
(EG) (German saying for "here and no further"; literally "end terrain" or "end of terrain") is a
civil disobedience
Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a stat ...
movement occupying
coal mine
Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extraction of iron fro ...
s in Germany to raise awareness for
climate justice
Climate justice is a concept that addresses the just division, fair sharing, and equitable distribution of the burdens of climate change and its mitigation and responsibilities to deal with climate change. "Justice", "fairness", and "equity" ar ...
. Ende Gelände has been organizing mass civil disobedience actions against coal mines in
Rhineland
The Rhineland (german: Rheinland; french: Rhénanie; nl, Rijnland; ksh, Rhingland; Latinised name: ''Rhenania'') is a loosely defined area of Western Germany along the Rhine, chiefly its middle section.
Term
Historically, the Rhineland ...
,
Lusatia
Lusatia (german: Lausitz, pl, Łużyce, hsb, Łužica, dsb, Łužyca, cs, Lužice, la, Lusatia, rarely also referred to as Sorbia) is a historical region in Central Europe, split between Germany and Poland. Lusatia stretches from the Bóbr ...
and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
since 2015. Since 2017, it has participated in civil disobedience protests against coal mining and fracking in Poland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. It supports Venice's movement against big cruising ships. Annual protests in Germany have been attended by between and participants.
It regularly supports anti-racist rallies in Germany and has hosted a range of smaller local protests since 2018.
Organization
Ende Gelände was founded by a broad alliance of anti-coal groups, grassroots climate action groups, large environmental organizations,
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in so ...
groups and others.
Big organizations like
Fridays For Future
School Strike for Climate ( sv, Skolstrejk för klimatet), also known variously as Fridays for Future (FFF), Youth for Climate, Climate Strike or Youth Strike for Climate, is an international movement of school students who skip Friday ...
,
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning network, founded in Canada in 1971 by Irving Stowe and Dorothy Stowe, immigrant environmental activists from the United States. Greenpeace states its goal is to "ensure the ability of the Earth ...
and
Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland
Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (; BUND, ) is a German non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to preserving nature and protecting the environment. The name means "German Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation". ...
have expressed solidarity with the movement.
It has evolved from an alliance into a movement in its own right with the emergence of independent local groups since 2017. In 2020, it has 50 local groups in Germany and nine more throughout Europe (Sweden, Netherlands, Denmark, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic).

The now international movement meets roughly once a month in different cities in Germany. Discussions are usually simultaneously interpreted into English. Newsletters and communication at the climate camps are mostly translated into English or other European languages.
It has 19 working groups on topics such as setting up the camp, press relations, finances, legal matters etc.
EG is not part of an NGO and does not receive regular funding. It is supported by a vast network of volunteers, many of them organized in other movements like the legal team that supports all those facing legal consequences of acts of civil disobedience. EG is not legally registered in Germany and therefore cannot be financially supported by most NGOs.
Its press speakers mostly use pseudonyms, though some people work with their real names.
EG is one of the largest self-organizing environmental groups. Its decision making and self-organization culture is generally seen as a key factor in its endurance.
COVID-19
Protests in 2020 were delayed until late September due to the insecure
COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...
pandemic situation. EG used a system with decoded lists to register participants and allow for backtracking of people, while making sure authorities could not obtain lists with names.
Methods
Ende Gelände has been blocking coal infrastructure once or twice a year with one large event. Its "forms of action are openly announced blockades of fossil infrastructure, such as coal and gas."
In the tradition of peaceful civil disobedience, it defies the law of trespassing by walking into coal mines and ignoring calls to cease issued by authorities. In its "action consensus" it says "We will remain calm and level-headed; we will not endanger people. We will block and occupy with our bodies. It is not our aim to destroy or damage infrastructure. We will not be held back by structural obstacles. We will pass through or surround police or plant security barriers. Our action will convey an image of diversity, creativity and openness."

