Runway 18 West

In 1962, the operating company of Frankfurt Rhein-Main Airport, Frankfurt Airport/Main AG, decided to design a new runway in addition to a new reception terminal. A drastic increase in air traffic had pushed both the old station buildings and the parallel railway system, which still exists to this day, to the limits of resilience. The Rhine-Main region was in a steady economic upswing, thanks in no small part to the airport as a European air hub.

But the airport area was surrounded exclusively by forest, including Bannwald. In addition, there was another problem: in the north, the Bundesautobahn 3 runs in an east-west direction, in the east the Bundesautobahn 5 runs in a north-south direction, in the west there is also an above-ground main stream line and to the south, the American Rhein-Main Air Base also made an uncomplicated expansion impossible. Only in the southwest corner of the site was there the possibility of a new runway in a north-south direction.

This meant, on the one hand, an major logging operation and on the other hand the extension of the airport area to a municipal area no longer belonging to the urban area.

On 28 December 1965, Flughafen AG applied for a permit for the construction of the "Runway 18 West". In May 1966, the Hessian Landtag decided to build a new 4000-metre-long runway in a north-south direction. In view of the political approval, Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG (FAG) decided in November 1967 to build the new project, which cost DM 78 million. At a time of increasing environmental awareness, more and more citizens were sceptical about this expansion. Following the planning approval decision adopted by the Minister of Transport in March 1968, 44 actions for annulment of the project (De.: Anfechtungsklagen) were brought to the courts.

After the opening of the new Terminal Mitte (now Terminal 1) in March 1972, the planning approval procedure for the new runway was initiated a year later.

The result was more than 100 lawsuits before Hessian administrative courts. The opponents of the runway, who had increasingly joined forces in citizens' initiatives (BI), were increasing in number, as both declining flight movements and the oil crisis mitigated against a runway. Some of the runway opponents feared it would serve a function for NATO.[1]

For almost 10 years, administrative courts dealt with the planned expansion. For formal reasons, the decision was annulled. In March 1971, the Ministry issued a second planning approval order, which again occupied the courts. At the end of 1978, a citizens' initiative (BI) was founded mainly in the affected double city of Mörfelden-Walldorf, but also in Frankfurt and the surrounding area against the expansion.

In July 1978, the Federal Administrative Court referred the claims of the runway opponents back[1] to the Hessian Administrative Court. In December of the same year, the state of Hesse sold 303 hectares of land to FAG for the construction of the new runway. The expected logging amounted to 129 hectares.

With the decision of the Hessian Administrative Court of 21 October 1980 for the construction of the new runway, the legal dispute ended, while the resistance on the ground intensified.

On the site of the planned runway West, opponents erected a BI hut from May 1980, which was to be used for the information of walkers. In July, the Hessian Minister of Economics and Transport, Heinz-Herbert Karry (FDP), ordered the "immediate implementation" for the construction of the runway. In October, however, the Hessian Administrative Court rejected the stop request (to restore the suspensive effect of the opposition). The first tree felling work began before the winter for technical reasons. First, a seven-hectare site was cleared directly at the airport site.

On 2 November 1980, 15,000 people, mainly environmentalists and students, as well as many elderly people from the region, demonstrated on the edge of the forest in Walldorf. Since the planned occupation actions of the protest movement failed due to the long-running police concept, the citizens' initiative decided to expand the BI-Hütte into a permanently inhabited hut village in order to be able toreact more quickly and appropriately to grubbing-up intentions. As a result, several illegal huts were built as well as a hut church of the Walldorf parish on the airport grounds.[2]

Concrete fence in front of the construction site

In May 1981, the Darmstadt government president ordered the expropriation of the site. On 6 October, the already cleared seven-hectare site was occupied by the protest movement and subsequently evacuated by the police. On October 6, hundreds of people had gathered on the site, excavated a pointed trench, and built a tower inside the moat. The evacuation of most of the site was largely peaceful. The tower was comparatively difficult to evacuate; however the squatters left it voluntarily the following evening. A few days after the evacuation, a 2.5 metre high concrete fence was erected to secure the work.

The hut village was evacuated on the morning of November 2, 1981. The eviction itself was peaceful; As thousands gathered in the woods outside the police cordons during the day, several controversial police operations against the protesters took place. After the evacuation of the hut village, the construction and clearing work began under massive police protection. Meanwhile, there were repeated attacks from demonstrations on the concrete wall and police officers. Several attempts by the runway opponents to build new hut villages permanently were repeatedly prevented by the police.

A planned reoccupation of the Hüttendorf site on 7 November, out of a rally of tens of thousands of people, was not carried out after disagreements within the movement over the question of violence. Instead of the planned mass crossing of the police cordons, fifty selected demonstrators with bare torsos were let on the premises by the police. Four BI spokespersons then held an inconclusive discussion with the Minister of the Interior Ekkehard Gries (FDP) on the cleared area of the hut village about a possible halt to the grubbing-up work until the decision of the State Court (so-called " Naked Saturday").[3] Another version of this story has it that the day was called Naked Saturday because many protesters went to the site too lightly clothed for the weather, which turned out to be cold.[4]

Runway 18 W from the North

On 12 April 1984, the new runway 18 West was handed over to traffic; opening ceremonies were dispensed with. On 14 April 1984, about 15,000 people demonstrated against the commissioning of the runway 18 West at the wall in the forest.

On 2 November 1987, on the occasion of a demonstration on the anniversary of the evacuation of the hut village, 14 police officers were attacked with a police force weapon stolen from an anti-nuclear demonstrationin Hanau on 8 November 1986. Nine officers were shot and police officers Thorsten Schwalm and Klaus Eichhöfer succumbed to their injuries. On the same night, a large wave of searches and arrests began against the entire runway movement.[9] The runway opponents Andreas E. and Frank H. were indicted by the Federal Prosecutor's Office as death shooters. Frank H. was sentenced in 1991 to four and a half years in prison for offences unrelated to the fatal shootings. Andreas E. was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years in prison.[10] As a result of these events, the remnants of the protest movement against the West runway finally fell apart.

In 2011 a fourth runway at Frankfurt Airport was built, against significant public resistance. A year after the fourth runway's construction, the website Airport Watch reports weekly protests have been occurring at the airport against the runway.[11]

As a relic of the clashes, the concrete wall around the runway remained, a rather rare kind of security barrier around a German airport for the period before 11 September 2001. This wall has since been removed (as of February 2018) and in its place there is currently a triple-finished construction fence, partly secured with NATO barbed wire. There will be a new fence on the site of the old wall.

Airbus A320 ready to take off from Runway 18 West

The West runway is called '18' because it is almost exactly south-facing, which corresponds to a course angle of 180 degrees. Only take-offs in the direction of the Upper Rhine Plain extending to the south, while the Taunus does not allow departures to the north for reasons of obstacles. Since aircraft are supposed to take off against the wind, take-offs in strong winds from northern directions are only limited or not possible at all.