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To raise awareness of their demands, a group of environmental activists marched through Germany’s streets and disrupted traffic at the Port of Hamburg for most of Monday. Saying that the federal government has not responded to their group’s ultimatum, the demonstrators calling themselves “Last Generation” promised to continue to blockade the port and disrupt the flow of goods there and elsewhere in Germany until the government addresses the issues of food waste that they say is contributing to the climate crisis.
Last Generation wrote an open letter on February 16 to the federal government, demanding a reply by Sunday. The letter also promised to disrupt Hamburg’s commerce centers. Saying that they had not received to reaction from the government, the protestors calling themselves supporters of the “Save Food – Save Lives” campaign began at 7:30 a.m. blockading two of the main bridges and roads into and out of the port.
“Hamburg is the scene of destruction. Its harbor is a testament to the continuing death of the industrial sector. The climate crisis’ effects will soon be apparent in this area. The government must inform residents that the current way of life will not be possible at the end this century. Storms and floods today are showing us how increasing extreme weather events will devastate our city,” said Carla Hinrichs, Public Secretary of the Last Generation while blockading the port.
Protestors used superglue and construction foam to attach their hands to pavement banners and to cause as much disruption possible. 60 liters of rapeseed oils were also poured onto the streets by the protestors, claiming that they had already warned police. The streets were blocked for most of the day. Other protestors from this group also blocked roads in Stuttgart, Freiburg, and other cities.
Other protestors began to swim in the harbor to stop ship traffic (Last Generation).
Protestors also took to Hamburg harbor during the day to disrupt the movement and movements of ships. Many of the protestors donned lifejackets and began to swim in the harbor. The police arrived in speed boats and demanded that the protestors leave. They refused to leave the harbor and were pulled from the water. The police continued searching the harbor and flew in helicopters overhead to search for additional protestors.
They also demand an immediate stop to food waste. According to the group, wasting large amounts of food is a contributing factor to climate change and hunger. Carla Rochel of the group said that “I am sitting here on the street because our federal government is still doing nothing to save our food. A third of our food ends up in the bin every day.” They argue that a 3-degree hotter world means at least a fifth less harvests worldwide due to heat waves, floods and storms, while predicting that exploding food prices are an inevitable part of climate change.
The first wave of protestors who blocked the roads to Hamburg port access roads were arrested by police. However, a second group of protestors took to the streets to block traffic again around 5:00 p.m. Three women from the group, Carla Rochel (20 years old), Lina Eichler (19 years) and Katrin hack (26 years old), spent the night in jail after disrupting traffic for the second time. After nearly 20 hours, they were released by a local magistrate. Nuremberg also saw 11 additional protestors being detained.
After being released, the protestors from Hamburg said that they were open to accepting the consequences of their actions. They also promised further demonstrations that would blockade Hamburg’s port until the government answers their demands.
