The Potsdam Regional Court has opened the court proceedings against climate activists of the now-dissolved climate group The Last Generation. The group announced this on Monday morning. Accordingly, five members must now face trial on the charge of being part of a criminal organization. The corresponding letter from the Potsdam Regional Court is in the possession of ; the court was initially unavailable for comment when contacted.
Potsdam is thus the first court to actually bring the accusation before a judge. In parallel, prosecutors in Flensburg and Munich have also filed charges under Section 129. This section is intended to pursue organized crime, such as mafia structures. Because it allows police to conduct extensive surveillance measures with relatively low thresholds, the accusation is repeatedly directed at political groups. Indictments under this provision rarely proceed to formal charges.
But now the leading public prosecutor’s office in Neuruppin is actually seeking a conviction against The Last Generation. It thus regards it as proven that the group’s purpose was to commit crimes.
It is a “turning point,” said Carla Hinrichs, the group’s former spokesperson, to on Monday. Hinrichs herself is named in the Munich proceedings. That “a so-popular group with such an open organizational structure” is charged under Section 129, which criminalizes the formation of criminal organizations, shows “where the rule of law is headed.” If convicted, anyone who has ever donated five euros could face a proceeding as a supporter of a criminal organization.
Civil Disobedience with Mashed Potatoes
The Last Generation had mainly drawn attention between 2022 and 2023 with numerous civil disobedience actions. Nationwide uproar was particularly sparked by the street blockades in Berlin, where activists glued themselves to the roadway. In addition, the activists repeatedly carried out museum actions, for example with a mashed-potato throw at a Monet painting behind glass in Potsdam’s Barberini Museum in October 2022. The aim was to exert political pressure to push the government to act in the climate crisis.
Is that enough to accuse the group of aiming to commit crimes? The Berlin public prosecutor’s office has repeatedly refused to classify them as a criminal organization in the past. In Brandenburg, however, there are also charges that are legally more serious than coercion in traffic or property damage. For example, activists blocked runways at BER airport and infiltrated the PCK refinery in Schwedt to turn off valve wheels on an oil pipeline.
Apparently, the public prosecutor’s office is pursuing a random handful of people in order to criminalize the entire organization
Carla Hinrichs, former Last Generation spokesperson
According to the group, however, the five activists now charged have hardly anything in common. “It is completely arbitrary whom it has struck,” Hinrichs told . Among those charged is activist Mirjam Herrmann, who became known for the mashed potato throw, and activist Henning Jeschke, who took part in street blockades. Hinrichs’ assessment: “Apparently the public prosecutor’s office is targeting a random handful of people to criminalize the entire organization.”
Hinrichs described the accusation itself as a “complete reversal of causality.” The Last Generation had sought to draw the state’s attention to “its own breach of the law of climate inaction” through the democratic instrument of civil disobedience. “I can vouch for this with my hand on my heart: none of us intended to commit crimes,” Hinrichs said.
From the outset, Brandenburg authorities had distinguished themselves by their vehement pursuit of The Last Generation. Already in December 2022, raids were carried out on activists at the request of the Neuruppin public prosecutor. In the aftermath, hundreds of people came forward to self-report for assisting a criminal organization. The group’s phones were monitored, including the press line, which also affected journalists.
The zeal for pursuit repeatedly sparked the debate over whether authorities were pressured to deliver results by negative reporting, for example by Springer media, about the climate activists and statements by politicians. The then Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser (SPD), said that the rule of law would not be “let to be walked over.” After the mashed potato action, a SPD politician drew Taliban comparisons. The then Brandenburg Minister of Justice Susanne Hoffmann (CDU) published a newspaper article arguing for prosecution under Section 129.
“The Intimidation Has Already Taken Place”
“For us it is clear that this is a political case that was initiated because of the public pressure against us,” says Hinrichs. She is convinced that this pressure has limited the civil-society process. “The intimidation has already taken place,” she says. She does not see a democracy problem only in the current court case, but also in the “executive intimidation” during the movement’s peak.
The Last Generation dissolved at the end of 2024. From it emerged two groups: the “New Generation,” which mainly aims at establishing societal councils, and the “Resistance Collective,” which follows the civil-disobedience approach closer to the goals of the old group. None of the two new groups are the target of the case.
A date for a trial opening has not yet been set. It is expected, however, that the trial could begin later this year. In particular, if it proceeds through the courts of appeal, it could take years before a verdict is reached.
