Brush attack on the Brandenburg Gate
“Notification and bill for the cleaning are coming” – Berlin’s mayor announces tough action against the last generation
The last generation smeared the Brandenburg Gate with paint again
© Annette Ried / DPA
The Brandenburg Gate remains something of a favorite of the last generation. Now that the last graffiti has been removed, the protest movement has the paint brush in its hand again. Berlin’s mayor doesn’t want to accept that.
This time the climate activists did not spray the paint over large areas from fire extinguishers, but rather only painted it on two pillars at about head height. Police officers were on site very quickly. Two perpetrators were “arrested by our forces on site while daubing paint on the Brandenburg Gate,” the police said. They were led away in handcuffs.
According to a report in the “Berliner Zeitung”, cleaning experts quickly took action. One of them used a high-pressure cleaner to almost completely remove the paint in just a few minutes.
“Memorial for failure in the climate catastrophe”
The Last Generation posted a video online of a young man with a brush and paint and wrote: “The Brandenburg Gate remains orange. We are back at the Brandenburg Gate with paint. As long as Germany burns oil, gas and coal, we will come back.” The “national monument” is now also a “monument for failure in the climate catastrophe”.
On the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) there was primarily criticism of the protest movement’s actions. Green Party politician Cem Özdemir wrote: “While that Brandenburg Gate is laboriously cleaned of the last attack of color, smeared #LostGeneration the goal again. As if they hadn’t already done enough damage to climate protection. Incomprehensible.”
On September 17th, the Last Generation group sprayed paint on six pillars of the gate. The police subsequently arrested 14 climate activists. An initial cleaning with hot water from high-pressure jets did not work. At the beginning of November, scaffolding was erected for further cleaning work.
In total, the work should cost at least 115,000 euros. Finance Senator Stefan Evers (CDU) emphasized that attempts would be made to collect the money from the climate protection group.