by Lilith Hofmann
Actions of civil disobedience for climate justice are being increasingly persecuted across Europe. Especially in Germany, where police violence, defamatory rhetoric, changes in the law, harsher prosecution and repression in court are now the norm. The fight is no longer just against the climate crisis. It is also about preserving democratic freedoms.
This is Part I of a two parts essay.
Environmental destruction and climate change are continuing to run their course. People in the Global South have been hit particularly hard for years and are losing their livelihoods due to the climate crisis. However, fossil fuel companies keep on extracting and trading in record amounts. Big Oil like BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and TotalEnergies are making more profits than ever. Global North countries have put forward ambitious goals of mitigation, but their practices show glaring contradictions. Take Germany: despite the rhetoric of taking up the cause of consistent climate protection, the German government continues to invest in the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure. As the Council of Climate Experts has recently announced: in the current trajectory, Germany will not achieve its climate targets.
To oppose the destruction of our planet and denounce the government’s inaction, the climate justice movement has organized into various groups. Whether it is Ende Gelände, Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, Greenpeace or the Last Generation, these movements use different forms of protest, generating most attention through acts of civil disobedience.
“Protecting the climate is not a crime!” is one of the most frequently heard exclamations at demonstrations connected to the climate justice movement. But the fact that it resonates so much with supporters of the movement is more than worrying. Indeed, every effort is being made to delegitimize and break the climate justice movement and its forms of protest. Instead of establishing a dialogue, we see nothing but devaluation, defamation and hatred for the people who are saying loudly: “It’s five past twelve!”.
Attempts are made by various governments to criminalize legitimate forms of protest such as non-violent civil disobedience, whether in in the political discourse, at the legislative level, in law enforcement and in the courts, getting even help from the media. This trend can be seen throughout all of Europe. And it is not directed at the corporations most responsible for driving the climate off balance. Instead, new offences, harsher sentences or bans of forms of protest are directed at civil society.
Whether we look at Italy and see how authorities apply the “anti-mafia code” against activists, or at Denmark, where the charges against civil disobedience actions could be “vandalism” or “organized vandalism”, potentially carrying a six-year prison sentence, or at Spain and the UK, where it has gone as far as the police using undercover agents attending meetings at activists’ homes and even entering into close intimate relationships with some of them. The criminalization of climate activism is reaching new heights across all of Europe.
To use the words of the UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders Michel Forst from his position paper:
“The repression that environmental activists who use peaceful civil disobedience are currently facing in Europe is a major threat to democracy and human rights.“
And Germany may be one of the countries where this trend is most visible and most harsh.
In the following two-part essay, I provide an overview of how the climate justice movement is being criminalized by the German state, and insights into the repression that climate justice activists are suffering.
Climate Justice Activists from Ende Gelände facing police brutality during protests against coal and gas infrastructure in the Rhineland 2020 (Source: ANF News)
How we talk about climate justice
Whether “Climate-RAF” or “Climate Terrorists”, German politicians do not mince words. The way we talk about phenomena is of great importance. Our reality is created also through language, and this should not be underestimated. In the political debate, demands for climate activists to be criminalized abound. We see calls for “much harsher penalties for climate trouble-makers”, according to Alexander Dobrindt from the CSU. And for Markus Söder: “the state must also show a clear edge here”, there must be penalties “that are effective: not light fines, but actually […] an appropriate prison sentence.“ It seems as if social conflicts are being addressed irrespective of the issues these conflicts highlight, namely the climate crisis. An image of the enemy is being constructed and the actual debate on climate protection fades into the background. Echoed by the principle that “if you are a criminal, you have forfeited your participation in the debate.”
Not only from politicians, but also within the German media, a narrative is emerging that labels the activists and their protests as “illegal”, “violent” and “unjustified”, framing the activist groups as “criminal organizations”. One could be forgiven to think that the movement is portrayed in a negative light to justify the repression used against it.
As Bild wrote on August 4, 2024: “The airline [Lufthansa] fears that climate criminals could also strike on planes in the future.” Notice ”striking” as if there was a violent prey to seize. On September 13, 2024, the local Berlin newspaper BZ talked about “climate radicals” and “annoying gluers”. Here we see a rhetoric that mocks and delegitimizes the actions of the Last Generation. On November 23, 2023, Bild wrote that the Munich Regional Court has classified the Last Generation as a “criminal organization”. This statement is simply wrong. This classification was merely the initial, unproven suspicion used to legitimize individual investigative measures. This makes a big difference in legal terms.
But shouldn’t corporations that exploit our environment be labeled as criminals rather than the climate justice activists who are fighting for a world in which life is still possible in the future?
Demonstration in solidarity with arrested climate justice activists on Friedrichstraße in 2019 in Berlin (Credit: Kristoffer Schwetje)
Harsher prosecution for climate justice activists
Just as civil disobedience has always been part of democracy and a driver of progressive social development, it is also the intensification of penalties and the introduction of new criminal offences that have always seemed to be a common response to social unrest.
For example, the prosecution of sit-in blockades is becoming increasingly repressive. In 2019, sit-in blockades were a common form of climate protest by Ende Gelände, Extinction Rebellion and similar organizations. But, unlike today, hardly any sit-in blockades were prosecuted after they were broken up. Whereas now, it is common practice to record personal details and initiate proceedings for “coercion“ (§ 240 StGB) during similar actions. The content of the paragraph refers to the exercise of force to compel or restrict someone. So that a sit-in becomes an act of coercion.