EG sees itself in the tradition of civil disobedience in environmental protests like the first climate camps in the United Kingdom or the anti-nuclear movement in Germany.
Peaceful confrontations with police and "flowing through police lines" is mostly practiced in "aktionstraining" with medium and small size groups of 10 to 100 people in cities with local EG branches and in climate camps prior to action.
Opposition to far-right party and racism
EG has participated in several anti-racist rallies and rallies against meetings of Germany's far-right party
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist
*
*
*
*
*
*
* political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany ...
(AfD) with the slogan "Climate Movement means
Antifa".
The far-right AfD regularly decries EG to be extremist and calls for repression by legal means or by the national secret service "Verfassungsschutz".
The secret service Verfassungsschutz lists EG since 2016 on its list with organizations it labels "extremist", mostly for the slogan "system change not climate change".
In 2020, the local Berlin branch escalated the accusation by claiming that EG would at least accept and tolerate violence against police. It did not deliver proof for the claims, except the participation of a leftist group, interventionistische Linke.
As a reaction most environmental NGO, numbering 97 in total, including 350.org, Friends of the Earth Germany, Oxfam and many local groups of Extinction Rebellion signed a letter of solidarity, rejecting the attempted "criminalization" of EG.
The resulting scandal led to a call for the dissolution of Berlin's Verfassungsschutz supported by the Green and Left party, both presently forming a government in the city with social democrats, who opposed the move.
Nine policemen were suspended from being deployed during an EG action in December 2019 after posing for a photo against EG, where they associated themselves with the local neo-nazi scene.
Police violence
The far right and reports from the police regularly publish claims that EG is violent, contrary to its own self-conception, though no incidences of violence have been reported. EG regularly refutes the accusations. EG accused the police in 2017 and 2020 of illegal violence against peaceful protesters.
In most of these cases, people were injured with horses,
batons, pepper spray, and punches. In 2020 the police also injured activists with dogs.
EG did not provide numbers, but reports indicate that dozens out of thousands were mostly lightly injured, while a few were seriously injured.

EG's positions against police violence were widely picked up in national media and reporting was mostly in favour of EG, though no police were held personally liable until 2020.
In 2017 and 2020, journalists were injured by police and RWE private security personal.
Ende Gelände issued a press statement in 2020 that elevated the accusations against the police to the level of a "police problem in Germany" as they systematically breach the constitutional rights of activists.
Goals and impact
Ende Gelände considers itself as part of the global movement for climate justice. It calls for an immediate end to coal power generation and a social and ecological transition that overcomes "fossil capitalism".
EG rejects the ongoing demolition of villages for the extension of coal mines.
EG supported the occupation of the
Hambach Forest
Hambach Forest (german: Hambacher Wald, Hambacher Forst (), Bürgewald, Die Bürge) is an ancient forest located near in North Rhine-Westphalia, western Germany, between Cologne and Aachen. It was planned to be cleared as part of the Hambach ...
close to
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
that was to be logged for the extension of a coal mine.
The forest was finally saved, and EG called it a victory for the climate justice movement.
In 2016, its slogan was "we are the investment risk". Its protest against
Vattenfall
Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish State. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom.
The company's name is Swedish for " waterfall", a ...
was described by writer John Jordan as "direct action at its best"; the German parliament reopened discussion into the proposed sale and the company eventually sold at -1.7 billion (due to environmental liabilities) instead of the expected 2 to 3 billion.
Smaller and local events
EG has participated in or organized various smaller events, like adbusting against the
greenwashing
Greenwashing (a compound word modeled on " whitewash"), also called "green sheen", is a form of advertising or marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aim ...
of Germany's national railway company,
or against Chancellor Merkel's
climate politics.

Local groups protested with demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience against the new power plant Datteln 4 that burns imported hard coal from Russia and Colombia,
and against the government's "coal commission" that issued a plan in 2020 to end coal power generation by 2038 - much later than demanded by
environmental movement
The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...
organizations and NGOs.
Workers and trade unions

EG has held several mid level talks with trade union representatives. Among its demands is a transition strategy for coal dependent regions and an exit strategy without layoffs.
Germany's remaining coal workers are highly unionized.
IGBCE union mostly rejects demands for a transition and has been sceptical about the Paris climate agreement and climate politics.
The second largest trade union Ver.di has been supporting a fast coal exit plan since 2016.
Europeanization

