July 1986: Showdown against radiation – At the fifth “Anti-WAahnsinns Festival” near Wackersdorf, the entire German rock elite protests
Everyone was afraid. Before mushrooms and berries. And that Chernobyl would not remain an isolated case. The catastrophe there on April 26, 1986 confirmed to everyone what opponents of nuclear power had long feared: that nuclear energy can never really be controlled. The mood in Germany was reflected in thousands of brightly colored “Nuclear power? No thanks!” stickers that were suddenly everywhere. It was no longer just a few hundred strange autonomous people, but citizens who had previously been classified as unsuspicious by the state, who expressed resistance and no longer wanted nuclear waste, at least not in their immediate vicinity. Now, unfortunately, a reprocessing plant was to be built in Wackersdorf, Upper Palatinate, at exactly this time.
Opponents had already built a hut village and demonstrators were repeatedly arrested. The first “Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival” in Burglengenfeld took place in 1982, but only the fifth, on July 26th and 27th, 1986, turned out to be a showdown against radiation: it became the largest German festival of all time, which was not Only 120,000 visitors came, but the entire elite of so-called German rock. It was the heyday of German rock music. The NDW had subsided and the fun was over.
By the time of “Live Aid” and “Nackt im Wind” the local musicians had discovered their social conscience, so Wackersdorf came at just the right time. They didn’t want any money for the performances and, for once, they also eschewed vanity. Die Toten Hosen resigned themselves to the fact that they should be on stage alongside “those rock people” like Wolf Maahn and Herbert Grönemeyer.
Udo Lindenberg whistled for his panic orchestra and was accompanied by a not bad band called BAP. Of course, Bavarian local heroes like Haindling and the Biermösl Blosn were also there. Everyone spoke of solidarity and had fun doing it. The word “do-gooder” didn’t play a role yet. It was the one weekend in Germany where pop and protest came together without being embarrassing. At the end everyone sang “Tell me where the flowers are” and Rio Reiser crowed “Over The Rainbow”. After 28 hours of the program everyone was exhausted and the work was done. Construction of the WAA Wackersdorf was stopped three years later. The protests later continued in Sellafield, UK, where one of the great protesters of the 80s became active: Bono.