A press release from Last Generation Germany ad RAZ e.V. (‘Support for an Active Civil Society’) about the latest draconian crackdown on climate activists in Germany.
Potsdam, 9 February 2026, 9:00 a.m. – For the first time in Germany, the Potsdam Regional Court has opened a trial against five climate activists from the former Last Generation movement on charges of forming a criminal organization under Section 129 of the German Criminal Code. From 2022 to early 2025, Last Generation Germany (Letzte Generation) carried out non-violent civil disobedience actions aimed at demanding stronger climate protection policies. The defendants are Henning Jeschke (26), Mirjam Herrmann (28), Edmund Schultz (62), Lukas Popp (27), and Jakob Beyer (32). The five defendants face a prison sentence of up to 5 years. The conflict over how the state deals with climate protests has long since become a conflict over fundamental democratic rights.
Mirjam Herrmann, one of the accused, states:
“After almost three years of exhausting uncertainty, my first feeling was relief that something is finally happening. But I have no illusions: this trial will be brutal. The five of us are sitting there as stand-ins for everyone who stands up for a vibrant democracy.”
Section 129 of the German Criminal Code is widely criticized as a vague and expansive law that enables far-reaching surveillance and prosecution, particularly in the context of political movements. As it not only targets active participation, but also supporters of investigated groups, it can potentially target anyone who has donated money, brought coffee to a protest, or posted a supportive comment online.
Since December 2022, when the allegation of forming a “criminal organization” was first made public following nationwide raids against Last Generation, both the activists and their broader networks have been subjected to intensive state scrutiny. This has included raids on private homes, phone surveillance of individuals as well as the group’s press hotline, the seizure of donation funds, and the temporary shutdown of the organization’s website. These extensive state interventions did not go uncontested: more than 2,000 people filed self-incriminations in solidarity for (minor) acts of support, while legal scholars, civil society, and notably UN Special Rapporteurs sharply criticized the application of Section 129 in this context [1].
A number of journalists have also filed a constitutional complaint against the covert surveillance of the press hotline [2]. In the span of 3 years, the international CIVICUS Monitor, which monitors countries’ civic freedom, downgraded Germany from “open” to “narrowed” in 2023 to “obstructed” in its 2025 assessment, citing among other factors the police and states’ handling of climate activism [3].
The use of Section 129 of the German Criminal Code against protest movements is not new. Historically, it has been employed repeatedly to intimidate and suppress political opponents and was developed with precisely this aim [4]. Its increasing application against civil society movements today is therefore not a neutral legal development. Rather, it reflects an attempt to normalize a repressive and authoritarian approach to political protest and to restrict legitimate political engagement.
Following significant political pressure from senior politicians [5], charges have now been brought in three separate cases in Flensburg, Munich, and Neuruppin, against a total of eleven climate activists from the former Last Generation. The Potsdam Regional Court (connected to Neuruppin) is the first court to allow the prosecutions indictment to proceed to trial.
The opening of these proceedings highlights how criminal prosecution is increasingly being used as a tool to deal with “unwelcome” political protest. There is no clear line that begins or ends with Last Generation. It is impossible to predict whom politics and the judiciary may target next. When the state begins to treat political movements as criminal organizations, it opens spaces that authoritarian forces are only too willing to exploit.
Democracies do not collapse overnight; they are eroded step by step through decisions like these. A key test of democracy is not how it handles consent, but how it responds to protest. The application of Section 129 against Last Generation is therefore more than an individual criminal case: it is a measure of how far democratic rights are already being curtailed. The way this trial is conducted will help determine how free civil society engagement will be in the future.
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