Germany has a problem beneath the waves, an explosive host resulting from the sins of the nation’s fathers. Readers may be aware Bismarck’s principalities are afflicted with energy-production woes following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia a politically odious and unstable option, Germany looks now to its coastal holdings to produce the natural gas its citizenry requires. But all building in Europe treads upon history, and the history this time takes the form of submerged WWII-era munitions strewn about the sea floor, uncomfortably close to where ships travel and anchor.
William Boston reports for the Wall Street Journal:
Much of Europe still bears traces of World War II in the form of unexploded ordnance, but the problem is especially acute in Germany, where an estimated 1.6 million tons of weapons and explosives were dumped in the North Sea and Baltic Sea. Most were put there after the war, when Allied commanders ordered the destruction of Germany’s stockpiles of weapons. Now the UXOs, from large cannon-fired grenades to torpedoes and sea mines, are setting back new developments, including offshore wind farms.
One project, TenneT TSO GmbH’s Riffgat wind park, went online a year late in 2014, after 30 tons of World War II munitions had to be cleared to lay the cable connecting the turbines to the grid onshore.
The munitions came to rest in their diffuse present locations due to an Allied effort to dispose of the many tons as quickly as possible. Like most government programs, the incentive structure made for short-sighted decisions:
Allied commanders often paid German fishermen to haul weapons out to dump sites. Paid by the load, many off loaded their bombs randomly so they could hurry back to take another shipment, according to transcripts of government interviews with fishermen in 1970.
A fisherman who transported three shipments of weapons from Flensburg to the mouth of the Kleine Belt fiord near the German-Danish border said these were just tossed overboard on the way to the Belt and back, according to a government interview transcript dated Sept. 14, 1970.
Using these sources, German authorities have managed to locate materiel that were dumped under the supervision of the western Allies, but there are gaps. There is no reliable information about weapons or munitions that the former Soviet Union might have dumped into the Baltic Sea.
The mental image of a German fisherman heaving a howitzer shell over the side of his dinghy is a hilarious one, undoubtedly worthy of a Monty Python sketch. However, Germany must now contend with the legacy of this ammunition dissemination at a time when it has little energy to spare. The country’s Greens stand athwart the idea of re-certifying nuclear-power plants, and the government cannot bring itself to admit it may have to depend on coal plants longer than the desired phase out in 2030.
One can squint Germanically and understand the nation’s intent when originally doing away with nuclear power. Renewables were popular, and glowing green sticks not as much. Ever the pragmatists, however, the German people have come around to keeping Homer’s Saxon equivalent employed a bit longer, because air-conditioning sure does the body a world of good. According to Politico:
Recent polling suggests Germans might be more flexible than politicians give them credit for. A March survey found that 70 percent said the [nuclear] phaseout should be postponed in light of the country’s dependence on Russia. Other recent surveys put that number lower — between 61 percent and 53 percent — but still found a majority in favor.
As one of the world’s most aggressive campaigners to do away with non-renewables, Germany will have a tough time managing these growing pains. Early tech adopters are routinely burdened with such educational setbacks preceding success, so I expect Germany will think itself out of the situation. But in the meantime, perhaps skip that romantic Baltic Sea diving vacation.