Erkelenz --
The death of the village is sealed. Many houses have no numbers more. Doors and windows are screwed up with plywood.
The idyll of the small village Erkelenz Pesch has long been passé. In just two years, the last residents will have to leave Pesch.
Then, the location of the lignite mine Garzweiler II soft. "Here people still live. There is no free lunch, "proclaims a sign on a house.
Background: When the translocation is almost complete, and people come to steal. Heating systems, windows, gates, and even stairs. Anything you can do homeowners. "For this to occur even from the Ruhr and Holland," says Hans-Peter Hoffmann.
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35,000 people displaced Coal
He lives in Erkelenz-Pesch, the ghost town in which lived only ten years ago 250 people. Then began the translocation. "If at the beginning of pulls away, then the not so striking," says Hoffmann. But now they are only 29 here.
The mine operators, RWE Power has taken over. In the past manicured gardens, the chain has done a great job. Diversion at the entrance gives the impression that there was no longer Pesch.
"It hurts when you see it all," Hoffman admits. He and his wife lived for 26 years in an old farmhouse. They have hired him at that time and fulfilled her dream of life on the land. Then son Yannic (14) and daughter Iris (were 12) to the world.
"Slowly it is time to go," he says. Mentally, they are long on the bounce. Hoffman waits for his owner agrees with the mine operators will. For a long time both to negotiate compensation. Only if enough money, the landlord at the relocation site to build for him. "Another possibility does not exist for us."
But time is running out. Hoffmann have until 30 December 2011 be gone - at the end of the village can be seen when looking across the fields is already closer to excavators.
