The Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival was a series of political rock concerts in Germany during the 1980s. Its aim was to support protests against the nuclear Wackersdorf reprocessing plant (WAA) in Wackersdorf (Bavaria). In 1986, the fifth festival (also called "German Woodstock")Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival in Burglengenfeld beginnt. Es sollte als das deutsche Woodstock in die Geschichte eingehen. - (Bayerischer Rundfunk 26 July 1986) marked the peak of the protest movement against the plant. With over 100,000 people attending on 26 and 27 July, it was the largest rock concert in the history of Germany. The line-up included some of Germany's most popular music acts of the time such as BAP, Die Toten Hosen, Udo Lindenberg, Rio Reiser, Herbert Grönemeyer.Das Woodstock in der Oberpfalz - Vor 40 Jahren waren die Proteste gegen die geplante WAA in Wackersdorf auf dem Höhepunkt, als die Musikszene ein Zeichen setzte. (The Upper Palatinate’s Woodstock - Forty years ago, protests against the planned nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf were at their peak when the music scene made a statement.), Mittelbayerische Zeitung, 25 July 2026
Beginnings The first Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival took place in 1982 at the Lanzenanger venue in Burglengenfeld. Primary responsibility for the event was held by the local autonomous youth center "Jugendzentrum Burglengenfeld", where many such festivals had taken place before. Between 2,000 and 4,000 people visit the concerts each year. Since many members of the youth center had actively been participating in the resistance against the recycling plant, the management decided to change the original festival into the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival. The main purpose of the events was to attract public attention to the problems related to the WAA and the protests.
From their engagement in culture-related work, the youth center very quickly managed to come into contact with many Bavarian musicians like Haindling or Biermösl Blosn; who also argued against the building of the recycling plant. While these festivals got more and more positive feedback from the public, the idea began to emerge of encouraging big-name performers, like BAP, Udo Lindenberg, or Herbert Grönemeyer, to take part. Finally, because of the good relations with the management of BAP, the record label EMI Electrola was able to convince their - mostly left-leaning - artists to participate in the festival. In that same year, a live recording of the festival was released as a double LP by this record label. The proceeds of this album were used to support a citizens' initiative against the WAA.
Originally, the organizers intended the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival to take place in the immediate vicinity of the planned WAA. After excessive protests at Easter and Pentecost the position of both parties got more radical, especially influenced by the catastrophe of Chernobyl. As a result, the Bavarian government set up inviolable precincts up to 120 square kilometers around the construction area. Ultimately, the organizers opted for a field near Burglengenfeld as the venue for the festival. Even before preparation for the festival took place, some city councillors of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) and the mayor of Burglengenfeld, Stefan Bawidamann, had already voiced their concern about riots on the fringes of the festival.
Although the Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival had been officially authorized by the town, the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior and the local government of Upper Palatinate voiced intentions to prohibit the event. An extraordinary meeting of the city council that was scheduled for the 15 July, again voted in favor of the realization of the festival. However, the town's major Bawidamann repealed the ballot, referring to article 19 of the penal law. He considered this necessary in order to prevent danger being brought to the general public, their health, and material goods and to save them from heavy disturbances. The decision about the authorisation of the festival was thereby passed to the subsequent regulating authority, the district office of Schwandorf. Hans Schuierer, the district administrator, validated the decision of the city council and assigned the local government of Oberpfalz (Upper Palatinate) to check the legal force of Bawidamann's decision again.25 Jahre danach: Ein Rückblick auf das Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival in Burglengenfeld 1986 (25 years later: A look back at the anti-nuclear madness festival in Burglengenfeld in 1986), Wochenblatt, 5 July 2017Eine bunte Masse im Kampf gegen die WAA - 100.000 Menschen feierten im Juli 1986 das Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival. Organisator Walter Dürr erinnert sich an wilde Tage. (A colorful crowd in the fight against the WAA (nuclear reprocessing plant) – 100,000 people celebrated the Anti-WAA Madness Festival in July 1986. Organizer Walter Dürr remembers those wild days.), Mittelbayerische Zeitung, 29 July 2011
The motorcycle club Kuhle Wampe took charge of security and entrance. Fields within a radius of several kilometers were rented by the festival's management for parking. In part, the fields had to be harvested directly before the beginning of the festival although the grain was not ripe yet. The number of visitors exceeded expectations and more fields had to be marked as parking spaces on short notice. At one of those rented fields, in particular on the stubble field in the vicinity of Greinhof, a hot catalyzer set off a large-scale fire. A local farmer used a plough to create a firebreak, preventing major damages.
The festival
Burglengenfeld, a city with about 10,000 inhabitants, was not prepared for the stampede of visitors. Already on the eve of the festival, the supermarkets sold out of all staple food and alcoholic drinks. Several shops closed their doors and did not open them on the following Sunday either. Not having any mobile phones yet, written notes were pinned on all church doors, informing when to meet whom and where. The visitors sought places to sleep in bare brickwork. The inhabitants feared theft, property damage, or even riots, however, these did not transpire.
