If the theorists are right, all you need is some superglue and a nice piece of asphalt and you can change the whole world.

All you have to do is stick with one hand in rush hour traffic and hold up a sign with the other, the message of which isn't entirely outlandish.

A dynamic is already emerging that has been visible in Germany and Europe for months.

There is great excitement.

Some say that blocking innocent people in traffic is an outrage, others say that finally someone is doing something.

Then follow police operations, television pictures, talk show appearances, donations, newspaper articles.

Justus Bender

Editor in the politics of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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So the thing works.

But not because the action would be particularly convincing.

So far, no climate activist has claimed that the traffic jams on the Autobahn 100 in Berlin are doing anything to save the world climate.

On the contrary, everyone would have to admit that traffic jams produce more emissions than moving traffic.

The traffic jam works because the drivers are annoyed.

And because there are so many motorists in Germany, millions of others are annoyed with them because they know that it could be their turn next.

And where so many people are talking about something, the media report on it, first traffic jam reporters, then news anchors, then newspaper editors.

Everyone mentions who is causing the traffic jams: climate protectors.

Activists have already made it with a tube of glue for nine euros,

Being in jail works too.

Aimée van Baalen, the spokeswoman for the activist group "Last Generation", was recently stuck on the asphalt in Frankfurt and then spent six days in police custody.

It took place at police headquarters, in a solitary cell.

Van Baalen sat or lay around 23 hours a day, the rest of the hour she was allowed to get some fresh air on the roof of the police headquarters.

Otherwise there was bread with jam, vegetarian lasagne and a lot of rest.

Nevertheless, the time was productive.

While she was in the cell, her relatives and friends were worried.

How it is.

And when van Baalen came out, she felt that something had changed in her environment.

There were questions as to why she is doing this, and then there were many interested conversations about climate change.

More and more people want to take part in the protests

Recently, an activist from a Munich prison wrote to his fellow activists: "We see that everyone is talking about us, our protests and measures against the climate collapse: at the dinner tables of this country, in the courtrooms, on talk shows and in political committees." That sounded very happy.

So it works.

Van Baalen says that more and more people wanted to take part.

Precisely because the group has become so famous.

"We're seeing more and more coming in, more and more signing up.

As long as that's the case, the campaigns are a success," she says.

And the drivers stuck in traffic?

Of course they don't like the group.

And bourgeois politicians grumble too.

But that doesn't bother the activists, on the contrary.

"It may be that we get less support from mainstream society," says van Baalen.

“Ultimately, it is not important that we are the ones sitting at the negotiating table with politicians.

It doesn't matter which movement ultimately does it.

It is only crucial that the politicians enforce measures.”