The Fight Against Damaging Expansion: 50 Years of Environmental Activism on the Main River by Bund Naturschutz Würzburg

“The ships have to be adapted to the river and not the other way around.” With this sentence, Karin Miethaner-Vent, then chairwoman of the Würzburg district group of the Bund Naturschutz in Bayern (BN), summarized the reason for the protests against the expansion of the Main in an article by this editorial team in spring 1998.

The ultimately unsuccessful fight against straightening curves and deeper fairways lasted several years and is an important part of the history of the district group, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a big party on June 17th around the Ökohaus.

Resistance to the destruction of nature on the banks of the Main

Since plans to expand the Main became known in the mid-1990s, there has been resistance to the destruction of nature and habitats on the banks of the Main, the strengthening of the bank areas with stone deposits and the deepening of the fairways to more than three meters.

“That was needed for the ever larger ships, and the curves have hindered the ever longer ships,” says Miethaner-Vent today: “The most striking thing is the bend at Winterhausen, which has been properly straightened.”

There is a hint of resignation in her voice when she remembers the actions of that time. It was possible to forge an alliance with other environmental protection associations and the fisheries association. There were demonstrations, boat trips, artists erected red and white grave crosses on the banks of the Main, nature conservationists took part in all local meetings and discussions and wrote countless statements. On the other side stood powerful federal authorities. Miethaner-Vent’s conclusion: “Only minimal small things have been achieved.”

The Main is a chain of reservoirs

From the point of view of the BN, the problems began with the construction of numerous locks in the 1950s. A total of 34 barrages between Bamberg and the mouth of the Main into the Rhine near Mainz “created a chain of reservoirs, that was the main sin,” emphasizes the former chair of the district group.

The expansion of the Main was justified with forecasts that assumed a significant increase in goods transport on the Main federal waterway. Miethaner-Vent speaks of “dizziness in the forecasts right from the start” and “fairytale numbers of ships, all of which of course go to Austria or Romania from us”.

Nowadays one would probably also speak of “greenwashing” if the transport of goods by water is touted as ecological, but the excavation and rubble from the dredging of the fairways is handled overland with numerous trucks – there was fierce resistance to this in Grafenrheinfeld in 2018.

One finding of the protests almost 30 years ago: “Despite our public relations work, the topic did not really go down well with the population. People only approached us when the excavators came,” recalls Steffen Jodl, managing director of the Würzburg district group for three decades.

The expansion of the Main between Mainz and Würzburg was completed in 2002. “One of the most important and most beautiful German waterways has emerged from a relatively low-water river,” says the website of the Water and Shipping Administration.

The Main should actually be in good ecological condition by 2027

The BN is of a different opinion: “Our waters are in a devastating state. This is also due to the expansion and not just to climate change,” emphasizes Karin Miethaner-Vent. Many retention areas for the flood runoff have been lost, and despite various measures, numerous fish continue to die on their migration to and from the spawning areas at the barrages with the turbines of the hydroelectric power plants.

The European Union has had a water framework directive for years, which gives the federal government the task of bringing all water bodies into an ecologically good state by 2027 at the latest. “Practically nothing has happened yet, the fight goes on,” says Steffen Jodl. He assumes that the responsible authorities will not act in time, even with the threat of fines from the EU: “They accept that they won’t make it by 2027.”