By The Nuclear Resister
On Tuesday, June 4, the first ever female U.S. peace activist sentenced to prison in Germany in the 25-year-long campaign demanding the withdrawal of the U.S. nuclear weapons stationed at Germany’s Büchel Air Force base, began her sentence of 229 days, the longest ever imposed in the campaign.
Susan Crane, 80, from Redwood City, California, along with Dutch citizen Susan van der Hijden from Amsterdam, both are serving “substitute” sentences — for nonpayment of financial penalties — at the Wöllstein-Rohrbach prison in Rhineland-Palatinate. Susan van der Hijden was given a 115-day sentence, resulting from Büchel actions in 2018 and 2019.
Crane was convicted September 20, 2021, in Koblenz Regional Court in Germany on six counts of trespass stemming from repeated protests against the nuclear weapons “forward deployed” by the United States at Büchel, 80 miles southeast of Cologne.
A third resister, Gerd Büntzly, a musician and composer from Herford, has been sentenced to 90 days and expects to serve 45. It will be Büntzly’s fifth incarceration for actions at Büchel.
Büchel houses approximately 10-20 U.S. Air Force thermonuclear gravity bombs known as B61s, which have been transferred to Germany in violation of explicit prohibitions set out in the 1970 Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Many of the resisters have argued in their defense at trial that interference with the nuclear air base is “crime prevention” done to uphold and enforce the treaty.
Germany’s public prosecutor in Koblenz has objected that even if “nuclear sharing” were illegal, the only relevant facts at trial are related to trespassing and possible damage to fencing, in spite of the supremacy of international treaty law. Crane was sentenced to either pay 1,150 euros ($1,119), or serve 229 days in prison. Crane’s appeal to Germany’s Constitutional Court was dismissed without comment.
Crane has worked for decades at the Catholic Worker where she supports people in poverty who are often homeless. She said in a statement, “When I look at Büchel air base, I see nothing but the organization of death … At the same time, I see the suffering of people around the world who lack basic needs that could be available if our economies weren’t based on war-making.”
Last year, the first ever U.S. citizens sentenced to prison in the long campaign — Dennis DuVall, formerly of Prescott, Arizona, and John LaForge, of Luck, Wisconsin — were incarcerated in Germany for several months each, after they likewise refused to pay fines imposed for Büchel protest convictions.
Beginning May 30, about 30 nuclear weapons opponents from Germany, the U.S., and the Netherlands conducted a five-day solidarity walk with the prison-goers from Büchel to the prison in Rohrbach. Local activists have promised to hold a weekly vigil in front of the prison.
Büchel, and five other NATO air bases hosting U.S. B61s, are currently being upgraded to allow for the arrival of both U.S. F-35 jet fighters, and new nuclear bombs — so-called B61-12s — that are set to be transferred from the U.S. this year or next.
Cards or letters can be sent to:
Susan Crane or Susan van der Hijden, JVA Rohrbach, Peter-Caesar-Allee 1, 55597 Wöllstein, Germany
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