A police officer removes glue from the hand of a "Letzte Generation" (Last Generation) activist, blocking a road under the slogan "Let's stop the fossil madness!" for an end to fossil fuels and against oil drilling in the North Sea, in Berlin, Germany, July 15, 2022. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

Climate protectors from the group “Uprising of the last generation” blocked another motorway exit in Berlin on Friday. However, this should have been the last action of this kind for the time being. Because after the end of the action, they announced a temporary break in the blockades in order to “get more people into the resistance,” according to a press release from the afternoon.

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“That’s why we are now interrupting our resistance actions in order to invite more people to participate in hundreds of lectures and train them,” said the “Last Generation”. “If the government doesn’t back away from its destructive course, we will come to Berlin again in the fall and take society’s will to survive onto the streets.”

The group had previously demonstrated even more drastically than before. On the A103 in Schöneberg, two dozen demonstrators stuck to the roadway at the Sachsendamm exit in the morning, the exit had to be temporarily closed, and there was a traffic jam. This time, the means were partly different from previous blockades: in addition to superglue and instant adhesive, some participants even used instant concrete.

“For us as the police, it’s about solving these blockades quickly,” said a police spokeswoman. Various oils such as sun oil – sometimes mixed with acetone – are used for this. In particularly difficult cases, mechanical tools such as chisels and hammers are also used. According to the police, this was also the case on Friday morning.

Shortly after eleven o’clock, the Berlin Traffic Information Center (VIZ) reported the all-clear on Twitter: Sachsendamm was being cleaned of the remains of the substance with which the demonstrators had stuck to the road. Then the road will be reopened. Photos showed police officers detaching protesters’ hands from the roadway and carrying activists away.

According to the police, around 50 people had been at the motorway exit since 7.45 a.m. According to the VIZ, traffic was routed via the Innsbrucker Platz exit. According to the police, the blockade was cleared at 11:15 a.m. 13 people were taken into temporary custody. The personal details of five were recorded and eight were to be brought before a judge to order preventive custody.

It was only on Monday and Tuesday that a judge sent 24 people to preventive custody for a day after blockades.

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The group “Last Generation” had recently repeatedly blocked streets in the Berlin city area. She calls on the federal government to take more action to combat climate change. Many demonstrators tape their hands to the street to prevent the police from quickly carrying them away.