Don’t accept any deaths
Sister of the killed cyclist appeals to climate activists
11/09/2022 03:29 am
The twin sister of the cyclist killed by a concrete mixer in Berlin speaks up in an interview. Even if the protest of the “last generation” had no influence on the accidental death, she asks the activists to reconsider their methods. She shares her goals “100 percent”.
After the death of a cyclist who was run over by a cement mixer in Berlin, her twin sister appealed to climate activists. In a conversation with “Spiegel” she called on the group “Last Generation” to reconsider their protest methods. “I think I would just like to tell them what I experienced and then give them the chance to put themselves in this hell,” Anja Umann told the news magazine. The activists should ask themselves “whether there isn’t another way to fight for the survival of our planet without possibly harming other people”.
“My sister and I share the goals of the movement 100 percent,” emphasized Umann. But it hurts her a lot “how ignorantly some climate activists accept the deaths of people who may work for environmental protection and other people themselves”. In doing so, she referred to a statement by an activist who had said that the accident did not change attitudes towards the choice of means of protest.
Umann’s sister was run over by a concrete mixer on Monday morning in Berlin. She succumbed to her injuries on Thursday evening. A special vehicle from the fire brigade only made slow progress after the accident because rush-hour traffic was backed up by a protest by activists from the “last generation”. However, a note from the emergency doctor became known on Friday, according to which the vehicle played no role in the rescue. It would not have been used even if it had been at the scene of the accident earlier.
But that makes no difference to Umann: “It could just as well have been that this vehicle could have saved my sister’s life as was initially assumed.” But she doesn’t feel angry at the “last generation”, she told the “Spiegel”: she still stands behind the activists, “I just sometimes question their methodology”.
Criticism of RAF comparison
Umann reacted with incomprehension to calls for tougher penalties for road blockades, comparisons with the RAF and preventive detention for some climate activists in Bavaria. “I have the impression that drastic is reacting to drastic – something extreme is coming up that I’m not sure I support,” she said.
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt brought up the term “Climate RAF” in a conversation with “Bild am Sonntag” and confirmed his choice of words on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Green party leader Ricarda Lang warns against verbal disarmament and protects the “last generation” from such comparisons. The Red Army Faction (RAF) killed with weapons and explosives, more than 30 people lost their lives at the hands of the terrorists, Lang told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Anyone who draws parallels here and names the current protests with the RAF in the same breath is playing down the terror of the time and mocking the suffering of the victims and their families,” emphasized Lang.
However, the Greens leader considers the forms of protest of the “last generation” to be counterproductive. “If a protest leads to people no longer talking about the cause, but only about the form of the protest, that does this cause a disservice,” she said.