The eviction of Lützerath: the village being destroyed for a coalmine – a photo essay

After Lutzerath in Germany was emptied of its residents to make way for the Garzweiler coalmine, protesters occupied the deserted village while waiting for a showdown with the police. The photographer Ingmar Bjorn Nolting reports from the village that was to become the fortress of an energy company

Since 2020, environmental activists have been occupying the trees, fields and houses in Lutzerath, a hamlet near the North Rhine-Westphalian town of Erkelenz. They oppose the eviction of the village and the energy company RWE, which wants to extract the millions of tonnes of lignite that lie beneath the village.

Lignite mining opponents during a demonstration in Lutzerath, on 8 January