Extinction Rebellion climate activists have begun building a camp outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's office. During two weeks of international climate protests, they plan to block major roads in the German capital.
Its protests, which will urge the government to adopt climate policies that will bring the country's CO2 emissions down to zero by 2025, are due to start on Monday and run for a week.
A spokeswoman for the group said it wanted to offer workshops and run working groups at the camp starting on Sunday. Police said 6,000 people had registered for the protests.
In London, Extinction Rebellion activists sprayed fake blood at the Treasury in WestminsterImage: picture-alliance/Zumapress/R. Pinney
Roadblocks planned
The Berlin activists plan to follow the example set by the movement in London and elsewhere earlier this year by blocking major roadways, starting with the public square and traffic intersection of Potsdam Square.
"We are recommending that drivers leave their cars at home," the group said on Friday.
Environmental activists in London and other cities have said they are ready to shift from disruption to dialogue. A look back at a week of loud and creative protests that brought parts of the UK capital to a standstill.
Image: Reuters/S. Dawson
Save Mother Earth!
Beginning April 15, protesters with Extinction Rebellion took to the streets of London and other cities to demand governments declare a climate and ecological emergency. They occupied key spots in the city, calling on those in charge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025, halt biodiversity loss and set up citizens' assemblies on climate and ecological justice.
Image: Reuters/P. Nicholls
Creative protests
Extinction Rebellion, founded last year by academics in the United Kingdom, is one of the world's fastest-growing environmental movements. Their aim is to protest climate change inaction in a creative and nonviolent way. Demonstrators say people are causing their own mass extinction, which is the basis of their "rebellion."
Image: Reuters/P. Nicholls
Royal support?
Harry and Meghan, the duke and duchess of Sussex, didn't exactly take part in the sit-in on London's Waterloo Bridge on April 18. The royals are expecting and protesters used the happy event in their demonstration, having the couple "thank" Extinction Rebellion for saving their child's future.
Image: Reuters/P. Nicholls
Stuck to the train
Activists have used a variety of unusual protest methods to draw maximum attention and get their point across. Throughout the week, they've blocked traffic, climbed atop buses and superglued themselves to buildings and, in the case of this young man at London's Canary Wharf station on April 17, trains.
Image: Reuters/H. Nicholls
Civil disobedience
The goal of the protests is to temporarily disrupt everyday life. As a result, police have arrested more than 800 people in London alone. Activists want to get the public on their side, but a YouGov survey showed that just 36% of more than 3,500 British polled support the protest, with 52% against.
Image: Reuters/H. Nicholls
Naked truth
Extinction Rebellion protesters first attracted global attention on April 1, during yet another heated Brexit debate in the British Parliament. A group of semi-naked activists revealed themselves in the visitor gallery with slogans including "SOS" and "Stop Wasting Time" written on their bodies, with some gluing their hands to a glass barrier. The scene was quickly broken up my security.
Image: Reuters/EXTINCTION REBELLION
Global movement
The Extinction Rebellion protests got their start in London, but the movement has also spread to other major cities around the world. On April 15, these activists on the Oberbaum Bridge in Berlin blocked traffic for hours.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Soeder
Switching tactics?
On April 21, organizers in London said they were willing to switch tactics and talk with the government. "We're giving them an opportunity now to come and speak to us," said spokesman James Fox. "If they refuse … then this is going to continue and this going to escalate in different, diverse and very creative ways."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/NurPhoto/R. Pope
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Germany is currently on track to miss its 2020 emissions reduction target by almost 25%.
Paris activists occupy shopping mall
Meanwhile, in Paris, hundreds of XR activists barricaded themselves in a shopping center on Saturday for 17 hours. The protesters unfurled banners that read "Burn capitalism not petrol" in the Italie 2 mall in the southeast of the French capital as security services attempted to remove them.
Footage broadcast on French TV showed officers unsuccessfully trying to break down barricades of tables and chairs placed at a mall entrance, while live images on social networks showed police using tear gas.
"We resisted. We created a human chain, we were all tied up and seated, not violent, and the police gassed us," 20-year-old activist Benjamin told AFP.
At around four o'clock in the morning, the activists decided to leave the premises.
In Paris, XR operations are planned for almost everyday until October 12 on the themes of plastic waste, ocean protection, and forced migration linked to climate change.
First founded in Britain, Extinction Rebellion now has branches in some 50 countries. It plans to launch two weeks of protests in 60 cities across the world from Monday.
