Olaf Scholz's tweet was not so well received by the demonstrators.

“I am grateful for the commitment of Fridays for Future.

You have helped that climate protection is at the top of the agenda, ”wrote the SPD candidate for chancellor on Twitter on Friday.

The response of the activists of Fridays for Future was: "We don't want to destroy the good mood - but we're going on strike today, YOUR government, Olaf."

Helene Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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Fridays for Future had called for a “global climate strike” on Friday two days before the general election.

In Germany, actions under the motto # AlleFürsKlima were planned at 470 locations, worldwide there should have been around 1,500 events.

Around 12,000 young people marched through Berlin-Mitte on Friday afternoon, the protest march ended on the Reichstagswiese.

The movement's founder, Greta Thunberg from Sweden, also took part in the rally in Berlin, as did German climate activist Luisa Neubauer.

"Objectively speaking, Germany is one of the greatest climate villains," said Thunberg during an appearance in front of the Reichstag.

One cannot “invest, build or buy” oneself out of the crisis.

The longer you pretend, "the more time we lose".

In Hamburg even more people took to the streets.

According to estimates by the police, there were more than 20,000 participants, according to estimates by Fridays for Future there were 80,000 participants.

In Cologne, the Chancellor candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, spoke to the activists.

The protesters demanded that the 1.5-degree target be met and that coal be phased out by 2030.

The climate protests were supported by more than 200 organizations, and the churches also took part.

Appeal to those on the hunger strike

The SPD candidate for chancellor called on the activists who went on hunger strike in Berlin to break off the action. Scholz repeated the offer to the young people to talk to them after the election. A group of young adults started the hunger strike on August 30th in Berlin for a radical change in the climate. They wanted to achieve a public conversation with Scholz, Baerbock and the Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet.

Since the politicians did not agree, most of the activists broke off their hunger strike this week.

A young woman and a young man continue to fast and threaten to refuse the intake of fluids from Saturday morning - unless Scholz publicly proclaims the climate emergency beforehand.

After this announcement, first the Greens chairman Robert Habeck and later Baerbock came to the climate activists near the Reichstag on Thursday evening.

They urged them to stop the hunger strike.