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Michael Sladek

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Michael Sladek
Sladek in 2010
Born(1946-10-01)1 October 1946
Murrhardt, Württemberg-Baden, Allied-occupied Germany
Died24 September 2024(2024-09-24) (aged 77)
Schönau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Occupations
Known forSchönau Power Supply Company
SpouseUrsula Sladek
Children5
Awards

Michael Sladek (1 October 1946 – 24 September 2024) was a German physician and environmentalist. After the Chernobyl disaster, he and his wife, Ursula Sladek, initiated a movement in their hometown Schönau im Schwarzwald to become independent of nuclear energy, achieving that goal in 1997.

Life and career

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Sladek was born in Murrhardt[1] on 1 October 1946.[2] He studied medicine at the University of Freiburg and became a physician in general medicine in Schönau in 1977.[1][3][4] He and his wife Ursula, a former primary school teacher, had three children; two more children were born in Schönau.[4][5][6]

After the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, the Sladeks and a small group of others founded the Parents for a Nuclear Free Future group, to research how they could limit the community's dependence on nuclear power.[5] Their first approach was on saving energy and getting others to save energy. They reactivated small hydropower plants in the region.[5] The couple developed the idea of a power system independent of nuclear power plants, generating electric power through distributed mini power plants from renewable sources.[6] After ten years of campaigning and raising awareness, they founded the first German green power utility, the Elektrizitätswerke Schönau (EWS), in 1994.[1] They took over providing power for the community in 1997.[1][5][7][8] With a system that combined efficiency and power-saving strategies, it became possible to satisfy the power consumption of the community. Schönau was the first community in a Western country that became independent of the national power grid and could decide how its power would be produced.[6][9] In 2015 he and his wife left the leadership of EWS, succeeded by two of their sons.[1]

Sladek became famous as the Schönauer Stromrebell ("electricity rebel").[3] He was awarded the 1996 WWF Umweltpreis "Öko-Manager des Jahres" from the German magazine Capital.[10] In 1999 he and his wife were awarded the Nuclear-Free Future Award.[4] In January 2004, the Sladeks were awarded the highest order in Germany, the Federal Cross of Merit, for their involvement with the environment.[8]

Following a severe illness, Sladek died on 24 September 2024, a week before his 78th birthday.[1][3][4]

Honours

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f "Vordenker der Energiewende". taz (in German). 26 September 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  2. ^ a b "Dr. Michael Sladek". Badische Zeitung (in German). 26 September 2024. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Worthmann, Andrea (25 September 2024). "EWS-Mitgründer Michael Sladek ist tot". SWR (in German). Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  4. ^ a b c d e f "EWS-Mitgründer Michael Sladek verstorben". EWS (in German). September 2024. Retrieved 25 September 2024.
  5. ^ a b c d Mistiaen, Veronique (20 May 2011). "Ursula Sladek: Power behind a green revolution". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 September 2024.
  6. ^ a b c Eckardt, Andy (20 May 2011). "German couple make greenbacks in anti-nuke battle". MSN. Archived from the original on 2 June 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  7. ^ "Community Energy Cooperative: Schönau, Germany". Centre For Public Impact (CPI). Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  8. ^ a b c "Rebellen bekommen Bundesverdienstkreuz". energieverbraucher.de (in German). 15 January 2004. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Peaceful Rebels". The Atlantic Times. November 2008. Archived from the original on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
  10. ^ Dehmer, Dagmar (4 November 2013). "Wie aus einer Stromrebellin eine Ökostromhändlerin wurde". Der Tagesspiegel (in German). Retrieved 1 October 2024.
  11. ^ Colell, Arwen (2021). Alternating Current – Social Innovation in Community Energy. Berlin: Springer. p. 245.
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