German police break up an environmental activists’ camp near Tesla plant outside Berlin
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$0 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*No charge for 4 weeks then price increases to the regular rate of $19.00 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.75/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/11/2024 (381 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BERLIN (AP) — German police broke up a protest camp housing environmental activists in a forest near the Tesla electric car factory in Grünheide outside Berlin on Tuesday, citing violations of public safety and order.
The protesters had occupied a pine forest near billionaire Elon Musk’s first European Tesla plant since the end of February over concerns about water and deforestation.
Tesla wants to expand its site in Grünheide for a freight station and storage areas and buy a wooded area from the state of Brandenburg, where the plant is based, for that purpose.
Police first were deployed at the protest camp on Monday to temporarily evacuate parts of the camp with tree houses due to a planned search for explosive ordnance from World War II. However, the activists refused to leave and instead climbed high up some of the trees, German news agency dpa reported. Police eventually pulled six people out of tree houses who did not want to leave voluntarily.
Tuesday’s complete breakup of the camp came because the activists repeatedly violated regulations and committed criminal offenses, local police spokesperson Daniel Keip told dpa. He said it was also not possible to establish contact with the leaders of the protests and it could no longer be assumed that the protest would remain peaceful.
The site near the factory has been under investigation for suspected ordnance left from World War II for some time. Unexploded bombs are still found frequently in Germany almost 80 years after the end of the war, and often during work on construction sites. They are usually defused or disposed of in controlled explosions, a process that sometimes entails large-scale evacuations as a precaution.