In the long series of political events, rallies and demonstrations that day, the lady with the pink jacket and the colorful scarf around her head occupies a special place. Not just because she has been standing motionless and speechless with her arms raised imploringly on the Jannowitz Bridge in Berlin-Mitte for two hours. She belongs to the religious movement Falun Gong from China, also called Falun Dafa. Its members have been holding a vigil here for more than 20 years, day after day, making it longer and more lasting than any other group in the capital. This is how they want to denounce their persecution by the Chinese government; The huge building of the Chinese embassy in Berlin sits directly opposite.
The diplomatic missions are just one reason why there are more demonstrations in Berlin than in any other city in the republic. The fact that farmers protested loudly with their tractors here a few days ago was because the federal government is also based in Berlin. One trigger for the many pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the city since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip is the large Arab community in Berlin. The basic rule is: If something happens in the world, you can also feel it in Berlin. There are around 7,000 political rallies here every year. About rent policy, for veganism or against sweaters made of cashmere wool, there is always something.
Berlin violently earned its reputation as a protest city in the late 1980s. That was when the clashes between squatters and the police began, which gave rise to the infamous tradition of the May Day demonstrations in 1988. For years, the city’s left-wing scene pitted itself against the police, and the protests regularly ended in street battles. However, every New Year in the city is now accompanied by more violence than May 1st. But the myth of the “Revolutionary Demo” has endured: tourists repeatedly wander through the streets on this day in search of the spectacle.
The number of demonstrations in Berlin has increased dramatically in recent years, but most of them are largely peaceful. This is not just because the radical left scene is no longer as cohesive and violent as it once was. The police have also learned something new. She is trying to prevent the protests from escalating by talking to the organizers. This also means that individual perpetrators of violence are quickly singled out and the police often arrive with a massive contingent.
The weakness of this strategy becomes apparent whenever officials are confronted with new forms of protest. The police initially completely underestimated the demonstrations against the Corona policy. This was the only way around a hundred people were able to storm the steps of the Reichstag building in the summer of 2020. The police had a similar experience when, since January 2022, climate activists from the “last generation” regularly stuck themselves on the city streets and blocked traffic.
It took a few months for officials to find an effective way to combat the new form of protest. Since then, many team vehicles carry a bottle of cooking oil, a spatula or a brush. This enabled the activists’ hands to be removed from the asphalt. Last in minutes.
Why sticking as a form of protest no longer works
However, this was only one of the reasons why the “Last Generation” announced the end of “climate glue” last Monday. “The sticking was important in order to avoid being pulled directly off the street and thus being able to protest in an unignorable manner,” the group writes. When the activists gave away their unused glue on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz on Friday, that was the headline Picture-Newspaper in the old style: “The climate criminals are giving away their glue here.”
It is true that this method of protest was extremely unpopular: theoretically, because it does not accurately address those responsible for the climate catastrophe; very practical because it simply annoys drivers. Recently, climate bonding was also controversial within the “Last Generation”.
The group says that the strong criticism and hostility has made it increasingly difficult to win activists for the “Last Generation”. There are also numerous proceedings before the public prosecutor’s office. So far, 3,700 have been carried out in Berlin alone. The form of protest is too exhausting to continue, says Lars Werner, who spent several weeks in so-called preventive detention because he took part in road blockades in Bavaria. They have now “arrived at the end of a road”.
From March onwards, the group wants to call for “disobedient gatherings” and directly confront those suspected of causing the climate catastrophe. At pipelines, airports or even individual representatives at events. The model for this is the actions of the American climate protection group “Climate Defiance”, which repeatedly disrupts the appearances of politicians and corporate executives in the media. The “Last Generation” made its first attempt at the Green Week when it briefly interrupted a speech by CDU leader Friedrich Merz. The aim is to “create a state of emergency” that will force the government to change its climate policy, says Werner.
The “Last Generation” has canceled a long-planned demonstration in Berlin on Saturday. Instead, she calls for people to take part in the protests against right-wing extremism and the AfD. The activists from “Fridays for Future” had previously put climate protection aside for the time being and promoted the large demonstration this Saturday among their sympathizers: First save democracy, then the climate. The Reichstag building will once again be the backdrop for the protests. But this time it’s not about storming it, but about protecting it. With a human chain.