Climate protests in Germany: between the worsening heat crisis and the government's hesitation

When Lars Werner of the Last Generation movement stuck to the ground in the street four years ago in protest to demand more climate protection measures, about 12,000 heat deaths had not yet been recorded in Germany, according to the Robert Koch Institute for 2026.

This number far exceeds the numbers recorded in previous years.

Record temperatures have not yet been recorded for the months of June/July in Western Europe, with an average of 21.62 degrees. At that time, ships were still sailing without problems on the Rhine River, in contrast to the current situation, where the water level in the largest German river decreases almost every hour due to the ongoing drought.

Does this give him a sense of validation for a man who was at times considered among the most hated people in Germany due to his extreme and controversial protests?

Labeled a “climate terrorist,” Lars Werner had to pay fines amounting to thousands of euros due to roadblocks and even spent three weeks in a Munich prison in preventive detention.

In an interview with DW, Werner, a psychologist, said, "Of course I can say now: I've always told you so." He added, "The matter was expected and was not a surprise in any way, but this will lead to nothing but more frustration."

He continued, "In fact, I have been talking about this matter repeatedly to emphasize that the Rhine River will dry up one day during the hot summers and that this will have incredible effects on the economy."

"Promotional measures"

At the height of the summer of 2026, Germany will witness a remarkable paradox: As the effects of heat waves, droughts, and forest fires worsen, the political response appears to have less momentum than the scale of the crisis.

At a time when entire villages are being evacuated due to massive forest fires, farmers are losing about three million tons of grain and rapeseed due to drought, and farms are resorting to emergency slaughter of animals, the political response appears to be less than the scale of the crisis.

While the elderly in particular in hospitals, nursing homes and ambulances that lack air conditioning are at grave risk, the federal government has been surprisingly silent and has yet to convene any summit to discuss the heat wave despite the clear urgency.

In this, Werner said, "It is natural that extreme climate events are now approaching, which makes the position of decision makers on these developments seem even more surprising."

He added, "It is absolutely illogical for the federal government to now take patchwork measures, such as lifting the truck ban on Sundays, in the hope of somehow overcoming the crisis without establishing a climate protection policy in the long term, or at least in the short term. Then it ignores the issue again when the weather returns to cold."

Packing is getting harder

At least the federal government no longer has to fear that the Last Generation movement will expose its climate protection policies by closing roads. Climate activists stopped their street-based protests two years ago after losing patience with hostility, fines and prison sentences.

Thus, the onus remains mainly on the “Fridays for Future Deutschland” movement, which is called “Fridays for Future in Germany” in Arabic, to strongly criticize political decision-makers for what the movement considers a “lack of ambition” in the field of climate protection.

"The federal government is doing little in terms of effective climate policy. Instead it is promoting various false solutions such as digging the Rhine River deeper or abolishing the ban on driving trucks on Sundays," Linda Kastrup, spokeswoman for the movement, told DW.

She adds that these are short-term solutions to the symptoms of the climate crisis, but in the long term no action is actually taken, saying, “Our chancellor has been brilliantly ignoring the climate crisis for nearly a year. Unfortunately, this is the reality of the climate policy that we are currently facing in Germany.”

'Climate protection does not matter'

For this reason, the "Climate Protection" movement organized a demonstration a week ago in front of the government headquarters in Berlin, in cooperation with other organizations, where the number of participants reached several hundred male and female demonstrators.

This cannot be compared to the protests that took place before the Corona pandemic, when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in 2019 to demand more climate protection measures.

In this regard, a recent study conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation indicates that 80 percent of the country's population is concerned about climate change. More than half of them demand increased government spending on climate protection.

Kastrup explains this contradiction by saying: “When Chancellor Friedrich Merz completely ignores climate policy, and in Germany alone we are witnessing thousands of deaths due to heat waves without a single word about it, this of course leaves the impression on people in their private lives that climate protection does not matter, and then it becomes very difficult to motivate people to take to the streets.”

She said that hatred and hostility on the Internet towards climate activists like her has increased significantly, adding, "Two days ago, I published a short video clip on Instagram in conjunction with the movement's account on the platform. What is noteworthy is that within a very short time, two thousand offensive comments appeared that included hostility towards women and denial of climate change, and many of them were from automated accounts."

Climate protection issues have declined

As for Sebastian Hauns, a researcher at the University of Bremen's Institute for Studies of Protests and Social Movements, he cannot understand why the scorching summer of 2026 will not cause an increase in climate protests.

He posed a question: Have the population in recent years become “tired” of climate protection issues? How can we reconcile the increasing number of people buying home solar energy systems installed on balconies, on the one hand, with the unprecedented boom in cruising on cruise ships that is harmful to the environment in this country, on the other hand?

Haunce emphasizes that although there are societal changes in favor of climate protection, at the same time there is a clear decline in awareness of what actually needs to be done to confront the consequences of climate change.

He said that climate issues "have become more contentious and controversial than they were seven years ago. A strong opposition position has now been established. There are political actors such as the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party that clearly adopt an agenda opposing climate measures. These actors, whether at the international or national level, did not exist a few years ago."

Although the ability of organizations such as Fridays for Future to mobilize audiences has declined, they have been replaced by a large number of local organizations that Sebastian Hauns describes as “branches of the movement,” such as Students for Future, Scientists for Future, Parents for Future, and now UMass for Future as well.

Therefore, the climate movement is currently active out of the limelight and at the small, local level, but any pivotal event can push large numbers of people to take to the streets at any time.

“There is a competition between issues,” said Sebastian Hauns. “The Corona pandemic and the Ukraine war have pushed the climate issue from the forefront. In addition, current economic concerns play a big role.”

He pointed out that in addition to "changes in the course of life, people who were very young when they started organizing these protests are now in other stages of life and setting different priorities. Their interests have also partly shifted and other issues are now at the forefront, such as the Gaza war and solidarity with Palestine."

Is the government taking climate goals seriously?

In light of the heat waves and falling water levels, Carsten Schneider, the Federal Minister of the Environment who belongs to the Social Democratic Party, intends to include the issue of adaptation to climate change in the German constitution. The minister considers the step "extremely necessary."

Thus, the responsibility for heat protection in the future will not be limited to states and municipalities only, but will also become a joint task with the federal government. But the CDU/CSU coalition opposes Schneider's plans due to "legal problems" and the fate of these plans remains unknown.

Why is the German federal government so hesitant to take concrete measures to protect the climate, despite the heat wave that has been going on for weeks and climate change with all its repercussions?

"There is no doubt that more efforts must be made, and we must respond at a faster pace to the accelerating and worsening developments we are witnessing," Nina Scher, spokeswoman for the Social Democratic Party's parliamentary bloc on energy policy matters, told DW.

She adds: "I see that we, as a socialist party, actually represent within the coalition a steadfast bulwark in support of the energy transition. All of my male and female colleagues in the parliamentary bloc want to achieve more progress in the field of energy transition and climate protection. At the same time, we must also bear part of the responsibility for the decline in climate protection measures in order to reach agreements within this coalition in the first place."

She indicated that this matter was the reason behind her agreeing to reduce airline ticket prices and classifying airport expansion as a higher public interest, which she actually sees as a mistake.

In any case, Germany has committed within the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement and through the National Climate Protection Act to become climate neutral by 2045. This means that until then only the amount of greenhouse gases that are effectively captured or stored may reach the atmosphere.