Ende Gelände announced the EGGE strategy (Ende Gelaende goes Europe) in 2018 and became increasingly more international.
So far, branches in eight EU countries exist, that have sent activists to Germany for mass blockades of EG. From Germany activists have been to Venice in the "no grande navi" anti-cruising ship protests in 2019 and 2020, to Czech Republic in the anti-coal "limity jizme" protests since 2017, to anti-coal camps and protests in Poland in 2019 and 2020, as well as in the Code Root anti-fracking protest in the Netherlands in 2018 and 2019.
Except for the climate camps in France in 2019 and 2020 all climate camps and protest actions have tried to offer simultaneous translation by volunteers, mostly to English.
Actions 2015–2022
More detailed information about actions can be found here:
*
Ende Gelände 2015
Ende may refer to
Places
* Ende Regency, a regency (second level subdivision) of Indonesia
* Ende, East Nusa Tenggara, the seat (capital) of Ende Regency
People
* Ende (artist), 10th-century Spanish manuscript illuminator
*Erik Ende, a leader o ...
, occupation of the
Garzweiler open-pit lignite mine
The Tagebau Garzweiler is a surface mine (german: Tagebau) in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is operated by RWE and used for mining lignite. The mine currently has a size of 48 km² and got its name from the village of whic ...
, Germany
*
Ende Gelände 2016
Ende Gelände 2016 was a large civil disobedience protest movement in Germany to limit global warming through fossil fuel phase-out.
– environmental activists from twelve countries blocked the Welzow-Süd open-pit coal mine and the coal-fi ...
, occupation of open-pit lignite mines in the Lusatia region, Germany
*
Ende Gelände 2017
Ende Gelände 2017 was a large civil disobedience protest movement in Germany to limit global warming through fossil fuel phase-out.
- environmental activists from several countries blocked two German open-pit coal mines:
* From 24 to 29 August ...
, occupation of open-pit lignite mines in the Rhineland coalfields, Germany
*
Ende Gelände 2018, occupation of the Hambach open-pit lignite mine, Germany
*
Ende Gelände 2019
Ende Gelände 2019 was a series of large-scale events of a movement for climate justice in Germany.
As a continuation of the Ende Gelände 2018, previous year's actions, the non-violent direct action civil disobedience events targeted the coal-f ...
, occupations around the Garzweiler and Lusatian open pit mines, Germany
*
Ende Gelände 2020
Ende Gelände 2020 was a mass action of civil disobedience of the wider movement for climate justice from 25 to 27 September 2020 in Rhineland, Germany, close to Cologne. It protested against Germany's politics of climate change, climate poli ...
, occupation of Garzweiler open pit mine and also a gas pipeline construction site, Germany, occupation of Danneröder forest to prevent its destruction for a motorway.
* Ende Gelände 2021
* Ende Gelände 2022
See also
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Camp for Climate Action
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Code Rood
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Direct action
Direct action originated as a political activist term for economic and political acts in which the actors use their power (e.g. economic or physical) to directly reach certain goals of interest, in contrast to those actions that appeal to othe ...
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Earth Strike
*
List of environmental protests
*
Naturschutzbund Deutschland
The Naturschutzbund Deutschland e.V. ("Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union") or NABU is a German non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to conservation at home and abroad, including the protection of rivers, forests and individ ...
*
Blockade Australia
Blockade Australia is a direct action group in Australia who blockade rail and roads in ports to "force the urgent broad-scale change necessary for survival". They describe themselves as "committed to taking the action necessary to disrupt econo ...
References
Videos
2015, from 350.org in English2017, call for participation during international climate summit in Bonn, in English2017, English subtitles, 2 min.2018, English, 2:30 min.2019, hundreds flowing through police lines in coal mine, drone video, EnglishEverything's coming together while everything's falling apart: Ende Gelände (2016), a film by Oliver Ressler, 12 min.
External links
Official website, English versionPhotos on Flickr
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ende Gelande
Environmental protests in Germany
Radical environmentalism
Civil disobedience
2015 establishments in Germany
Climate justice
Coal in Germany
Coal mining
Mining in Germany
Climate change in Germany
Climate change protests