The Runway. The Conflict Surrounding the Expansion of Frankfurt Airport 1962 - 1987

• Applicant: Dr. Michael Schüring
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 444008795

For over two decades until 1987 the extension of Frankfurt Airport through the construction of a new takeoff runway (Startbahn 18 West) was accompanied by vivid protests of environmentalists and local residents. The study aims to explain why it was this particular project that galvanized a protest movement of considerable size and duration. The approach will be object centered, following the so called “material turn” in science and technology studies. What properties of the runway made it the target of relentless protest, occasionally resulting in violence, and what properties made it so attractive for planners and engineers who would aim to see it through unmoved by its unpopularity? The runway was opposed due to its extensive noise pollution and the fact that it would remove a forest that locals used for recreation. This could be dismissed as a mere “not-in-my backyard” reaction of limited scope, but the movement expanded beyond the boundaries of regional concerns. It should be noted, additionally, that the runway did not represent the introduction of a new technology, while the risk of a major accident that would affect an entire population seemed negligible. Also, aviation was not a technology that could be “phased out” such as nuclear energy and the burning of coal. The question thus is: What was at stake for both supporters and protesters?The hypothesis of this work is that the runway was the concrete outgrowth of a technocratic regime allegedly lacking democratic legitimacy. It was thus both a tangible disturbance of suburban living and a symbol for a tenacious elite that moved along with plans that promised enhanced aeromobility and economic growth. The aim is to follow the runway’s material qualities through several layers of discourse. It touched upon environmental, medical, economic, political and cultural concerns. The discourse analysis will place the runway within a network of material and social relations, following the categories developed in the Actor-Network-Theory by Bruno Latour and others. Installations like aviation infrastructures have obtained a cultural meaning and are thus socio-technological systems that challenge the distinction between knowledge based expert regimes and laypeople, especially as they are caught in an entanglement of expertise and counter-expertise. The runway stands for two kinds of mobilizations, one within a system of globalized connections, and another within a social movement that mobilized public protest and alternative forms of knowledge to reach their objectives.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants