Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival
Encyclopedia
The Anti-WAAhnsinns Festivals were political rock concerts, which took place in Germany
in the 1980s. Their purpose was to support protests against a planned nuclear reprocessing
plant (German: Wiederaufbereitungsanlage, abbreviated WAA) in Wackersdorf
. In 1986, the fifth festival marked the peak of the protest movement against the plant. With over 100,000 people attending on July 26 and 27, Burglengenfeld became the venue of the until then largest rock concert in the history of Germany. The line-up included some of Germany's most popular music acts of the time such as BAP
, Die Toten Hosen
, Udo Lindenberg
, Rio Reiser
, Herbert Grönemeyer
. The festivals resulted in an unexpected amount of media coverage for the Anti-nuclear movement. Contrary to expectations of government agencies, however, the festival remained completely peaceful. As a result of the overwhelming protests the planned nuclear reprocessing plant was never built.
. Primary responsibility for the event was held by the local autonomous youth centre, where many such festivals had taken place before. Between 2,000 and 4,000 people visited the concerts each year. Because many members of the youth centre had actively been participating in the resistance against the recycling plant, the management decided to change the original festival into the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival. The main purpose of the events was to attract public attention to the problems related to the WAA and the protests.
Because of their engagement in culture-related work, the youth centre very quickly managed to come into contact with many Bavarian musicians like Haindling or Biermösl Blosn who also argued against the building of the recycling plant. Because these festivals got more and more positive feedback from the public the idea began to emerge of encouraging big name performers, like BAP, Udo Lindenberg or Herbert Grönemeyer, to take part. Not least of all because of good relations to the management of BAP, the record label EMI Electrola was able to convince their - mostly left-leaning - artists to participate in the festival. In that same year, a live recording of the festival was released as a double LP by this record label. The proceeds of this album were used to support a citizens' initiative against the WAA.
Originally, the organizers intended the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival to take place in the immediate vicinity of the planned FRP. After excessive protests at Easter and Pentecost the position of both parties got more radical, especially influenced by the catastrophe of Chernobyl. As a result the Bavarian government set up inviolable precincts up to 120 square kilometres around the construction area. Ultimately, the organizers opted for a field near Burglengenfeld as the venue for the festival. Even before preparation for the festival took place, some city councillors of the CSU (Christian Social Union) and the mayor of Burglengenfeld, Stefan Bawidamann, had already voiced their concern about riots on the fringes of the festival.
Although the Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival had been officially authorised by the town, the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and the local government of Oberpfalz voiced intentions to prohibit the event. An extraordinary meeting of the city council that was scheduled for the 15th of July, again voted in favour of the realization of the festival. However, the town’s major Bawidamann repealed the ballot, referring to article 19 of the penal law. He considered this necessary in order to prevent the general public from danger for their life, health or material goods and to save them from heavy disturbances. The decision about the authorisation of the festival thereby passed to the subsequent regulating authority, the district office of Schwandorf. Hans Schuierer, the district administrator, validated the decision of the city council and assigned the local government of Oberpfalz to check the legal force of Bawidamann's decision again.
The motorcycle club Kuhle Wampe took charge of security and entrance. Excrements had to be removed almost every hour. Fields within a radius of several kilometers were rent by the festival's management for parking. In part, the fields had to be harvested right before the beginning of the festival although the grain was not ripe yet. The number of visitors exceeded expectations and more fields had to be marked as parking spaces on short notice. At one of those rent fields, in particular on the stubble field in the vicinity of Greinhof, a hot catalyzer set off a large-scale fire. Thanks to the dauntless action of a local farmer who used a plough to create a firebreak, bigger damages could be prevented.
