The protest camp in the Fechenheim forest, which climate activists had set up to demonstrate against the construction of the Riederwald tunnel in the east of Frankfurt, was largely cleared within one day on Wednesday.

At around five o'clock, the police were already blocking roads in the area, including Autobahn 66 between Maintal-Dörnigheim and Frankfurt-Bergen-Enkheim.

However, buses and trains could continue.

Officials spread out at the entrances to the forest area to prevent the influx of further demonstrators.

Everyone who still wanted to get onto the premises was checked and given a place reference.

Ralph Euler

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung, responsible for the Rhein-Main section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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Catherine Iskandar

Responsible editor for the "Rhein-Main" department of the Sunday newspaper.

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Until later in the morning it was unclear how many demonstrators were actually in the forest.

And in the course of the morning, the police could only estimate the number and put it "in the low double-digit range".

When the police approached, most of the demonstrators had retreated into the tree houses or climbed unsecured over rope traverses and sat there.

The rope constructions, the police had made clear early on, posed the greatest risk – primarily for the squatters themselves, but also for everyone else involved.

The climate activists made no secret of the fact that the trusses were deliberately connected to the surrounding trees.

One activist said if you cut a rope, you fall.

"That way the trees are protected." The police deployed officers from the Height Intervention Team who are specially trained for such operations.

They reached the occupiers with lifting platforms in order to secure them and bring them down unharmed.

It was far more difficult for those activists who had climbed further into the treetops from their tree houses – up to twenty meters high.

The police appealed several times to refrain from doing this, the branches were no longer stable at this height.

“Protecting the climate is not a crime”

During the eviction, two vigils formed at the edge of the forest on Borsigallee, one at a construction trailer and one at the entrance to the forest at the ramp to the A66 at the Hessen-Center.

With drums, colorful clothing and songs, around 40 people signaled their solidarity with the activists in the camp.

Among other things, they shouted “Climate protection is not a crime”.

Regarding the question of whether the police should be allowed to vacate at all as long as the complaint of a forest squatter, which had failed in the first instance before the Frankfurt Administrative Court, had not yet been decided, the police said in the morning that they had received the signal from the Administrative Court (VGH). that nothing stands in the way of an eviction.

Accordingly, the court “expressly sees no reason to issue an interim order.

Since there is no suspensive effect, enforcement measures are still possible without restrictions during the decision-making process of the VGH".

The police operation was also accompanied by parliamentary observers from the parties represented in the state parliament.

The left-wing politician Ulrich Wilken described the first day of the eviction as "calm and orderly" and that the police acted "very communicatively".

This was also confirmed by the parliamentary observers of the Greens, Katy Walther, and the FDP, Stefan Naas.

They spoke of a "prudent behavior" on both sides.

Via traverses from one tree to the next

It remained unclear until the afternoon whether the police would be able to get all the activists out of the forest on Wednesday.

The squatters made the evacuation difficult by climbing over the trusses from one tree to the next.

The Hessian Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) visited the emergency services in the Fechenheim forest in the morning, thanked them for their commitment and appealed to the opponents of the motorway project to refrain from violence in their protests.

Peaceful demonstrations and advocacy for nature and environmental protection enriched democracy, said Rhein.

The police in Frankfurt only ensure that a construction project that has been decided on under the rule of law can be safely advanced.