Members of the climate protection group Last Generation sprayed the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin with orange paint. All six pillars were affected. Around 40 emergency services were on site, a police spokesman said on Sunday morning.
There were 14 arrests. According to the spokesman, an investigation is being carried out due to damage to property that is harmful to the public. The police cordoned off a large area around the Berlin landmark, as a dpa reporter reported. According to him, a number of passers-by reacted negatively to the action. The Last Generation said the protest was “part of the so-called turning point”.
To initiate this, hundreds of people have come to Berlin since last Wednesday. The group has announced new weeks of action, and from this Monday there will be road blockades in the capital again. The police want to react quickly and observe well-known intersections and motorway exits at an early stage.
Road blockades and protest marches
The renewed activities in the capital began last Wednesday with a protest march with several hundred participants, which also led to road blockades near the main train station.
Last Generation said prepared fire extinguishers were used during the color campaign on Sunday. At the same time, paint was spilled on Pariser Platz in front of the Berlin landmark. Some people walked through these and left glowing footprints on the square. According to the dpa reporter, little of this was visible. According to the police, climate activists also wanted to climb the Brandenburg Gate. However, a patrol noticed the lifting platform on the west side and prevented this.
In addition to road blockades, color attacks are a regular part of climate activists’ actions. In Berlin, members of the Last Generation defaced the Basic Law monument, among other things. The party headquarters of the traffic light government of the SPD, Greens and FDP were also the target of attacks, as were luxury shops on Kurfürstendamm and a private plane at the capital’s BER airport.
Hundreds of cases against climate activists
The group demands that Germany stop using fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas from 2030. The federal government is aiming for a climate-neutral economy by 2045.
Since spring 2022, the Last Generation has been protesting in many German cities with road blockades in which participants glue themselves to the road. Drivers often react angrily and sometimes with violence. The demonstrators are regularly removed from the streets by police, and many have been convicted of coercion and other crimes.
At the Berlin public prosecutor’s office, the protest by climate activists has now led to 2,860 cases (as of September 15), as the authority announced at the request of the German Press Agency. The majority of cases involve actions by the climate protection group Last Generation (2458).