Accounts about the number of participating visitors at the festival vary. The number is supposed to be over 100,000, which, considering the area, is not entirely unlikely. Musically the Open Air can be revisited on double LP as well as on film.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the 1980s. Their purpose was to support protests against a planned nuclear reprocessing
Nuclear reprocessing
Nuclear reprocessing technology was developed to chemically separate and recover fissionable plutonium from irradiated nuclear fuel. Reprocessing serves multiple purposes, whose relative importance has changed over time. Originally reprocessing was used solely to extract plutonium for producing...
plant (German: Wiederaufbereitungsanlage, abbreviated WAA) in Wackersdorf
Wackersdorf
Wackersdorf is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria, Germany.-See also:*Anti-nuclear movement in Germany*Armin Weiss*Hildegard Breiner...
. In 1986, the fifth festival marked the peak of the protest movement against the plant. With over 100,000 people attending on July 26 and 27, Burglengenfeld became the venue of the until then largest rock concert in the history of Germany. The line-up included some of Germany's most popular music acts of the time such as BAP
BAP (German band)
Bap is a German rock group. With ten albums reaching the number one in the German record charts, Bap is one of the most successful rock acts in their home country....
, Die Toten Hosen
Die Toten Hosen
Die Toten Hosen is a German punk band from Düsseldorf. They have enjoyed decades-long mass appeal in Germany.The band's name literally means "The Dead Pants" in English, although the phrase "tote Hose" is a German expression meaning "nothing going on" or "boring"...
, Udo Lindenberg
Udo Lindenberg
Udo Lindenberg is a German rock musician and composer.-Career:Lindenberg started his musical career as a drummer. In 1969 Lindenberg founded his first band Free Orbit and also appeared as a studio and guest musician . In 1970 he collaborated as a drummer with jazz-saxophonist Klaus Doldinger in...
, Rio Reiser
Rio Reiser
Rio Reiser , was a German rock musician and singer of the famous rock group Ton Steine Scherben. He was born Ralph Christian Möbius in Berlin and died at the age of 46 in the little German town of Fresenhagen. Rio Reiser was politically active during his whole life...
, Herbert Grönemeyer
Herbert Grönemeyer
Herbert Grönemeyer is a German musician and actor, popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He starred as war correspondent Lieutenant Werner in Wolfgang Petersen's movie Das Boot, but later concentrated on his musical career...
. The festivals resulted in an unexpected amount of media coverage for the Anti-nuclear movement. Contrary to expectations of government agencies, however, the festival remained completely peaceful. As a result of the overwhelming protests the planned nuclear reprocessing plant was never built.
Beginnings
The first Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival took place in 1982 at the Lanzenanger venue in BurglengenfeldBurglengenfeld
Burglengenfeld is a town in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Naab, 22 km north of Regensburg....
. Primary responsibility for the event was held by the local autonomous youth centre, where many such festivals had taken place before. Between 2,000 and 4,000 people visited the concerts each year. Because many members of the youth centre had actively been participating in the resistance against the recycling plant, the management decided to change the original festival into the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival. The main purpose of the events was to attract public attention to the problems related to the WAA and the protests.
Because of their engagement in culture-related work, the youth centre very quickly managed to come into contact with many Bavarian musicians like Haindling or Biermösl Blosn who also argued against the building of the recycling plant. Because these festivals got more and more positive feedback from the public the idea began to emerge of encouraging big name performers, like BAP, Udo Lindenberg or Herbert Grönemeyer, to take part. Not least of all because of good relations to the management of BAP, the record label EMI Electrola was able to convince their - mostly left-leaning - artists to participate in the festival. In that same year, a live recording of the festival was released as a double LP by this record label. The proceeds of this album were used to support a citizens' initiative against the WAA.
Originally, the organizers intended the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival to take place in the immediate vicinity of the planned FRP. After excessive protests at Easter and Pentecost the position of both parties got more radical, especially influenced by the catastrophe of Chernobyl. As a result the Bavarian government set up inviolable precincts up to 120 square kilometres around the construction area. Ultimately, the organizers opted for a field near Burglengenfeld as the venue for the festival. Even before preparation for the festival took place, some city councillors of the CSU (Christian Social Union) and the mayor of Burglengenfeld, Stefan Bawidamann, had already voiced their concern about riots on the fringes of the festival.
