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Flotsam in Kreuzberg an der Ahr: caravans, refrigerators, parts of houses
Photo: Wolfgang Rattay / REUTERS
The forester Jens Willen is both a victim and an expert, a rare combination in the event of a disaster.
Will has his territory in Reifferscheid in the Eifel.
His house, however, is in debt down in the Ahr valley.
This is the small town on the upper reaches of the river that was partially destroyed and visited Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The Chancellor and her entourage limited themselves on their tour to the town center, where the clean-up work is already well advanced.
If you want to Jens' sake, you have to walk a bit along the river, where uprooted trees and refrigerators are, insulation boards and parts of caravans in the embankments.
The last section of the main road leads over a pile of driftwood;
Inside is a portion of pork goulash, wrapped in plastic.
Continue over bizarrely torn peaks of asphalt, a stream has torn you into the street.
Förster Willen also sees the flood as an environmental catastrophe - in its course and its consequences.
It is a perspective that will probably come more and more into focus.
At the moment, ubiquitous human suffering and personal catastrophes still dominate.
Everywhere along the river, in debt as in other places, people are cleaning up;
they save what can be saved and they mourn the dead in the neighborhood.
Willen, 61, also cleans the basement of his house with friends and colleagues.
There he also ran his forest office and kept valuable machines for the forest, which are now broken.
Even he, who is experienced with chainsaws, has not yet been able to tear apart the debris in his garden.
The sick forest
During a break he shares what he thinks about the cause and the consequences of the flood that brought the river into his house.
"I see that our environment is pretty broken every day when I work," says the forestry officer.
"I see sick trees every day, and my job as a forester is to remove these sick trees."
He sees a connection to the flood: A dry, sick, cleared forest no longer absorbs the water so well.
This is especially true when - as around the Ahr - it is largely limited to steep slopes, with open spaces on top of the hilltops.
From there the water shot into side valleys and from there into the Ahr, the region has great differences in altitude.
Willen has been a district forester for many years.
He has observed how the condition of the forest has deteriorated in recent years - due to heat, drought and recurring storms.
"The speed at which the weather changes is immense," he says, which weakens the trees.
Even populations of hundred-year-old oaks thinned out by themselves. He refrained from cutting wood there: "I haven't had an ax on it for 25 years." Also in the other areas: dying trees.
"Beech, maple and clearly the conifers, pine, larch, spruce," all species are affected.
"The native tree species can take a lot, but I'm not sure whether it will last in the long term," says Willen.
Could another forest have prevented the disaster?
Some experts don't believe that because the water mass was simply extremely large.
But Will is certain of one thing: that long-term rethinking is necessary, also in the region.
"I don't think about my job, I think primarily about my children and grandchildren." It is important to save CO₂ in the long term and to limit intensive farming.
Warning of harmful substances
In addition to the long-term problems, there is now a new one, especially down in the valley.
"The whole aquatic ecology is broken," says the forester.
Garbage, broken cars, oil and other pollutants everywhere.
They found their way into the food chain and into fields and meadows.
The authorities warn people on the Ahr of germs and pollutants in the water.
Förster Willen said that he had already had a small wound infected and that he had to be given a tetanus injection.
And everywhere along the Ahr people are wondering how and where they will rebuild their villages.
The wide swath of desolation has redefined the dividing lines between nature and the territory claimed by humans.
Even after the floods in 2016, places on the upper reaches expanded the sewer system and worked on the river bed.
It didn't help against the force of the water.
Forester Willen, himself the owner of a river property, says: "We humans have not paid attention in the past centuries, we have built far too close to the streams and rivers."
He refers to the Roman Villa Rustica, which was excavated in his hometown of Schuld.
The ancient site is several meters higher than the place it is today.
"Even the Romans knew that they shouldn't settle down here."
