Germany’s long anti-nuclear protest ends

An icy wind is blowing across the Brokdorf nuclear power plant that stands between damp meadows and a dike covered in a thin layer of snow.

A small group of mostly elderly people have hung up a yellow banner on the guarded gate to the nuclear reactor which reads: “Shut down nuclear power plants.”

Gathered on this wintry, gray day in the northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein, the activists are mostly from the area — though some have come from Hamburg and beyond.

Singing peace songs and chatting while standing in a circle, the groups appear well-adjusted to the freezing cold, having met at the power plant’s gate on the sixth day of each month for the last 35 years.