The highly disputed “Stuttgart 21” railway construction site is seen on my photo from October 3rd, 2010. The German national railway company, “Deutsche Bahn” has begun to proceed their prestige project after a two and half month halt in April. The “Suttgart 21” is a project planned to replace the current terminal main station of Stuttgart with an underground station which is supposed to be more effective. Facing the enormous financial and environmental costs, as more than a hundred of old trees in a nearby park have to be cut according to the project plans, it has many opponents.
The environmental issue of the protest followed the election of the first Green Party-ruled government in the traditionally conservative state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, as the Green Party promised to revise the project.
But the contracts concerning the project don’t seem to be revisable. Thus the issue “Stuttgart 21” remains very exiting during the next months.
Although the amount of protesters has decreased in the last months, this issue will be of high significance near the nuclear power phase-out issue for the German politics in the coming elections.
