Last Generation (climate movement)

The Last Generation (German: Letzte Generation,, Italian: Ultima Generazione) is a group of climate change activists using forms of direct action which is mostly active in Germany, Austria, Italy and Poland.

Last Generation describes itself as an "alliance" and was formed in 2021 from participants in the Hungerstreik der letzten Generation ("last generation hunger strike"). The term was chosen because they considered themselves to be the last generation before tipping points in the earth's climate system would be reached.

Since their formation, they have staged direct non-violent actions including numerous road blockades (276 in Germany over the course of 2022) and using paint to vandalise yachts, notorious paintings, buildings, restaurants and private jets. Protests in Germany were mainly focused on car usage and traffic policy, while those in Italy focused on cultural assets.

The civil disobedience methods of the group have met with mixed reactions from the public, including expressions of outrage and threats of violence. They have also received criticism for their disruptive nature.

Goals and views
The group states that there is a climate emergency and that the cost of solving it should be borne by those with high income. The group further demands a debt cut and payments to states of the Global South as compensation for climate change, the introduction of a general speed limit of 100 km/h on the autobahn, and a permanent 9-Euro-Ticket. It claims that the German government is knowingly breaking its own climate protection goals.

In early 2023, the group declared the Democratic process to be unfit for dealing with the climate crisis and demanded the implementation of "Society councils" to work out emergency measures. The members of those councils should be selected by sortition from various backgrounds and age classes. Existing conventional political institutions would be obliged to implement the councils' decisions exactly as agreed.

In January 2024, the group announced that it would no longer stage road blockades, shifting instead to what it called "disobedient public assemblies" and increase protests at facilities such as oil pipelines, energy company headquarters and airports.

A month later, the group announced its intention to contest the 2024 EU Parliament elections in Germany. It obtained 0.3% of the German vote and thus no seats. It also fell short of the 0.5% required to obtain German public funding for political parties. The group did not run in Austria, Italy, and Poland.

History of actions
At the beginning of the movement, besides road blockades, the group also frequently distributed food from dumpsters for free. Both methods were used in early 2022 to support their demand for a law against food loss and waste.

The Last Generation performed about 370 actions between January and October 2022.

In October 2022, two Last Generation activists threw mashed potatoes at a Monet painting behind glass, titled Haystacks, part of a collection founded by Hasso Plattner, a German billionaire, at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany. Plattner had reportedly paid 111 million euros for the painting in 2019. The painting was left undamaged. However, the museum stated that the frame was damaged, and estimated that its restoration would incur a five-figure cost in euros. In November 2022, the Last Generation threw soup at 'The Sower' by Vincent van Gogh, also behind glass, at the Palazzo Bonaparte in Rome, Italy. The painting, which was on loan from the Dutch Kröller-Müller Museum, suffered no damage,  like another van Gogh painting targeted by a similar protest by Just Stop Oil two weeks earlier in London.

The group also blockaded highways, such as in Berlin. In February 2023, motorists attempted to remove Last Generation protesters from a motorway near the event venue ICC Berlin, with one car driver running over a protester's foot. The police were at the scene and initiated criminal proceedings against the driver, on suspicion of simple bodily harm.

In April 2023, the group protested at the Berlin ePrix, a Formula E electric car race, by gluing themselves to the track and support vehicles right before the start. That same month, the use by police of pain compliance techniques to disperse a Letzte Generation road blockade came under public and legal scrutiny in Germany. In May 2023, Letzte Generation spray-painted a Piper PA-23  'Aztec' private airplane at Berlin airport, causing an estimated 72,000 euros worth of damage to the aircraft. In the same month, in Vienna, an emergency patient died in congestion caused by the group. A speaker of the group stated that it had made the mistake of not informing the ambulance service centre.

