Baden-Württemberg: 50 years of Schönbuch Nature Park places great emphasis on nature education

An airport was almost built in Schönbuch.

Baden-Württemberg: 50 years of Schönbuch Nature Park places great emphasis on nature education

An airport was almost built in Schönbuch. But a citizens' initiative fought and won. That was 50 years ago. Since then, the nature park has also developed into a place of education.

Tübingen (dpa / lsw) - Baden-Württemberg's oldest nature park, the Schönbuch nature park, wants to increasingly focus on offering nature education for children and young people. "It's important for children to be able to do something themselves. In the past two years, 4,000 children have created flower meadows themselves in our nature park," says the chairwoman of the Schönbuch nature park, Anja Peck. The Schönbuch Nature Park celebrates its 50th anniversary on Saturday and Sunday.

If the Baden-Württemberg state government at the time had had its way, it would have been 50 years of Schönbuch Airport today. Due to the increase in air traffic, the state government had been planning the construction of a new major airport for Stuttgart since the mid-1960s. From the start, Schönbuch was one of the favored locations.

The Schönbuch seemed ideal as an airport location because it mostly has only one forest owner with the state and this would have simplified the negotiations, it is relatively centrally located in the greater Stuttgart area and as a closed, largely uninhabited forest area would have caused only minor resettlement. In 1969, a "Schönbuchflughafen" working group was formed to oppose the project, with representatives from districts, communities, authorities and various organizations.

Finally, in 1972, the pressure on the state government was intensified by an open letter from a citizens' initiative founded in Tübingen, in which they called on the state to "bindingly declare that the construction of a major airport in Schönbuch will not take place". In March 1972, the Schönbuch was declared a nature park by the then Prime Minister Hans Filbinger (CDU) and has been protected by law ever since.