Chasing Coal

The German lignite industry and the struggle for a just green transition

- ROCCO RORANDELLI

ON A RAINY NOVEMBER DAY in 2021 in the Ruhr Valley, Germany’s mining heartland, I sat with Helmut Kehrmann in his family home, in the village of Alt-Keyenberg. The room was empty, with the exception of a chair and a few boxes lying in a corner. Marks left by furniture and fixtures were still visible on the dusty wooden floor. This was the last time Helmut visited his house.

Residents of Alt-Keyenberg are under eviction orders. The nearby Garzweiler open-pit mine, producing brown coal, or lignite, is expanding. RWE AG, the mine’s owner and Germany’s largest energy company, has purchased most of the village. Demolitions will begin once the acquisition is complete, razing the village by 2024 to make space for the lignite mine.

“It is difficult to leave your home behind,” Kehrmann murmured, staring absently at the empty walls. Alt-Keyenberg is one of six villages threatened by the expansion of the Garzweiler open-pit mine. The village used to have around one thousand inhabitants, but now less than two hundred and fifty remain. Resettlements started in 2016, and most residents moved to the new village of Neu Keyenberg, a few kilometres away. In the past seventy years, lignite mining has claimed nearly fifty villages in the region, displacing more than 40,000 people. The figures countrywide are even grimmer—about 1,20,000 people relocated and 370 villages demolished.