As early as Tuesday, the district court was in rapid succession.

Several "Last Generation" activists who had blocked streets around the city throughout the day, some gluing themselves to the ground, were brought before magistrates and later that evening to on-call duty.

The judges ordered six people to be taken into custody.

As a result, three people had to remain in custody until 6 p.m. Wednesday evening, one person had to remain there until 6 p.m. Thursday and another until 10 p.m. Thursday.

Anna Sophia Lang

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

  • Follow I follow

The detentions are intended to have a preventive effect and are regulated in the Hessian law on public safety and order.

It states that a person may be taken into custody to prevent "an imminent commission or continuation of a criminal offence".

The police must "immediately bring about a judicial decision on the admissibility and continuation of the deprivation of liberty".

If a person has not been brought before a judge after 24 hours, they must be released.

150 preliminary investigations

The length of detention depends on how the person behaved.

Using the activists as an example: How many blockades did she take part in?

What was her role?

Was she provisionally arrested the day before and then went straight to the next action, ignoring the instructions of the police?

And what does she say in front of the magistrate: that she is holding off from now on or that she intends to continue?

A second, independent strand is criminal investigations.

In the case of the "last generation", the police investigate similar to the abseilers on motorway bridges because of coercion, sometimes because of resistance to law enforcement officers.

According to a spokeswoman for the “Last Generation”, there are already 150 investigations.

The criminal offense of dangerous intervention in road traffic can also be considered, for example if liquids are spilled on a street and there is a risk of road users driving in and having an accident.

The question of which streets the blockades took place also plays a role in the investigations: Was it a 30 km/h zone or a motorway?

where vehicles are traveling at high speed?

Was a street suddenly "stormed" into traffic, or did the activists take advantage of a red light?

No concealment of identity

The criminal investigation of the actions of the "Last Generation" in Frankfurt is still in its infancy.

First up is the police.

After completing their investigations, the cases go to the public prosecutor's office, which then examines them and, if there is sufficient suspicion, can bring charges.

Also by way of a penalty order, which is applied for at the district court if the public prosecutor's office does not consider a main hearing to be necessary.

The “Last Generation” can only be compared to a limited extent with the activists who abseiled down the Autobahn in the Rhine-Main area, because they are explicitly concerned with making the names and biographies of their activists public.

The abseilers, on the other hand, were careful not to reveal their identities.

They painted their faces or taped their fingertips so no prints could be taken.

Some even accepted pre-trial detention.

Not all of them held out for long, but after a while they revealed their identity or gave their defense attorneys power of attorney so that they could be reached by the judiciary and the risk of escaping as a reason for arrest no longer existed.