S21 pt.1: Demolition

Stuttgart, Germany. As part of the highly controversial infrastructure project "Stuttgart 21" the wings of the old Main Station have to go. People have chosen this site as a place for their protest and turned the fence into a colourful wall of funny, angry, witty, satirical posters to show their opinion.

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For the version on what's going on please see below. If you like information coming in moving pictures scroll down to the "links" section.
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Stuttgart 21

First of all for those wondering why I care since my location tag says „Austria“: I spent the first half of my life there and the reason why I was in the area was visiting my parents. So I'm not a random tourist or just latching on to some protest I stumbled upon. That being said:

Maybe you have already heard about it: A lot of politicians are very about what is happening in a rather peaceful, quiet and conservative state whose inhabitants are known for many things and so far protesting against the government certainly wasn't on that list. The reason is a controversial infrastructure project called „Stuttgart 21“...

Stuttgart is the capital of the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg. The city itself has a little more than 600.000 inhabitants. It's one of Germany's biggest cities and a major economic hub (also given its location smack in the middle of Europe). The reconstruction of the main station and the changes to the track layout is supposed to remove a weak spot in the European high-speed railway system and provide better links to the Stuttgart international airport and the trade fair area next to it. Construction comes in two parts. One are the new high-speed tracks between Stuttgart and Ulm and the second part is changing the terminus-type main station into an underground through one. The benefits are supposed to be:
- faster and more comfortable connections through Europe
- more trains on half the number of tracks in Stuttgart
- better and faster links for the entire region
- fewer cars, better air, less noise and pollution in the city
- a whole new quarter in the heart of the city on the space freed up by putting the tracks undergound
- helping the economic growth and more jobs
- subsequently a higher tax income for reinvestments.

Sounds not too bad, huh? Well... there are issues:
- financing: When the project was first introduced in 1995 it was claimed that the price tag would be around 600 million Euros (then: 1.2 billion Deutsche Mark) and that most of it would be re-financed by selling real estate when building the new quarter. Subsequently the figures kept rising and rising. Currently, they are close to 9 billion Euros with the very real possibility of getting up to 12 billion.
- duration of reconstruction: For at least a decade the inner city will be a huge gaping construction ground with all the noise, dust and traffice issues you can imagine.
- tearing down parts of the old main station: The station is a listed/landmarked building. The main part will be preserved though.
- unknown or nondisclosed amount of dangerous substances in the building now being released with the dust, e.g asbestos (The police is already complaining about their working conditions e.g. the lack of dust masks.)
- digging up parts of the „Mittlerer Schlossgarten“, the palace gardens that run through the inner city and in the process removing about 300 trees, some of which are several centuries old and home to protected species.
- doubts about the overall economic benefit since e.g. the new highspeed tracks will be too steep for freight trains.
- the ground below the city has many difficulties, e.g. caves and caverns. Stuttgart also has the second largest occurence of mineral water springs in Europe which might be endangered by the project.

Why haven't people protested earlier?
Actually, they did. And they were promised participation in the whole planning process. Unfortunately, that never happened. One of the arguments of the government is that legitimation of the project happend when it passed through parliament. But during that process, a lot of the figures attached to it were still estimates. Especially regarding the costs. People are dissappointed, feel deceived and are generally fed up with the way city and state governments have handled the project. Also, the city could have done a great deal better presenting the project, keep talking and listening to people. Instead, they chose not to interact with their citizens beyond speeches, repeating their arguments and pointing to high-gloss presentations. If you'll ever need a textbook example for a complete PR desaster – this is it.

What's going on right now?
The very last straw was that despite public protests demolition of the north wing of the main station started on August 25th. People feel that things are rushed to reach a point of no return simply to silence them without risking a debate or even a referendum. Promises e.g. to respect the status of the station as a listed building and to treat the facades gently were broken.

Locations of the protests:
-The north wing of the main station: The site fence has become a wall of protest – colourful, angry, funny, sarcastic posters cover almost every inch. Police guards the entrance to the construction site while in front of them protesters try to keep up a 24 hr sit-in.
-The Schlossgarten: The gardens themselves are centuries old. Over time, parts have been used to expand the city and they have seen major redesigning over the centuries. Today, little is left of their former glory and they are certainly not the pinnacle of European gardening culture. However, they are the green heart of the city and a popular place for people to meet and relax. During the construction period, almost 300 trees will be felled and the whole area of the middle gardens will go from a peaceful park to a loud and dirty hole in the ground. One of the major groups of the protest are the Parkschützer („park keepers“) trying to protect the gardens and especially the trees. They also organize the sit-ins in the park and at the main station.
-Demonstrations throughout the inner city: Regular demonstrations take place on Mondays and Fridays.
- local spontaneous demonstrations all over the state, Germany and even as far as New York and Santiago de Chile called „Schwabenstreich“ involving making as much noise as possible for a minute at 7 pm local time.

So far, everything has been remarkably peaceful. Police and protesters are mostly professional and friendly. A very good example of the general attitude were some comments on the day when demolitions started. There's a live webcam covering the north wing of the stations. It was embedded on the website of one of the major newspapers which also added a chat-like comment function. When the first stones fell, someone was asking: „Why isn't that excavator already on fire?“ The answer: „Dude, this isn't Berlin. The ones shouting 'stop it, stop it' ARE the radicals....“ I really hope it stays that way.

Current political events
There were plans for a round table discussion but since demands of the opposition to stop the demolition were not met, it never took place. Demands for a referendum are getting louder, too and apparently the state's prime minister has asked for an advisory opinion on wether or not he could/should do it. However, it would take weeks to months for the referendum to take place and there are no signs that construction will stop. On the contrary, everything is done to speed it up. Yesterday, during the „no holds or questions barred“ general debate of the federal parliament Chancellor Merkel was asked about her opinion on Stuttgart 21. She wants it build and said that the referendum is going to be Baden-Württemberg's next elections for the state's parliament. In March 2011. Now wouldn't it be logical to stop construction until then? The way things are going not only the two wings of the main station will be long gone by then but also the trees in the parks.
Actually, if I was Prime Minister, I would show some sense, stop constructions and hold the referendum now while I still have a good chance of winning it. While the protests are loud there are still many people who are in favour of the project. Democracy is not doing the bidding of those who make the most noise but what all the protests did is that by now enough people from both sides care to give a referendum some real weight.
Also in discussion as a potential alternative is a modernisation of the current terminus station. However, this would also cost billions and probably wouldn't be as effective. This project goes by the name K21 for „Kopfbahnhof 21“ („Terminus 21“)

Links
Location: [link]

Webcam with a view of the station's former north wing: [link]

Webcam with a view from the station's tower over the debated part of the Schlossgarten: [link] All the trees on the left of that street diagonally crossing the image from the bottom middle upwards will be gone.

A New York Times article: [link]

Official Stuttgart 21 Website (english): [link]

Baden-Württemberg – the state's official homepage (english): [link]

Youtube: Official visualization of what a trip from Ulm to Stuttgart will look like: [link]

Youtube: Clip from the demolitions and protests: [link]

K21 website (german): [link]

Die Parkschützer (german): [link]

Bei Abriss Aufstand (german): [link]