It looks like the end of the road for Germany’s biggest vintage-car rally, which has been cancelled just days before it was due to take place, amid environmental concerns and pressure from green groups.
The event, known as the ‘Klassikertreffen’ or ‘classic-car meeting’, was expected to draw some 30,000 enthusiasts and around 2,000 vintage vehicles to the town of Rüsselsheim over the weekend of June 25.
However, the annual gathering of petrolheads, which had been taking place since 2001, appears to have hit the buffers.
The reason given for cancelling the event was that the chosen location, a meadow by the river Main, is a ‘protected landscape’ area.
No doubt the decision to stall the meeting will come as a blow to Rüsselsheim, which is a famed ‘Autostadt’, or ‘car-town’, owing to the fact that it is the site of vehicle-maker Opel’s main factory. As the Bild media outlet notes, auto-culture is a big part of the town’s identity.
Speaking to the Brussels Signal Jan Burdinski, a Berlin-based political consultant and part-time motor-head, agreed with this sentiment. “It’s an example highlighting how far Green policy makers and NGOs have become estranged from ordinary citizens,” he said, “Old-timers [classic cars] are the heritage of our once proud automotive industry. They should be celebrated and not banned!”
Initially, Rüsselsheim’s conservation authority had given the green light on the basis that it was the only place available that met safety and security requirements regarding the car festival.
However, a local branch of the Friends of the Earth (known by the acronym BUND in Germany) called the decision to allow the event “scandalous”.
Branch members lodged a complaint with the conservation authority of Darmstadt region, thus going above the heads of Rüsselsheim officials. The regional authority then instructed the local administration to cancel the event, a ruling upheld in court after Rüsselsheim’s council challenged its legality.
Fuelling further controversy was the fact that the event was cancelled with only a few days’ notice.
Stefan Naas, a spokesman for the local branch of the liberal Free Democrat Party, criticised the decision, telling Bild: “The short-term cancellation harms the city, the citizens and the many companies affected. What worked for years suddenly no longer works – it damages trust in the state.”
Some are also placing blame for the event being ditched on the Green leadership of the Darmstadt region, where the president is Green party member, Bridget Lindscheid. Naas said that she had “not shown any tact” in her handling of the issue.
While members of the green NGO BUND maintained they had no problem with the festival itself, only its location, Naas remained sceptical of the motives and the manner in which the cancellation came about. “For years this festival has taken place in the same place without any problems, without the regional president intervening, and suddenly it is prohibited at short notice,” he said.
“They are not looking for a milder remedy or a common solution,” he added.
