“Hate to the core”: the “last generation” arouses little understanding in Berlin

They’re there because they don’t want to work, an elderly man grumbled Monday morning on the edge of Berlin’s Ernst-Reuter-Platz. His deranged condition raises doubts as to whether he has a permanent job himself; those he gets angry with are sitting in the street in orange safety vests.

Ernst-Reuter-Platz is not actually a square, but a large roundabout in the west of the German capital; Whoever stops the cars paralyzes some of the most important axes of the metropolis. The incumbents belong to the “Last Generation”, a group of radical climate activists. This week they want to block Berlin.

The police seem more diverse than the blockers

They only partially achieve their goal on Ernst-Reuter-Platz: Using solvents, police officers quickly remove the hands of the activists from the asphalt to which the climate activists have clung. There is always an agent with a video camera present. Possible accusations that they acted too roughly appear to be refuted by law enforcement if necessary by filming.

At nine o’clock the policemen have already put most of the activists on the sidewalk. Only one man is still in custody. Since his hand apparently cannot be removed from the road surface, the road surface must be removed from the road surface. The officials set to work with milling machines, chisels and hammer drills; they have provided the activists with earmuffs and goggles to protect him from noise and dust.

Meanwhile, traffic is back to one lane; usually it is the vehicles of craft or construction companies whose permanent adhesive is affected. The landscape invites superficial sociological studies: while the students of the nearby technical university shake their heads hastily, those of the also nearby College of the Arts seem to see the whole thing as a kind of happening: the sunny weather invites you to look. The police, on the other hand, seem more ethnically diverse than the pale activists.

Monday’s blockades are the largest action of the “last generation” in Germany. Last weekend, the activists already smeared the branches of Rolex, Prada and Gucci on Kurfürstendamm, showing that their protest also has an anti-capitalist slant: “We can no longer afford the rich,” said the climate activists.

A spokeswoman for the “Last Generation” spoke of a success on Monday: “Our highest expectations were clearly exceeded.” There were protests at 27 transport hubs in Berlin, three times as many as last fall. According to the police, 20 blockades had already been lifted by mid-morning. More than 40 people were taken into custody, it said.

The Greens and “Fridays for Future” distance themselves

It is unlikely that members of the “last generation” will use their methods to engender understanding of their concerns. As Berlin’s “Tagesspiegel” reports, at least 15 ambulances were blocked on Monday. Last October, the activists angered many citizens after an ambulance arrived late at the scene of an accident due to a blockade; a cyclist died. According to a report by the Berlin public prosecutor, the “last generation” bears no responsibility for the woman’s death.

Meanwhile, around 3,000 preliminary investigations against members of the group are ongoing throughout Germany; in Heilbronn, Württemberg, a member was sentenced last week to an unconditional prison sentence of five months for coercion.

The ‘last generation’ has also become isolated within the climate movement: the German Greens have criticized the activists for their ‘elitist and self-righteous protest’, and colleagues from ‘Fridays for Future’ have also distanced themselves from the more radical ‘last generation’. generation”.

Peace had already returned to the Ernst-Reuter-Platz in Berlin early in the afternoon. A dozen activists squat on the sidewalk – shielded by police officers, so that a conversation is not possible. Once again the popular feeling erupts: “We hate you to the bone,” shouts a middle-aged passerby. The officials also milled out the man who was so stubbornly stuck on the asphalt. There is another pothole in the streets of Berlin.