![Der Ort Lützerath besteht aus sieben Häusern / © Foto: Georg Berg](https://tellerrandstories.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ek_8328-lutzerath-2m80e6g-eyeturner-georg-berg-1024x683.jpg)
While in other places the protest and sympathy was mainly for the inhabitants who had to forcibly give up their homes, now it is the climate. That fossil fuels have always been harmful to the climate was somehow clear, just not in the foreground in earlier protests.
![Hängematte über der Spülstraße im Hüttendorf / © Foto: Georg Berg](https://tellerrandstories.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ek_8389-lutzerath-2m80fek-eyeturner-georg-berg-1024x683.jpg)
The squatters of Lützerath also made themselves at home in their camp. The self-built huts and communal facilities in this settlement bear witness to this. All those who came here were able to participate in the realization of this idea: Lützerath seals a thick layer of lignite underneath it, which must not be burned. Because this is the only way to meet the climate target.
![Polizisten versuchen, einen Klimaaktivisten aus einem Autowrack zu entfernen, in dem er sich zusammen mit einem Kanaldeckel festgeklebt hat. Das Autowrack ist mit einem stabilen Pfeiler als Barrikade auf einer Zufahrtsstraße nach Lützerath fixiert / © Foto: Georg Berg](https://tellerrandstories.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ek_8364-lutzerath-2m80etr-eyeturner-georg-berg-1024x683.jpg)
For all its determination, the resistance remains non-violent. Those who are here do not leave voluntarily but cause delays with a lot of creativity. The more elaborate the operation is and the longer it lasts, the more the question arises whether the political compromise is worth this price.
![Auch wenn man auf der anderen Seite steht, kann man über Klimaziele durchaus einer Meinung sein / © Foto: Georg Berg](https://tellerrandstories.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/dj_5154-lutzerath-2m805n9-eyeturner-georg-berg-1024x683.jpg)
For the most part, the activists’ conversations with the police officers involved are matter-of-fact. “I’m taking all this on myself for your kids, too.” The exchange of ideas that follows such statements makes many a police officer think.
![Hoffnungsträger am Abgrund / © Foto: Georg Berg](https://tellerrandstories.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/ek_8490-lutzerath-2m80hw9-eyeturner-georg-berg-1024x683.jpg)
Only in places like Lützerath can you try to really understand some problems.
Activity against resignation
Seven years earlier, in the neighboring village of Borschemich, the situation was quite different.
![Blick von Lützerath in die Grube des Braunkohe-Tagebaus Gartzweiler II. Dort stand noch vor wenigen Jahren Borschemich, das Nachbardorf von Lützerath / © Foto: Georg Berg](https://tellerrandstories.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/dj_5159-lutzerath-erkelenz-germany-11th-jan-2023-eyeturner-georg-berg-1024x683.jpg)
At the edge of the pit near Lützerath, there is a wide view of the open pit lignite mine. Where now the huge hole yawns, there were many villages whose inhabitants were resettled. Where the big excavator now stands, the former inhabitants of Borschemich, who have since scattered to build a new home, met on February 27, 2016. They had arranged to meet at the old village square to cut down the old village lime tree themselves.
![Gruppenbild / © Foto: Georg Berg](https://tellerrandstories.de/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/db_4382-borschemich-2bykmaj-eyeturner-georg-berg-1024x683.jpg)
All the former villagers had to endure their own loss due to the relocation. Together, however, they did not want to leave the old lime tree, with which everyone had something pleasant in common, to be heartlessly destroyed by RWE. They met over soup and beer, exchanged memories and in the end one or the other took a piece of the old lime tree with them to their new home. The village trutz is felled.