History of Europe

1991:Nicola dies on Stresemannstrasse

On August 27, 1991, a truck rolled over nine-year-old Nicola on Stresemannstrasse. Weeks of protests follow her death. Local residents are thus able to set up a 30 km/h zone.

by Wolf-Hendrik Müllenberg, NDR.de

It is a sunny afternoon in Hamburg when "Strese" becomes the street of mourning:August 27, 1991, Nicola S. rides her pink bicycle along Bernstorffstrasse - she was just with her grandparents, she has lived there ever since a year and a half. Now she wants to visit her mother in Harvestehude. It should go to the hairdresser in Grindelallee, then feeding the ducks on the Alster. Nicola, nine years old, is waiting at the traffic light to cross Stresemannstrasse. When the green light appears, she pedals and pulls onto the lane. A 40-ton truck races towards Nicola and rolls her over. 50 meters further, the truck comes to a standstill with squeaking tires. The girl dies at the scene of the accident.

The short report by the Hamburg state traffic administration later said:"The driver was 25 years old. He didn't observe the traffic regulations of the LZA and drove too fast." According to newspaper reports, the truck driver from Dresden drove over the red light when he was exhausted and under time pressure. He will later testify in court:"I didn't notice the switch from green to yellow, I was concentrating on the flow of traffic."

An accident with political consequences

The news of Nicolas' death spread quickly:just an hour later, around 120 people - including many children - were blocking the intersection. They don't want to accept that traffic keeps flowing as if nothing happened. A white cross is painted on the asphalt, flowers are laid, candles are lit. Urban development senator Traute Müller (SPD) rushes to the activists and listens to their demands:30 km/h, the reduction of Stresemannstrasse to two lanes, permanently installed speed cameras and additional traffic lights - on a traffic artery that is used by 40,000 cars, including 6,000 trucks, every day becomes. Between June 1979 and August 1991, 15 pedestrians were killed in accidents here.

Nicolas death:reason for actions all over Hamburg

The protest on Stresemannstrasse lasted two weeks:Always at 4 p.m., at the hour of Nicola's death, the street was barricaded so that traffic had to be diverted. The police did not clear the blockades. The officers at the Lerchenstraße police station, which is around 200 meters from the scene of the accident, even openly show their sympathy for the demonstrators. As a result, Nicolas' death is the reason for further actions throughout Hamburg against a failed traffic policy:At the end of September, citizens' initiatives blocked more than 25 intersections in the city area. Motto:"Everywhere is Stresemannstraße".

Reifschläger resident remembers

Jürgen Reifschläger is loading crates of goods with a forklift in the port of Hamburg when Nicola dies. When he returns from work, he sees what's going on on his doorstep. "There were flowers and a lot of angry, stunned people on the street," says the 65-year-old. He still lives diagonally across from the scene of the accident. His three daughters have long since moved out. But he can still clearly remember the time after the accident - and the queasy feeling of letting his daughters out onto the street with their bikes - even though he always warned them to be careful. "I couldn't lock up the girls, but I was always happy when they got home safely."

On the day of the funeral:500 people on the "Strese"

A temporary high point of the protests in the late summer of 1991 is September 5th, the day on which Nicola is buried:500 people gather on Stresemannstrasse. The environmental organization Robin Wood puts concrete buckets on the road. The traffic island will soon be covered with flowers. A pastor and two mothers who live near the intersection give speeches. One of the two women saw the accident immediately. In the left-wing alternative "tageszeitung" she is quoted as saying:"We are not demonstrators, but people who warn and mourn. I don't understand much about laws. But I know this much:that we have to change them."

The protests are having an effect:Three weeks after Nicolas's funeral, Senator for Transport, Müller orders the speed limit to be 30 km/h. In addition, the lanes are narrowed from four to two lanes, traffic is monitored more closely and one bus lane is set up in each direction - which, however, is abolished nine years later by the Hamburg Senate, formed by the CDU and the Schill party.

More security thanks to speed cameras?

Resident Jürgen Reifschläger stands on Stresemannstrasse and points to the speed trap that has been in place since 2003. Lightning strikes here up to 200 times a day. This has brought the city almost a million euros so far this year. But does the speed camera also bring more security? No, says Reifschläger:The fact that people flash so often shows how ruthless the drivers are. "And if you drive slowly, you'll press the tube again after the speed camera anyway," he says.

The police see it differently. Accordingly, the speed driven in the section of the lightning system is significantly lower than in the rest of Stresemannstraße and on other main streets. Claus Reuter heads the Lerchenstrasse station. In an interview with NDR.de he says:"The fact that the cars drive more slowly is due to the two stationary speed systems." He also doesn't believe that Stresemannstrasse is particularly dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists:"Cars are the main victims of the accidents. That's the impression of our officials, who are there every day."

Reifschläger residents:"Too little is being done for safety"

For residents of Reifschläger, however, the "Strese" is an unresolved traffic problem that the Senate should have known about at the latest since Nicola's death 30 years ago. He also remembers the most recent fatal traffic accident on October 24, 2012 very well:At that time, a pedestrian under the Sternbrücke between Max-Brauer-Allee and Stresemannstraße was hit by the exterior mirror of a speeding truck and thrown to the ground.

ADAC for more traffic lights and pedestrian crossings

Reifschläger has lived in an old building on the "Strese" for 40 years. Too little has always been done here for safety, he says. The pensioner has a few ideas that he thinks could improve the situation:more traffic lights and pedestrian crossings - these are also the recommendations of the ADAC. Accordingly, the income from lightning systems should be used for such measures.

"Something must finally be done here," says Reifschläger, looking at the traffic island not far from the scene of the accident:children once planted flowers here to commemorate Nicola. Today only gray concrete and a road sign remain. "Very few," says Reifschläger, "know what happened here." The death of Nicola S, who wanted to go to the Alster to feed the ducks. Today she would be 39 years old.