Losing the street

Dear Reader,

In June I was sitting at my desk when my phone rang. It was an activist from the climate group Letzte Generation whom I had interviewed earlier in the week.

“I thought you'd be interested in hearing my opinion on your article,” he told me, barely able to conceal his anger.

I replied that I didn’t take feedback, but added that he could give me his opinion if he wanted.

What followed was five minutes of fury. Why had I not given his quotes more prominence, he wanted to know? After all, he’d given me “loads of inside information.”

The article read like a police report, he sneered, before saying that he would advise the group’s press team to put me on a black list.

What had I done to upset him?

A fortnight beforehand, German police had received court approval to conduct nationwide raids against the climate group. At dawn they swept on 15 properties, where they seized electronics. At the same time, they froze a bank account that had over €700,000 of funds in it.

The raids were part of…