Daniel Chatard's documentary photos on coal mining in Germany

A bucket-wheel excavator stands in the snowy open-cast lignite mine – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland

Between stony fronts. Since 2017, Portrait of photographer Daniel Chatard Daniel Chatard has been photographing the conflict surrounding coal mining in North Rhine-Westphalia in his work “No Man’s Land”.

11.08.2022 Text: Finn Winkler Photos: Daniel Chatard

Daniel is stunned when his friend tells him the story of threatened villages to be forcibly relocated for lignite mining in Germany. Curious, he decides to travel to the Rhineland and investigate further. There, he meets activists who live in tree houses as part of their campaign against the logging of Hambach Forest.

Contact with them is difficult at first. The activists are suspicious of the media and only want to be photographed hooded. But Daniel doesn’t let up: He keeps driving to the Rhineland, spending the night in the forest. He even helps build tree houses. He soon succeeds in winning the trust of the activists. They also show him how to climb into the tree houses: You secure yourself to two loops. Like a caterpillar, you then pull yourself up, piece by piece.

Meanwhile, Daniel is also working on a book dummy. For this purpose, he is on the road again in the Rhineland to have affected people from the villages write down their thoughts. For him, this creates an exciting dialogue: The meaning of his images is renegotiated. These thoughts and quotes will be published at the end with his photographs.

Daniel Chatard now lives in the Netherlands. His work has been published in ZEIT, National Geographic, and the Washington Post, among others. The exchange during his studies meant a lot to him, as did the solidarity of his fellow students: “Even if you were stuck on something, someone could always explain it to you,” says the photographer. “No Man’s Land” was nominated for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award in 2018 and exhibited at the FOTODOKS Festival in Munich the following year.

A family stands in front of their new house in the resettlement village of Manheim-neu in Kerpen – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **In February 2020,** residents of the resettlement site “Manheim-neu” wait for the passing carnival procession.

Hundreds of activists in white protective suits march in a long line across a meadow near Bedburg – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **Demonstrators of the action alliance** “Ende Gelände” evade a police blockade during an action in August 2017 and climb a hill back onto the road.

An empty village street with brick houses and a church tower in the fog in Erkelenz – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **In November 2021,** the new German government announces its intention to save Keyenberg and four other villages threatened by the Garzweiler II opencast lignite mine. About 80 per cent of the inhabitants had already been relocated by this time.

**Activists carry** a tree trunk through the forest to build a tree house with it.

An activist with blond curls stands among trees in the Hambach Forest – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **“Robin” inhabited** the Hambach Forest for several months. Almost no one here knows the others’ real names, so aliases a.

An activists’ tree house in the crown of an old oak in the Hambach Forest – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **Meanwhile,** **the Hambach Forest is occupied by dozens of tree houses**, the highest at about 25 meters. Almost all tree houses can only be reached by climbing, making them difficult to clear.

You must learn to climb if you want to get into the tree houses. You secure yourself with two loops. Like a caterpillar, you then pull yourself up, piece by piece.

A man carries a large wooden cross through a village in Erkelenz during a protest procession – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **In January 2021,** the alliance “Kirche(n) im Dorf lassen” organised a blessing of the houses still standing in Lützerath. A few months later, RWE will demolish some of them.

Excavators demolish the twin-towered church of Immerath as people watch – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **To expand the Garzweiler open pit mine**, the parish church of St. Lambertus, popularly known as “Immerather Dom”, will be demolished in January 2018.

**Marita Dresen is involved in the alliance “Alle Dörfer bleiben”** (All Villages Remain) to preserve the villages threatened by the Garzweiler II open pit mine, whose resettlement began in 2016.

**Several hundred activists** entered the Hambach open pit mine during an action by the “Ende Gelände” action alliance in November 2017.

**Police officers carry away** a demonstrator after they have surrounded him with hundreds of others in a field in front of the coal railroad tracks. All demonstrators are taken away in buses.

An older man sits on pallets in front of a tent at the Lützerath protest camp – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **Fred and many other local activists** are fighting to preserve the village of Lützerath.

A wall full of holy pictures and devotional objects in a house in Hochneukirch – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **In the Otzenrath House Museum,** Inge Broska, a former village resident, exhibits found objects left behind during the village’s resettlement.

New houses on an unfinished street in the resettlement village of Manheim-neu, Kerpen – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **The Manheim-neu** resettlement site is located a few kilometres away from Mannheim. The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 2011; today, about 1,000 people live there.

Two activists with climbing gear in a wooden hut in Keyenberg – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **Activists Robin and Jillie** live in the tree houses even in sub-zero temperatures.

**The Hambach lignite mine** is 400 meters deep, and a residual lake will be created from it one day. Filling the lake with water from the Rhine is expected to take several decades. However, environmental groups doubt the feasibility of the project.

A tattooed activist wearing a neckerchief stands in the Hambach Forest – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **“Clumsy” was already present** at the first forest occupation in 2012 and has lived in Hambacher Forst almost continuously for over five years.

Activists on wooden tripods and ropes during the eviction in the Hambach Forest near Merzenich – Daniel Chatard’s photo series ‘No Man’s Land’ on lignite mining in the Rhineland — **Police and SEK officers** cleared the tree house settlement “Lorien” in Hambach Forest during the evictions in September 2018.

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