Germans outraged over historic church demolition

The demolition of a historic German church to clear the way for the expansion of an open-cast mine this week has outraged locals and environmentalists, as politicians moot giving up their own clean energy targets.

Built in large part by local people and consecrated in 1891, St Lambertus church in Immerath, North Rhine-Westphalia state, was ripped down by diggers’ hydraulic arms on Monday and Tuesday, leaving a heap of rubble where the neoRoman nave and twin towers once stood.

Police brought in reinforcements Monday to manage a crowd of protesters who held up the demolition for five hours, local newspaper reported.

“Those who destroy culture destroy people too,” a banner held up by Greenpeace demonstrators read.

Immerath and its church have been doomed since 2013, when Germany’s constitutional court found that there was an overwhelming public interest in allowing energy firm RWE to expand its nearby Garzweiler open-cast brown coal mine.

Almost all the 900 villagers have long since quit their homes, among a total of 7,900 people from the region making way for the mine, while the Catholic church was deconsecrated in preparation for its destruction.

The demolition has drawn attention to the nation’s mining of brown coal, as calls grow to reduce greenhouse emissions by ending use of the cheap but polluting fuel.