"Nobody wants to run for hours in the cold through the city, I do not," says 16-year-old Amelie. She participates in the "Fridays for Future" -location in Hamburg, attends the 11th grade of a grammar school and is actually in the middle of the exam phase. Still, she dropped out of school this Friday, she says, to demonstrate in the city center for more climate protection.
"In the last smaller Friday demos in Hamburg, we have already noticed a winter's down, less and less have come," says the student. That makes it all the more important for her to be there herself on this fourth global day of action. At just before four she got up to help set up the stage in time. Amelie thinks it is important to show that we keep going, no matter how little politics does.
This is especially true of the activists know: The size of the protests is also fixed, how long the "Fridays for Future" movement still holds. And how strong she stays.
On this Friday, it is not enough to reach the record levels of September, when it is estimated that 1.4 million people took to the streets in Germany and more than seven million worldwide. But after all, hundreds of thousands of people are taking part in around 150 countries. In Germany alone, there are around 630,000 in more than 520 places, police said.
In Hamburg about 30,000 participants came to the demo, according to police. "Fridays for Future" speaks of about 50,000 people. In September it had been twice as many.
At the same time "Black Friday"
DPA
Climate demo in Hamburg: according to police 30,000 participants
That there were not that many people on the street this time has several possible reasons: On the one hand, the demonstration falls just on the discount campaign "Black Friday" and in the Christmas period. Already in advance, the Hamburg police had therefore warned against "significant traffic problems" in the city center.
Some demo participants do not even deter them, on the contrary. "Especially on such a consumer day, it is important that we take to the streets for more sustainability," says a 66-year-old retiree.
The owner of a Glühweinstandes near the demo route sees it differently: In principle, he finds the concerns of the activists Although good. But: "That such protests take place on Black Friday and Christmas time, I do not think appropriate." Only five weeks a year would the business for the stalls hum, could not one choose another date?
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"Fridays for Future": climate strikes from Manila to Berlin"Do not be a nest, save the forest"
There are several reasons why the "Fridays for Future" activists selected the last Friday in November for the global climate strike: Next week, the UN Climate Change Conference will start in Madrid, to which Greta Thunberg is currently sailing. In Germany, under the motto "Restart Climate", it was intended to demonstrate, above all, against the climate package, which was concurrently voted on by the Federal Council, which for the time being stopped some plans. Climatic packages call it activists - because in their view it is so small and does not bring anything.
That's why the climate protests begin this Friday in Hamburg also symbolically at 12 clock. "Hamburg, are you at the start?" Asks a musician on stage, then he sings: "It's 12, yes, it's not five to twelve." "It can not just go on, as it is," says a 15-year-old student from Schleswig-Holstein, he has traveled specially for the demo to Hamburg: "If the politicians do not want to change anything, we have to set a sign."
Not only students have come, but also numerous environmental organizations, trade union representatives, "Students for Future", parents, scientists. They are wrapped in thick winter coats, their signs say "Without trees, no dreams" or "Be no eyrie, save the forest."
Right on time at 12.35 the train pulls straight through the city center, we're here, we're loud because you're stealing our future, the activists are calling through their loudspeakers. At 15.50 the band Deichkind plays on the main stage, the crowd cheers.
Florian König, a student of physics and now the chairman of the Hamburger Grossdemo, got up at half past three to set up this stage - despite the drizzle and the cold, it's only six degrees. The 20-year-old has put on several layers of clothing: a long shirt, a pullover, two jackets, a plaid scarf and gloves.
He has organized and planned around 200 hours in the last three weeks, so that the demo runs smoothly, the last night he slept about two and a half hours. That only ten thousand people came now, although he and the other organizers would have been prepared for up to 400,000, as König says, he does not discourage.
"And then we are ready"
DPA
FFF protests in Hamburg: anger over "climate packages"
King says he is determined to "keep going on the streets, no matter how many join us." Tobias Holle, 22, press spokesman for "Fridays for Future" also sees the question of how people can continue to mobilize for the demonstrations on Friday, relaxed: "We have to accept that the weather is sometimes bad, many are on vacation and we just do not get any attention. "
Even before the summer holidays, many had doubts whether the movement would make it possible to keep in conversation - nevertheless, they would have set up the summer congress, Holle says, but in September they succeeded in mobilizing as many people as never before.
The student finds it important to "consolidate our structures and plan new actions." This would nationwide groups such as the Social Media AG, the cooperation AG or the strategy AG work. "When many people look at us again, we have to do better, become even more creative and demanding."
They also have that in Hamburg. King says that shortly before Christmas a lantern run is planned. Even the 16-year-old Amelie is sure: "The interest in us will not be lost." As soon as it gets warmer again, people would come back too: "And then we'll be ready."
