“Last Generation” Demo: Solidarity for the Activists? “Right now!”

“I’d like to know how I can donate to you now more than ever!” shouts a 59-year-old protester with short gray hair and a denim jacket to a “Last Generation” activist. According to a speaker from the group, around 800 people came to Strasse des 17. Juni in Berlin this Wednesday. The Berlin police spoke of around 300 participants in the evening. Slowly they blocked the lane in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate.

The climate activists had called for protests, not only in Berlin, but also in Hamburg, Dresden and Hanover. You obviously feel treated unfairly: On Wednesday morning, police officers in several federal states carried out a raid Apartments and business premises searched and banned accounts and the group’s website.

The Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for the operation. She investigates suspicions as to whether the “Last Generation” forms or supports a criminal organization.

Many participants in the solidarity demonstration in Berlin are bitter about the actions of the authorities. They report to WELT that they took to the streets for the “Last Generation” for the first time today – the raid “shocked” and “dismayed” them. Is the “last generation” now gaining popular support? Now that the fighters of the environmental milieu are talking about “weapons aimed at them”?

This is the impression given by the woman with the short, gray hair, who now “even more than ever” wants to donate. Her name is Anne S., she says she cannot tell her last name, she fears professional repression.

She has long sympathized with the movement, she says, and is even willing to go to prison. However, your life situation does not allow that. Her son is also active in “all kinds of” climate groups. He was “no longer in the mood for the future,” his fear was so great. At the same time he is less radical: he does not want to go to prison.

“The actual breach of the law is the lobbying of the fossil industry”

The raid on Wednesday morning was the last straw for S.: “The real violation of the law is the lobbying of the fossil industry! It happens every day and is not followed at all,” complains the demonstrator. The fact that she can’t stick herself to the roadway, as the activists regularly do, is compensated with money: “I’ve donated around 500 euros in the past few months, divided into smaller amounts,” says the 59-year-old.

Between pot hairstyles, mules and purple dyed hair, a striking number of graying heads can be seen at the protest in the capital, the demonstrators are wearing functional clothing, hiking jackets and fleece clothing. Among them is Janett, 53, who works as a secretary in a hospital. She also does not want to reveal her last name, she is also on the street for the first time for the “Last Generation” and the latest raid was also the reason for her. “Today they put them in preventive detention, tomorrow us!” believes Janett. She basically has a lot of experience with demonstrations: “Climate and Nazis, those are my topics.”

Stefan Simon, 60, walks very close to her, he has just come from work. He is also taking part in a protest action by the “Last Generation” for the first time. But there were points of contact before that: “I have a lot to do with the ‘last generation’ professionally, I work in a museum,” he says and laughs.

Simon is a chemist and director of the Rathgen Research Laboratory, which is part of the Berlin State Museums. It examines how the conservation of cultural assets can succeed in climate change under extreme weather conditions, and the sustainability of museums is also an issue. Simon explains that he has just come from a congress with representatives from the island state of Tuvalu. Not only its cultural assets, the whole island is in danger of sinking into the sea.

Accordingly, Simon is alarmed when it comes to climate change. “I cannot condone the actions of the ‘last generation’ in the museums,” he admits. But: “The activists are basically on the right side.” Simon calls the “criminalization” of the group that is taking place from his point of view “terrible”.

“Criminalization” is mentioned again and again

This belief unites many participants in the demonstration, the term “criminalization” keeps coming up. “We were shocked that this raid happened, how civil disobedience is criminalized,” says Maurizio, 30, who, like his partner Lisa, 31, does not want to show his face and does not want to give his last name. The couple came with their three-month-old baby, Maurizio straight from work in an IT company, Lisa is still on parental leave.

Another couple, who are already graying, speak of “criminalization” of the type of suburban Green voters. Both do not want to reveal their first names – and also not whether they have ever taken part in a campaign of the “last generation”. In any case, they are convinced that their presence at the solidarity parade is important. In the end, it’s “about the future of our children and grandchildren,” says the woman.

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But the conversation quickly turns to completely different things than the “last generation”. Her heat pump costs around 30,000 euros, says the demonstrator, and almost every homeowner can afford it, except maybe they inherited their house unexpectedly. In general, she considers the excitement surrounding the heating exchange to be the result of a media campaign paid for by the fossil fuel lobby. On the other hand, the couple finds the idea of ​​a randomly selected citizens’ council, such as that regularly brought up by the activists of the “last generation”, to be “excellent” – because then it is incorruptible.

The protest procession is briefly mixed up when engines roar in the left lane. Men with neatly trimmed beards roll down the windows of their BMWs, one shouts, “Fool!” And then there are three pale teenagers with red flags that read: “Revolution. Communist Youth Organization”. On the Internet they demand “solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement”. When the protest march arrives at the Brandenburg Gate in just under two hours, the magazine that the teenagers are distributing is out of print.

“I know what I’m doing is incredibly right”

Of the hundreds of demonstrators who were there at the beginning, maybe just under 100 people are left now. Lina Eichler, one of the founders of the “Last Generation”, is one of them. She calls: “The road should remain blocked, spread out to the left and right!”

Then a young speaker tells that her parents’ house was searched that morning and her father’s laptop was confiscated. She herself had been imprisoned twice. “I know what I’m doing is incredibly right!” she exclaims. The crowd applauds.

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A 70-year-old, who introduces herself as Marie, shouts: “I have decided to take part in a protest training session for the first time tomorrow!” The crowd cheers. And Henning Jeschke, also a founding member of the “Last Generation”, talks about the impending end of the world: Germany is making “progress over the cliff”.

When the Straße des 17. Juni has emptied again, there is still a broken Opel that belongs to Necip A., 26, property manager. Another driver – he is standing next to him in his Toyota, which has also been wrecked, and is on the phone – “he drove right into his car,” says A. “He wanted to turn around – because of the chaos, because of the demo. Then he didn’t see me.”

And how does A. find the “last generation”? “I’ve got such a crush on them.”

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