Activists are repeatedly sentenced, although there is no legal basis for the criminal liability of sit-in blockades. About two years ago, a first-time participation in a sit-in blockade was punishable by a fine of 20 daily rates, today it is often 120 daily rates. This rate is equal to the net income earned by the convicted person in one day. Likewise, gluing yourself to the street with superglue, as practiced by the Last Generation, is charged and sentenced under §113 StGB: “Resistance against law enforcement officers”. The simple purchase of superglue can constitute a punishable act of complicity in violent resistance. What we see here is a clear tendency to criminalize specific forms of action.
Police brutality is reaching a new dimension
Intensified prosecution is often connected to disproportionately harsh police practices, which have seen a considerable upswing in recent years. There has been an increase in the use of pain grips against protesters. Whether during actions by Ende Gelände, in demonstrations by Fridays for Future, at the IAA, the International Motor Show in Munich or during sit-in blockades by the Last Generation, the reports of this form of excessive use of nerve pressure and lever techniques are piling up.
Especially in January 2023, during the demonstration that took place alongside the eviction in Lützerath, violence against climate activists got out of hand. A high number of head injuries were recorded. There were lacerations, broken noses and knocked out teeth. Due to the use of various means of violence against demonstrators (including horses, dogs, water cannons, pepper spray and sudden and indiscriminate baton strikes and punches), at least eight people had to be taken to hospital with injuries, before or instead of being taken into police custody.
Heavy police violence at the demonstration that took place alongside the eviction in Lützerath. January 2023 (Source: WDR).
Disproportionate police practice can also be seen in the case of Last Generation actions. As during a paint campaign at the Chancellery in March 2024, when a police officer pressed his knee on the head of an underage activist. The activists had written “Help! Your children” in orange paint on the wall and left handprints. The incident of the knee on the head was filmed, but after forty seconds and requests from the activist to remove the knee, the video breaks off.
Many forms of physical violence are being used in an attempt to break the climate justice movement, to intimidate and discourage activists. The police strategy seems more brutal and aggressive than ever. Even more problematic, is the fact that only a handful of individual cases of police violence end up in court, in contrast to the countless reports from those affected. Many of the events of police brutality are not reported out of fear and are therefore not dealt with by the courts. These are alarming trends that should wake-up civil society to show solidarity with the climate justice movement.
Ende Gelände – An example of criminalization of climate justice groups
Another example of the increasing criminalization of the climate justice movement is the classification of Ende Gelände as a “suspected left-wing extremist case” by the “Office for the Protection of the Constitution“ in June 2024. This classification was justified by referring to the group’s policy papers, which, among other things, propagate a “fight for system change and the abolition of repressive institutions”. The practice of “System Change Camps” also contributed to the classification as a left-wing extremist organization by the secret service. Thomas Haldewang, President of the “Office for the Protection of the Constitution” claims that Ende Gelände would radicalize the democratic protest and “[it would be an] attempt to introduce militant components into the climate protest.” Both the group and individual members can now be monitored by the secret service and undercover agents.
§ 129 StGB – The “Door-Opener-Paragraph”: A classification that represents a new level of escalation in the criminalization of climate activists
On May 24, 2023, the §129 of the German Criminal Code had been applied for the first time. This paragraph deals with the “formation of a criminal organization”, which must meet two essential criteria: A permanent structure with the purpose of committing criminal offenses, and an association that poses a significant threat to public safety. A nationwide raid was carried out on behalf of the “Bavarian State Office of Criminal Investigation and the Central Office for Combating Terrorism and Extremism“. Fifteen homes and business locations of members of the Last Generation were searched. This was possible due to the accusation of “forming a criminal organization”.
According to Amnesty International, this is an accusation that allows for serious interference with fundamental rights. Indeed, this paragraph is normally used in the fight against organized violence. The effects go beyond house searches. Some speak of the §129 StGB as a so-called “door-opener paragraph”. That it would lead into the “dark area” of criminal procedural (secret) surveillance methods, such as telephone communication surveillance (§100a StPO), online searches (§100b StPO) and acoustic home surveillance (§100c StPO). The “Public Prosecution Office” has already been tapping activists’ telephone conversations with representatives of the press for months. The blocking of the website and the freezing of bank accounts by the authorities were also consequences of the classification as a suspected case of a criminal organization.
There have been repeated raids since May 24, 2023. Such as in December 2023: three activist’s homes were searched after an action in which Christmas trees were sprayed orange in Berlin. Or as in August 2024, after an action at Frankfurt Airport, where eight activists’ homes were subsequently searched.
The German state’s response to civil disobedience makes it clear that it is no longer just a matter of punishing and criminalizing individual protest actions. It goes beyond the alleged “criminal” behavior of individual activists and becomes a structural trend. This means that any support for the activist group is potentially punishable, regardless of whether this involves financial, legal, communicative or logistical support. A donation to the group could therefore also be a criminal offense.
These frightening repressive developments are not only happening in Germany. The increasing criminalization of activists is systematically applied in most countries in the EU. But, as UN secretary general António Guterres said in April 2023: “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels. Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”
What does all this tell us? Where do we go as activists, but also where is the state going? At its core, this dynamic of repression helps maintaining the power structures presiding over the capitalist system and the status quo in our society by silencing dissent. Repression can be as weak or strong as we are as an organized movement. This tendency towards the intensification of the repression may increase further in the future. As a movement, we must become stronger to counteract it.
In the second part, we will dive deeper into the German case. We will focus on the repression on a legal level by discussing three new laws: the new police law and the assembly law in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the new police law in Bavaria with the infamous preventive detention “to avert danger”. Repression at the judicial level will also be examined and the implications for our democratic freedoms will be discussed.
