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Climate activists during interviews after a conversation with Chancellor-designate Olaf Scholz in November
Photo: Stefan Müller / PIC ONE
In late summer, young activists in Berlin wanted to stop eating until the Chancellor candidates Annalena Baerbock, Olaf Scholz and Armin Laschet would speak to them publicly about the climate crisis.
Because of the action, the strikers were the target of malice and ridicule - their plan was naive, extortionate, and meaningless.
When I got to know the group - I met them several times, while protesting and starving - I was above all: amazed. I came with the negative comments in my ear: "These rebels have no idea how the world works." But they had a clue, more than many others who also have a concern. They knew how to get noticed, how to get the press around. They assigned me a spokeswoman whom they had chosen. They sent me emails with strike updates, initially daily, in German and English.
The group communicated via WhatsApp, it is rare that those we journalists report on can be reached in this way. They referred to their website, to their Instagram stories, they organized press conferences in the open air, and employed their own photographer. The verbatim quotations of their members, which I wrote in my texts, I should submit to them in writing.
When they met Olaf Scholz, who had taken pity, for a conversation in the SPD-related Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in November, journalists were not allowed in the hall due to Corona.
Difficult for the reporting, but for an exclusive insight the activists invited me to their little Berlin apartment the evening before, where they had arranged to meet with laptops and cucumber to plan the Scholz meeting.
Later, when I said goodbye, the spokeswoman said, “Very nice that you came.
We didn't invite anyone here except you. ”On the stairs I had to laugh: These rebels are really nice - or extremely clever PR professionals.