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Mosel bridge opponents lobby German chancellor
May 13, 2009
By Rebecca Gibb
Opponents of a planned road bridge and motorway through some of the Mosel's finest vineyards have made a last ditch appeal to the German Chancellor.
In an open letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel, local campaigners have called for work to be stopped on a 160-metre high 4-lane highway bridge across the Mosel near Bernkastel in Germany. All legal challenges have failed and now they are appealing for media support to lobby politicians.
Ernst Loosen, who has vineyard land which will run below the new motorway, told decanter.com 'There can be the biggest protests and nothing will happen. The vineyards are not important to the government. The road is not important at all, it will only save a 20 minute journey.'
Forest land above top-rated vineyards of Urzig, Zeltlingen and Wehlen will be flattened to make way for the road. It is feared this will create major drainage problems and cause high levels of pollution.
However, Markus Berg, a winemaker at Weinhaus Burg-Schneider, based 10km from the bridge, said: 'Nothing can be done about it now. But I'm happy about it because we will bring more people to the area which will help tourism.'
http://tinyurl.com/Merkel-contact
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Oxford and Cambridge specialists in the Vandals of Germany's dark ages - the tribe that sacked Rome in 455 - need not despair. They have not run out of material as long as Kurt Beck remains Minister President of the Rhineland-Pfalz.
If his projected eyesore bridge is completed, Beck will live in infamy for having carried vandalism into the 21st century. And if Chancellor Angela Merkel does not intervene to block it, lovers of German riesling - a form of high culture - will remember her as Merkel the Mosel Killer.
This unspeakably ugly bridge, which would disfigure one of winedom's most memorable landscapes and could endanger its terroir, is sheer madness. Like an infamous public-works project in Alaska that ultimately was defeated in the American Congress, it is 'a bridge to nowhere.'
Both Ernst Loosen, whose tireless efforts on behalf of Mosel wine are appreciated the world over, and his nearby colleagues deserve better from vulgar politicians who would risk turning their region and its crown-jewel vineyards in Zeltingen, Wehlen, Graach and Bernkastel into slag heaps.
Howard G. Goldberg, New York City
Some years ago there was a similar protest against the French planning a highway in the Medoc. Fortunately the french authorities listened and the project was stopped, let's hope that the German government will listen as well. You cannot throw away hundreds of years of history of the top-Riesling in the world.
Dick ten Voorde, Italy
Kudos to Ernie Loosen and his colleagues for continuing to protest this lunacy. I guess that since Herr Berg's vineyards are 10 km away, he is not directly affected. This type of human geography, i.e., the bridge and its adjacent motorways, was my major area of study at university. I hate to burst Herr Berg's bubble but this sort of transportation planning is unlikely to bring tourism to the region but rather route traffic “through” or “past” the area, all the while providing the eyesores and pollution. Though I'm not optimistic, I hope the bridge opponents keep fighting to the end.
Steven Drotos, Beamsville, Ontario, Canada
I simply cannot understand why there is not a far greater storm of protest about this.
For any of the millions around the world who love German wines, the hills, river valley and ancient vineyards around Bernkastel are one of the most revered, cherished and iconic landscapes on this planet, easily on a par with the Hill of Corton or the undulating planes of the Medoc.
I have not (yet) visited this most beautiful of winelands but, as Hugh Johnson has said, anyone who truly delights in the incomparable wines of this area travels there in his mind and thoughts.
This motorway and bridge would be an act of barbarous desecration and historical, cultural and environmental vandalism - quite apart from the possible (and, of course, interminably debatable) adverse effects on the drainage and micro-geology of some of the oldest and finest vineyards in the world.
So when are we going to hear some of the really big names in the wine world giving Jancis Robinson, Ernie Loosen and Sarah Washington a bit of support? The silence so far has been deafening. Is everyone too engrossed in the more self-indulgent aspects of our life's passion?
Robert Devillier, Suffolk, UK
As far as I understand it from Erni Loosen when he was on our Awin Barratt Siegel Wine Agencies stand last Tuesday, it is not only the eyesore that this bridge will become as it spans the Mosel and crosses right into the legendary 'Grand Cru' rated Urziger Wurzgarten vineyards, but the infra structure leading to the bridge. On the Welener Sonnenuhr, Graacher Himmelreich, Bernkasteler side, the proposed 'super-highway' will completely seal a great swathe of land running along the ridge above these vineyards. At present the forested area up there acts as a sponge from rainfall, resulting in resevoirs of water which naturally drip feed into these vineyards supplying much needed moisture into the very pervious blue slate soil. Imagine how this will affect these great vineyards in hot, drought years that have become rather more prevalent.
Nigel Blundell of ABS Wines Agencies, UK
It is very hard to believe that some Germans are going to ruin their best vineyards for the purpose of a motorway, which can be placed elsewhere. I am feeling a deep sadness and despair. The traffic on the bridge will not bring tourists to the spot, only pollution, distortion, and trouble for the magnificent vines. Please, Please, Please. This is one of the most magic vine spots on the entire planet and the sole reason I developed an interest in German vines and vine culture many years before I became old enough to be allowed to drink the vine. Saying yes to the bridge in this location is the same as proving for all eternity that Germany is no longer a nation of culture. How sad the world and coming generations will be.
Please everyone; send an e-mail to the nearest German embassy.
Alexander Dey, Norway
I would like to encourage - make that very strongly encourage! - as many readers of Decanter online as possible to use the link to the German Chancellor's website to send a message of vigorous protest against this breathtakingly stupid environmental vandalism. Frau Merkel has been making noises for some time that suggest she would like to be seen as some kind of "green" politician, and this is a an excellent opportunity to put her to the test (and to pit her against the SPD Ministerpraesident of Rheinland-Pfalz, the bull-headed Kurt Beck, who is in favour of this project). Let's try to prevent a Johnny-Come-Lately, tenth-rate, utterly superfluous, monster bridge from spoiling first-class, centuries-old vineyards and their idyllic setting, which are the only "bridges" (to the past and the future) this section of the Mosel needs.
Dr Gregory Sims, Berlin
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