Climate activist wins court case: Police must pay for evictions themselves

Berlin police want money from the last generation to get them off the streets. A judge has ruled that in at least one case, this has not worked.

Fighting the Climate Crisis: The Last Generation of Resistance Photo: Lennart Preiss/dpa

Berlin Taz | Would you like to stick it first and then pay? An activist from the climate advocacy group Last Generation complained that Berlin police had successfully prosecuted him for throwing him out of the street during a sit-in with his hands taped up.

The Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court agreed with his opinion, the active civil society support association, which provides legal advice to the last generation, announced on Friday. The court confirmed the decision on Taz.

The state of Berlin must now withdraw the 241 euro fee notice. There is joy among the last generation. The reason: There are a total of 1,300 such fee notices. Activists have confirmed that the police are restricting the freedom of assembly by passing on the costs. They hope that it will not be just a one-time repayment.

Will the last generation be able to get their 300,000 euros back?

“The court dealt with a case law, but it could also apply to all other roadblocks in Berlin over the past generation,” says a statement from Back Cover for an Active Civil Society, titled “Berlin must pay €300,000 to the last generation.”

However, not all activists have taken formal action against the fee notices, although the association acknowledged that “previous protests are now a prerequisite for getting the money back”.

The court went so far as to say that the ruling only applies to individual cases. “Other notices may be based on completely different legal grounds,” said Taz. So it is unlikely that the €300,000 will actually be remitted to the last generation or its members.

The dispute in court has been going on for over a year. Last September, the Berlin Administrative Court ruled that the police had charged the wrong fee. She appealed, but the Higher Administrative Court has now finally rejected the appeal.