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Wolfang Ertel (middle) in front of the court in Ravensburg
Photo:
Felix Kästle / dpa
A court in Ravensburg has sentenced a professor to a fine for having unannounced planted a tree with climate activists at his university.
The district court set a penalty of 40 daily rates of 100 euros each, as a spokesman for the court announced.
The judges therefore did not follow the presentation of the university teacher Wolfgang Ertel, who acts as head of the Institute for Artificial Intelligence at the Ravensburg-Weingarten University of Applied Sciences (RWU).
Ertel had argued that he acted in self-defense by occupying a tree and putting up a banner at RWU in May 2021 because he wanted to draw attention to grievances.
He confessed to the crime, but denied the criminal liability of his actions.
From the judges' point of view, Ertel could have achieved his goal by registering the meeting.
Together with climate activists, Ertel had demanded, among other things, that the heating in the lecture halls at the RWU should no longer run permanently, but should be controlled intelligently.
The public prosecutor accused him of violating the assembly law and sent him a penalty order with a fine.
Because Ertel lodged an objection, the case ended up in court.
The public prosecutor had demanded a fine of 5,000 euros and, according to the court, has already appealed.
Condemned - but still successful
On the other hand, apart from the legal dispute, the professor has already had success.
After the action, Ertel received a call from Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Science, Theresia Bauer (Greens).
The ministry announced that it would examine "optimization potential" in energy management at the university.
According to the RWU, it also installed an intelligent heating control system in a building.
According to the ministry, the university is also to be one of nine universities in the state to have a climate protection manager before the end of this year - above all in order to use savings opportunities in buildings.
atb/dpa