A long-dormant debate could be reopened if Washington opts to deploy missiles to Europe.
Elke Koller stands on the “peace law” outside the Büchell air base. By Griff Witte Griff Witte Europe-focused correspondent with extensive experience in the Middle East and South Asia Email Bio Follow March 4 at 5:00 AM BÜCHEL, Germany — The home Elke Koller chose for her retirement has horse pastures and bird song, a tranquil garden where her grandchildren love to play and views that stretch for miles across the green hills of western Germany’s Eifel region.
With the Trump administration’s decision last month to ditch the treaty that ended an era-defining standoff — and with Russia following suit — the prospect of a nuclear arms race is back. And so is the debate over whether Europe should host more American weapons of mass destruction. Technically, the two nations have the next five months to try to salvage the deal. But no one is very optimistic.
Their populations weren’t always so acquiescent, however. The stationing of thousands of nuclear missiles across Europe spawned mass protests. A half-million people converged on Bonn, West Germany, in what were the largest demonstrations in that short-lived nation’s history. The controversy contributed to the collapse of Chancellor Helmut Schmidt’s government.
“When I say to people that I live near atomic bombs, they say, ‘No, it’s a lie. Germany has no atomic bombs,’ ” said Koller, the retired pharmacist. It has been a somewhat lonely struggle. In a politically conservative region that relies on the German military to provide jobs and boost the economy, her neighbors may occasionally give a furtive thumb’s up. But they have been reluctant to provide open support.“When I go to a bar, people say to me, ‘You people are crazy. You’re destroying our jobs,’ ” said Rüdiger Lancelle, a 79-year-old retired teacher and longtime antinuclear activist.
Tempel will be going to jail for a week later this month after infiltrating the base during a protest last year. In response to the breach, the German military is constructing a taller and more forbidding security fence, to the tune of about $12 million.
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