On 23 May 2023, two activists from the group poured mud over themselves outside the Senate building in Rome to protest fossil fuel use. They also drew attention to the devastating effects of floods linked to climate change, such as those which had recently hit the Emilia-Romagna region. The group had previously poured black liquid into the Trevi Fountain in Rome and glued themselves to a piece of art in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

In June 2023, shortly after an announcement by the group that it would soon carry out a string of actions specifically targeting "the rich", who in their view contributed overproportionately to climate change, sprayed orange paint onto a private jet (reported as make Cessna CJ1) in Sylt, as well as several buildings. The same month, it spray-painted the Lady M, a 30-metre private yacht of a German company owner on the German Baltic coast.

Two activists from the Last Generation group in Italy were detained in 13 February 2024 after they stuck several photographs of flooding on Botticelli's painting The Birth of Venus displayed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. They demanded a €20 billion fund to help climate disaster victims.

On 3 March 2024, two Polish activists interrupted a concert at the National Philharmonic celebrating the 80th birthday of conductor Antoni Wit and the 60th anniversary of his artistic career.

On 18 May 2024, six climate activists glued themselves to the access routes leading to runways at Munich Airport. During the two-hour disruption, some 60 flights were canceled and 14 re-routed.

Criminal accusations and sentences
In May 2023, a Bavarian court approved an investigation against the Last Generation because of "suspicion of criminal association". Some 170 police officers conducted raids on flats around Germany, shutting down the group's website, and freezing accounts linked to the group. The investigation was being led by the Bavarian central office for combating extremism and terrorism. The authorities claimed the group was using the website to raise funds for "further criminal acts", stating at least 1.4 million euros had been collected. Two of the group's members were alleged to have planned an attack on an oil pipeline in Bavaria. On 25 June 2023, the Munich public prosecutor's office confirmed that German investigators have been tapping and monitoring several communications from the climate activist group, following revelations in the German press about the case.

In September 2023, a 41-year-old female activist was sentenced to eight months in jail after she was found guilty of coercion, attempted coercion, and resisting law enforcement officers. She had taken part in three street blockades, in two of which she had glued herself to the street. This was the heaviest sentence that members of Last Generation had received to that date. On 23 April 2024, three climate activists aged between 22 and 64 were handed suspended eight-month prison sentences by a Berlin district court for having spray-painted the Brandenburg Gate in September 2023. Their defence lawyers said that the activists would appeal the verdict.

In July 2024, a female 32-year-old activist was sentenced to 16 months in jail for participation in five street blockades, and spray-painting of the main office of the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport and an outlet of luxury fashion house Gucci. The verdict was not immediately legally binding.

Funding
According to its own statements, the group is mainly financed by donations or crowdfunding. In early 2022 it released a transparency report, according to which in 2021 it had received more than 900,000 euros in donations and spent around 535,000 euros.

In late 2022, the Axel Springer newspaper Welt am Sonntag published a story, according to which Last Generation pays some activists up to 1,300 euros per month. The money is paid out by an organisation called "Wandelbündnis" in Berlin, but originates from the Climate Emergency Fund in the United States.

Last Generation (Germany, Austria, and Italy) are part of the A22 network funded by the Climate Emergency Fund, together with Renovate Switzerland, Dernière Rénovation in France, Just Stop Oil in the UK (Stopp oljeletinga in Norway), and other groups in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, and the US.

Controversy
Two Last Generation activists did not appear in court in Bad Cannstatt, Baden-Württemberg state in early 2023. They were on trial for blocking a federal highway in late 2022. News reports emerged that they had flown to Bali, Indonesia on holiday. However, the Last Generation issued a statement pointing out that their members had actually travelled to Thailand and that this had been agreed to by the court. They booked the flights as private individuals, not as activists, the group said. These two things should be treated differently, the statement went on.

Reception
In 2022, the Association for the German Language chose "Climate-terrorist" as Un-word of the year 2022. The expression was used in public discourse to discredit activists and their protests for more climate protection, the jury justified their choice. Members of Last Generation were titled as Climate-terrorists. Some politicians spoke about a "Climate-RAF" or "Green RAF", the acronym referring to German post-war terrorist group Red Army Faction. The term "Green RAF" was used by climate activist Tadzio Müller in a December 2021 interview. In a December 2022 interview, Müller, who is not himself part of the Last Generation, expressed his regret about his use of the term.