Enlarge image

Accident on federal highway 5 after the road blockade with manure, liquid manure and wood

Photo:

Christian Pörschmann/dpa

They called it the “Night of 1000 Tons”: On Sunday evening, several tractors, trucks and cars gathered on Federal Highway 5 near Elstal, west of Berlin.

They dumped rubbish, wood, dung heaps and manure onto the road - apparently without warning - and thereby completely blocked it.

In the westbound direction, manure was spread over several hundred meters.

It was more than just another protest by farmers, as the preliminary results show: There were three traffic accidents, some of them serious, when cars drove into the blockades.

According to police, a total of five people were injured and taken to hospital.

Call the company owner

Operation reports show that the behavior of the blockers was sometimes extremely aggressive.

Accordingly, activists behaved uncooperatively and did not want to speak to the police.

Referrals were ignored.

Finally, the emergency services called in a rescue company to clear at least one lane each.

But after the towing company had cleared the first blocking vehicle aside, the company owner, according to investigators, received a call: He was threatened that his company would also be blocked if he continued to work with the police.

Officers were then seconded to the salvage company's headquarters for protection.

In addition, according to SPIEGEL information, a lawyer contacted the emergency services - who conveyed a demand from the protesters: If Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir came to the scene, the blockade would be lifted immediately.

In total, the police identified the personal details of around 20 people.

The state farmers' association hastened to distance itself from the action: President Henrik Wendorff said they had nothing to do with the unannounced blockades.

Boundaries were exceeded during the action.

It took until Monday before the road was completely passable again.

In addition to the B5 - a four-lane road between Berlin and the Havelland, often used by commuters - there were also protests in Groß Glienicke and at the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam.

When asked by SPIEGEL, a spokesman for the responsible police department said that there had been "a high single-digit number of criminal complaints" in connection with the blockades - among other things, investigations were underway for dangerous interference with road traffic, bodily harm and violations of the assembly law.

The background to the actions is the dissatisfaction of many farmers with the policies of the government and the EU.

In Germany and other countries there have been repeated protests in recent weeks, sometimes accompanied by large traffic blockades and tractor demonstrations in large cities.

In Germany, anger was sparked by planned subsidy cuts.

Right-wing extremist circles also repeatedly tried to infiltrate the protests and exploit them for their political goals.

srö/ulz