Climate fight against oil and gas :
Lars Schäfer has dedicated his life to climate activism, and the prize is enormous

41-year-old Lars Schäfer is a climate activist in the German Die Letzte Generation or The Last Generation. DOI.dk has met a man in Flensburg who has chosen to join the climate fight for a fossil-free world. He graduated as a university-educated teacher in the subjects German and technology in 2014. But Lars Schäfer still chose to go back to working as a teacher, which was his first education. Despite the fact that a job as a teacher in Germany is well paid and with a very secure job.

- I loved my work in the forest kindergarten, where I could teach the children something. I didn't choose to work as a teacher because I want to educate young people to be critical citizens. That's not how school is in Germany, explains Lars Schäfer.

But even though he had a job that he loved so much, he ended up making a difficult decision.

- I quit my job to spend all my time on the resistance. There must be justice in the world, so now I am unemployed on unemployment benefits, says Lars Schäfer, who spends all his time on climate activism in Die Letzte Generation.

He has glued himself to roadways in Berlin, Hamburg, Kiel, Flensburg and in The Hague in the Netherlands, and that is something that the activist movement is known for. While actions against cars are directly aimed at the use of fossil fuels such as oil and gas, it is different with actions where the activists have glued themselves to paintings in museums. Here is one thing that is important to maintain for him.

- It is about drawing attention to the problem of overconsumption and the use of fossil fuels. And no painting has ever been destroyed. There was always glass in front of the paintings, and only one frame has been destroyed. We always prepare ourselves and do thorough research, says Lars Schäfer.

The question of whether he would glue himself to a painting triggers a brief hesitation.

- Uhh – I could imagine that, because it's about saying stop, it sounds like.

A life in poverty for the climate

Lars Schäfer is still on unemployment benefits, because he quit his job in 2023. But in Germany, unemployment benefits are only available for one year, and then a very meager contact benefit awaits.

- I plan to get cash benefits so that I don't have to pay the daily fines I get for the actions, he says.

But already with unemployment benefits, it has an impact.

- It's a goal to be poor, and I'm going to be poor for the rest of my life. I can't go to a cafe or go on vacation or go to the theater. My daughter and I don't suffer, and the less I have, the better off I am. Even though I live in debt, says Lars Schäfer, and he even sees himself as a winner:

- I'm already privileged and a winner here in the global north of Germany. And I can insist on eating organic and regionally, so all winter I only get potatoes, cabbage and carrots. But my daughter and I don't suffer.

And here justice comes into play again.

- I feel better that the organic farmers get a fair price for their vegetables. They should also feel good, says Lars Schäfer.

Maybe for the same reason he doesn't think he himself is making a sacrifice.

- I'm sorry to call it a victim, as I said I'm not beaten or abused. We can't keep living like this, so we have to do something. It's not an attitude, it's a fact, concludes Lars Schäfer.

Expecting prison

The consideration for his six-year-old daughter is the only thing that worries him a little. Fines are issued every time Lars Schäfer participates in an action to glue himself to the roads.

- I assume that I will go to prison for a year if I can't pay the fines. But I won't stop for that reason. The only thing that worries me is how my daughter will take it if I'm in prison for a year, says Lars Schäfer, who has his daughter every other week.

He also thinks about the risk of being arrested while his daughter is there.

- I have prepared my daughter for the possibility that the police may break down the door in the middle of the night. It's also something I prepare myself for, says Schäfer, about something he also does:

- We prepare and train so that we can endure it. We do the same with prison stays.