Although the Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival had been officially authorised by the town, the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and the local government of Oberpfalz voiced intentions to prohibit the event. An extraordinary meeting of the city council that was scheduled for the 15th of July, again voted in favour of the realization of the festival. However, the town’s major Bawidamann repealed the ballot, referring to article 19 of the penal law. He considered this necessary in order to prevent the general public from danger for their life, health or material goods and to save them from heavy disturbances. The decision about the authorisation of the festival thereby passed to the subsequent regulating authority, the district office of Schwandorf. Hans Schuierer, the district administrator, validated the decision of the city council and assigned the local government of Oberpfalz to check the legal force of Bawidamann's decision again.
The motorcycle club Kuhle Wampe took charge of security and entrance. Excrements had to be removed almost every hour. Fields within a radius of several kilometers were rent by the festival's management for parking. In part, the fields had to be harvested right before the beginning of the festival although the grain was not ripe yet. The number of visitors exceeded expectations and more fields had to be marked as parking spaces on short notice. At one of those rent fields, in particular on the stubble field in the vicinity of Greinhof, a hot catalyzer set off a large-scale fire. Thanks to the dauntless action of a local farmer who used a plough to create a firebreak, bigger damages could be prevented.
The festival
Burglengenfeld, a city with about 10,000 inhabitants, was not prepared for such a stampede of visitors. Already on the eve of the festival, in the supermarkets all staple food and alcoholic drinks were sold out. Several shops closed their doors and did not open them on the following Sunday either. Not having any mobile phones yet, on all church doors there were pinned written notes, informing when to meet whom and where. Every bare brickwork the visitors used as a "roof over their head", as a place to sleep. Anyhow, the thefts, damages of property or even riots the inhabitants had feared held off.Accounts about the number of participating visitors at the festival vary. The number is supposed to be over 100,000, which, considering the area, is not entirely unlikely. Musically the Open Air can be revisited on double LP as well as on film.
The impact of the festival
Although the 5th Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival (26–27 July 1986), a protest against the nuclear reprocessing plant, proceeded peacefully and without any violence, the state continued fighting it with undiminished rigidity. The opposition to the WAA ended abruptly with the sudden death of Bavaria's minister president Franz Josef Strauss on 3 October 1988. The operating company DWK (Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Wiederaufarbeitung von Kernbrennstoffen = German Corporation for Nuclear Reprocessing) and the politicians in the CSU thereupon saw only little chances that the WAA project could be realised successfully. On 30 April 1989, Dr. Rudolf von Bennigsen-Foerder, former chairman of the board of VEBA, announced that German energy companies would retreat from reprocessing technology. This came completely unexpected and filled the CSU with bitterness. On 31 May 1989 the DWK specifically freezed the construction of the reprocessing plant and had the iron main gate closed symbolically. After the sudden ending for the WAA, the population's resistance diminished as well. Only a few might remember the matchlessness of the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival. It was matchless not only because of the 100,000 visitors and all-time greatest spectrum of top musicians, who performed coherently for one special purpose – the building freeze of the WAA. The festival also showed that there is the opportunity of a counter public, the chance to correct and if necessary to prevent the decisions of local and federal administrations in a constitutional state. At the same time the festival suggested the possibility of peaceful protest. Nowadays there is a memorial stone on the former festival site “Lanzenanger” in Burglengenfeld that is to commemorate the spectacular Anti-Atom-Festival.Literature
- Allnutt, Mike / Herl, Michael (Publisher): WAAhnsinn – Der Wackersdorf-Film. Die Filmbilder, Lieder, Texte, Reden, Interviews, Dokumente, Nördlingen 1986.
- Hoffarth, Florian: "Ihr habt die Festung, wir haben das Fest" – Das ‚Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival' 1986 als Höhepunkt der Bürgerproteste gegen die Wiederaufbereitungsanlage in Wackersdorf, in: Jahresband zur Kultur und Geschichte im Landkreis Schwandorf, Bd. 16/17 (2005/06), published by Landkreis Schwandorf, pages 102-123.