousness of the police in speeding the Casstor train on. Don’t police leaders have any human feelings? And Jürgen Trittin (The environment minister)?” There will be another demo in Münster on Monday, from 6 pm outside central station.

The light-hearted mood in the Wendland (the Gorleben area) is gone. The news of the activist’s death comes as a shock. In Langendorf near Dannenberg, where farmers were just blocking the road with their tractors, a spontaneous religious service of mourning is held. People place burning candles.
When police attacked the protesters they threw bottles and stones.

In Erfurt about 20 people gathered at the main station to mourn. After half an hour police chased them away, showing no sympathy.

In Hamburg about 500 people gathered to mourn the dead activist. Several hundred police massively disturbed the group.
In Magdeburg about 30 people took to the streets to commemorate, carrying a banner saying “Capitalism kills. Away with the nuclear state!” The procession chanted, “France, France, that was murder! Fight the Castor everywhere! Make a fist! Turn rage and sorrow into resistance.” Police attacked protesters brutally, says their IndyMedia post and arbitrarily arrested people while those they already held were kept in check by frenzied dogs. All this smashed the demonstration. Windows of a government ministry were damaged to take the resistance to one of the responsible instances.

About 50 people gathered in Tübingen to express their rage and sorrow. They kept a 30-minute vigil. About 20 people blocked rails and held up a train for about 15 minutes. The protesters read out a flier. Another demo is planned for Monday. 5 pm on the Holzmarkt in Tübingen.

A dissenter writes under the Tübingen post that he/she can’t accept the charge that the activist was murdered. All reporting indicates that it was an accident that the locomotive driver did n ow want, the writer says.

In another post a writer suggests that the young Frenchman was deliberately run over to set an example and prevent more chainings.

A demo is being called in Frankfurt/Main at 6 pm Monday from Westbahnhof to a branch of COGEMA, the company that operates the La Hague processing plant.

In Darmstadt about 70 people are reported to have gathered for about an hour in the main railway station to commemorate the dead activist.

In Lüneburg short of 100 people gathered on the Rathausplatz for a mourning procession. They placed lit candles in the form of a large X, a symbol of the anti-nuclear resistance. The demonstrators then walked through the city centre and main roads, causing motor traffic to halt for about an hour and a half. Passers-by spontaneously joined the mourners.

In Hanover 100-150 took to the streets in two separate demos. Cops wearing helmets accompanied them. All of the people were arrested. "Normal" people, not taking part at the protest reacted very angry towards police, shouted: "This is what democracy lokks like" and "let them free".

About 170 people gathered for a spontaneous protest in Göttingen central station to express their rage. Some of them leaned against an ICE express train which drove off regardless. The demo then moved through the city centre, accompanied by police. A demo is planned for Monday at 5 pm by the Gänseliesel.

In Bremen about 100 people gathered on the Marktplatz. Fliers were handed out with known information about the demonstrator’s death. A spontaneous procession went through the city centre. After a short cat and mouse game through Bremen alleys, the police escort grew to six car loads. A camper in the Wendland writes that they’re shocked, sad and enraged there. The writer calls on all to come to the Wendland. Info telephone 0162-9863594, Castor hotline: 01805-252569.

More than 1,000 people were reported to have taken part in a mourning rally in Hitzacker in the Wendland. In four short addresses, people’s feelings were addressed and that it wouldn’t be good to just give up now. Afterwards a spontaneous demo of 200 moved through the town on the Elbe River. A few eggs burst on police cars. Windows of three police cars were broken. About 50 people squatted on the rails at the station. Pictures at www.castornix.de .

A protest and mourning rally took place in the Darmstadt central station. About 60 people took part in the 1-hour gathering.

Holding burning torches, Celle activists placed a vigil of 25 people in the hall and on all platforms of their local railways station. Police respected this spontaneous expression of grief. Mourning in Jena. Candles were placed in the pedestrian precinct.



More reactions reported at

 http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97826.shtml

 http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97825.shtml

 http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97824.shtml

 http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97820.shtml

 http://de.indymedia.org/2004/11/97817.shtml

DIET SIMON

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech