10 YEARS OF HAMBACHER FOREST.
A TRIBUTE TO THE ACTIVISTS AND THEIR FIGHT TO PRESERVE THE FOREST
THEKLA EHLING, ANTJE GROTHUS, MATTHIAS JUNG, TODDE KEMMERICH (EDS.)
KETTLER, B.NEN (DE)
GERMAN
240 PAGES, €28
ISBN 978-3-86206-986-6

Approximately 42 million tons of carbon dioxide were emitted in North Rhine-Westphalia alone in 2020 by the energy provider RWE. Part of the coal burned comes from Europe's largest open-cast mine, right next to the Hambacher Forest. Ten years ago, this was where the story of one of the 21st century's most famous protest camps began: After a forest festival on April 14, 2012, a group of activists decided to defend a natural habitat threatened by excavators and saws, but above all by human greed. Over time, a small village grew, becoming a symbol of the anti-coal movement. On the occasion of the movement's tenth anniversary, this book is published as a chronicle of activist and artistic positions – a contrasting mix of emotional texts and documentary photography. Accounts from forest dwellers and demonstrators reflect a time marked by coexistence and traumatic interventions by law enforcement. The visual material by Sophie Reuter and 16 other photographers and visual artists provides insights beyond superficial reporting. Some of the chaos that the activists wanted to cause in Hambacher Forest has, of course, also transferred to the book, designed by the Cologne studio Serve and Volley. The texts are fragmented across many pages, and a somewhat counter-intuitive reading guidance system creates more confusion than order. One has to engage with this form to get to the substance of the content. But it is worthwhile. The same probably applies to the protest. One question remains: What carbon footprint can a book have whose editors have declared war on fossil capitalism? Approximately 1.3 kilograms of greenhouse gas are emitted for each copy. Compared to the damage caused by the coal industry, this value is small. Everything else is in the eye of the beholder. MB