Die letzte Buche

Die letzte Buche - The last beech

On 14th November 1981 more than 120’000 people demonstrated against the construction of the 4km long runway west, Startbahn West, a new part of the Rhein/Main-Airport in Frankfurt, Germany.

Peaceful walks through the forest sometimes turned into clashes with the police. Activists joint locals in their resistance. The composition, a 2.30 min. piece by Heiner Goebbels, 1982, carries a narration of an elderly local woman, who recalls a situation with her husband, which took her by surprise after 35 years of marriage ::

One day he came home as usual, dinner was ready, but he refused his food and said to me ::
“imagine, how forests resist. today, I went to the place where the last beech was logged last years. I counted 30 seedlings, sprouting from the ground.”
This made me wonder how deep his fear is to loose his homeland once more.