Accounts about the number of participating visitors at the festival vary. The number is supposed to be over 100,000, which, considering the area, is not entirely unlikely. Musically the Open Air can be revisited on double LP as well as on film.
The festival remained completely peaceful, contrary to government expectations.Wiederaufbereitungsanlage Wackersdorf, Historisches Lexikon Bayerns As a result of the overwhelming protests, the festivals resulted in unexpected media coverage for the anti-nuclear movement in Germany.26 July 1986: Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival in Burglengenfeld beginnt (Anti-WAAhnsinns-Festival in Burglengenfeld begins), Bayern 2, 26 July 2022.
Impact of the festival
Although the 5th Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival (26–27 July 1986), a protest against the nuclear reprocessing plant, proceeded peacefully and without any violence, the state continued fighting it with undiminished rigidity. The opposition to the WAA ended abruptly with the sudden death of Bavaria's minister-president Franz Josef Strauss on 3 October 1988. The operating company DWK - Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Wiederaufarbeitung von Kernbrennstoffen (DWK) and the politicians in the CSU then had diminishing hopes that the WAA project could be realized successfully. On 30 April 1989, Dr. Rudolf von Bennigsen-Foerder, former chairman of the board of VEBA, announced that German energy companies would retreat from reprocessing technology. This came completely unexpected and filled the CSU with bitterness. On 31 May 1989, the DWK specifically froze the construction of the reprocessing plant and had the iron main gate closed symbolically. After the sudden ending for the WAA, the population's resistance diminished as well.
The Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival had 100,000 visitors and a spectrum of musicians who performed for one purpose – the building freeze of the WAA. The festival also showed that there is an opportunity for a counter-public, and a chance to correct and, if necessary, to prevent the decisions of local and federal administrations in a constitutional state. At the same time, the festival suggested the possibility of peaceful protest. Nowadays there is a memorial stone on the former festival site "Lanzenanger" in Burglengenfeld that is to commemorate the Anti-Atom-Festival.
Film and audio documents
WAAhnsinn – Der Wackersdorf-Film including Die Toten Hosen live at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival, 100 minWAAhnsinn – Der Wackersdorf-Film, Rockpalast July 1986, YouTube, 100 min WAAhnsinn – Der Wackersdorf-Film, Rockpalast July 1986, Vimeo, 100 min Die Toten Hosen at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 3 minDie Toten Hosen Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, YouTube, 3 min Die Toten Hosen (Bis zum bitteren Ende – Die Toten Hosen Live!), Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 3 minDie toten Hosen - Bis zum bitteren Ende Live - Anti-WAAhnsins Festival 1986, YouTube, 3 min Biermösl Blosn (Tschüss Bayernland - Goodbye Bavarialand) at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 4 minBiermösl Blosn (Tschüss Bayernland), Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, YouTube, 4 minHans Well über 40 Jahre Anti-WAA-Festival: Die Biermösl Blosn und der Strauß im Hosentürl ( on 40+ Years of the Anti-WAA Festival: Biermösl Blosn and Strauß in the Fly), Mittelbayerische Zeitung, 25 July 2026 Rio Reiser (Somewhere Over The Rainbow) at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 4 minRio Reiser (Somewhere Over The Rainbow), Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, YouTube, 4 min Rio Reiser - "Alles Lüge" () with BAP & Friends at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 8 minWAA Rio Reiser - Alles Lüge, BAP & Friends - Like a rolling Stone, YouTube, 8 min BAP (German band), Wolfgang Niedecken, Kevin Coyne (somewhat drunk), Wolfgang Ambros, Anne Haigis and others (Song: Like a Rolling Stone) at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 7 minBAP & Wolfgang Niedecken & Wolfgang Ambros & Anne Haigis & Kevin Coyne (etwas betrunken) and others, Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 7 min Kevin Coyne (The world is full of fools) at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 2 min Kevin Coyne: The world is full of fools, YouTube, 2 min Anne Haigis at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 5 minAnne Haigis accompanied by Ralf Schübel, live at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, YouTube, 5 min (Volle Lotte) at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, 2 minRodgau Monotones (Volle Lotte), Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1986, YouTube 2 min featuring Marian Gold and others - 1986, 7 minWolf Maahn featuring Marian Gold and others - , YouTube, 3 min Tschernobyl (Das letzte Signal), YouTube, 7 min
Tony McPhee and The Groundhogs - live at the Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1989, 54 minTony McPhee and The Groundhogs Anti-WAAhnsinns Festival 1989, YouTube, 54 min BR24-Zeitreise (time travel): Anti-WAAhnsinnsfestival in Burglengenfeld 1986 - among others with Freda Meissner-Blau and Wolfgang Niedecken, 2 minAnti-WAAhnsinnsfestival in Burglengenfeld 1986 - The anti-nuclear power plant festival in Burglengenfeld was the largest rock festival in Germany. Many rock stars performed and supported the resistance against the nuclear power plant; over 100,000 spectators came and thus defied the obstruction by politicians., BR24-Zeitreise (time travel) 26 July 2021, 2 min