“Hey, what kind of boring demo is that…” bursts out of one of four Berliners who have just stepped in front of their shop at the Frankfurter Tor and want to see why there are no cars on the wide-lane Karl-Marx-Allee at the moment drive more. “Oh, the ‘Last Generation.’ Then everything is clear.”
It’s late afternoon, the sky is gray and there’s rain in the air. Traffic stood still for hours at this intersection last summer because two dozen activists taped their hands to the roadway. There were hundreds of meters of traffic jams. Cyclists waved, drivers cursed. But this Wednesday the climate stickers are not sticking. Today we only march.
“Last generation” wanted to “sound the alarm with determination and creativity” in Berlin – that was probably nothing
The group is one of four different ones, which, according to the police, comprised a total of 160 people and set off at various points in Kreuzberg and on Alex in the early afternoon. Until then assumed destination: the Berlin government district.
There, it was said yesterday at the presentation of the largest protest action of the climate adhesives in a Kreuzberg church, they wanted to carry their protest storm from Wednesday – with around 800 activists. There was talk of “actions that will be disruptive and cannot be ignored”. Of “sounding the alarm with determination and creativity”.
And so until the federal government presents a “plan” on how Germany can “plausibly” become climate-neutral by 2030. Alternative: the convening of a “social council” from a representative cross-section of society, which develops its own proposals that are intended to “supplement” the work of parliament.
Instead of getting stuck, the activists preferred to brunch with tofu in a church
But the brilliant start of the radical series of protests, which was supposed to “peacefully bring the federal capital to a halt” and which the organizers had announced for the government district, did not take place on Wednesday.
What did take place, on the other hand, was first of all a morning brunch, to which at least 100 people came – in the middle of St. Thomas Church on Mariannenplatz, where the capital’s media had already been asked to announce the protest plans on Tuesday. On the program alongside muesli and tofu for the brunch: protest training, organ meditation and reports from activists on how they became climate glue.
Small skirmishes with the police, handcuffs for an attempt at gluing, nothing more
A good hour after the groups started from St. Thomas Church, which will become the base of the climate glue protests in the next few days thanks to the support of the parish priest, local media reports an isolated scuffle between demonstrators and police officers. A man is handcuffed after attempting to tape himself to the roof of a police car. Up to 100 demonstrators are said to have tried to chain themselves to the bridge on the Schilling Bridge, but the police were able to prevent this.
Occasionally there are obstructions in road traffic, and some bus routes had to be interrupted. Overall, however, the protest marches were, contrary to expectations, quiet and without incident. A prelude to a series of protests that, judging by the announcements, went rather leisurely.
However, things are supposed to get really serious on Monday, when the 800 announced climate stickers apparently want to swarm out to various places in the capital and “peacefully shut down Berlin”.
At least that’s what the organizers of the “Last Generation” announced.
