February 17, 1975
Several hundred residents of Wyhl, Germany, located just outside of the Kaiserstuhl wine-growing area in the southwestern corner of Germany, occupied the site of a nuclear power plant with the intent of halting construction. The contractor had begun building despite a court order to suspend doing so. Police responded to the protesters with dogs, water cannon and arrests. By the following week, however, over 25,000, from the nearby university town of Freiburg, had joined the occupation, and police withdrew. Following the negotiated withdrawal of the occupiers, a panel of judges permanently banned construction of the plant, and the land is now a nature preserve. Anti-nuclear success at Wyhl inspired nuclear opposition in the rest of Europe and North America.
