“Climate Activists from ‘Last Generation’ Block Hamburg’s Elbe Tunnel for Hours”

Stand: 06.04.2023 | Reading time: 3 minutes

ZAt the start of Easter travel on Thursday, supporters of the “Last Generation” group blocked the Hamburg Elbe tunnel and the Elbe bridges for several hours. Some activists stuck to the roadway in front of the south portal of the Elbe tunnel and on the north side of the Elbe bridges. Only after almost five hours did the police release the Elbe tunnel again. Traffic over the Elbe bridges to the city center was able to flow again after just under three hours. From the south, vehicles backed up via the A255 to the A1.

The Last Generation said supporters of the group stopped traffic with two vans. Then they sat down on the road in orange safety vests and spread vegetable oil over a large area. In addition, they would have glued themselves to the road with superglue. According to the group’s statement, a 73-year-old was also among the participants.

The officials not only had to detach the activists from the roadway in front of the Elbe tunnel. According to the police, the fire brigade was on duty to clean the highway from a liquid – probably cooking oil.

Even after the end of the campaign, the kilometer-long queues of cars hardly decreased at first, because the traffic increased in the afternoon. According to the traffic control center, traffic on the A1 from Seevetal-Hittfeld to 20 kilometers in the direction of Lübeck, on the A7 from Hamburg-Fleestedt to 15 kilometers. Southbound traffic was also affected because one lane was diverted due to the closure of two tunnel tubes. Four bus lines across the Elbe were also disrupted, as Hamburger Hochbahn announced on Twitter.

The two autobahns are the most important north-south connections across the Elbe. West of Hamburg there is only one ferry connection at Stade. East of Hamburg, the bridge of the B404 near Geesthacht is only accessible to a limited extent due to renovation work. The route through the port to the Freihafenelbbrücke was affected by another action by the last generation on Thursday morning. The police were able to prevent a blockade on Veddeler Damm. One of two lanes was temporarily blocked for use, said a police spokesman.

At the beginning of March, the “last generation” of the city of Hamburg threatened “maximum disruption of public order” if the city of Hamburg did not meet the demand for the formation of a “social council to solve the climate crisis”. The Senate and the factions of SPD, CDU and AfD in the Hamburg Parliament had rejected the threats.

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According to a court spokesman, since the end of March several members of the Last Generation have been taken into custody by the police during actions. The district court approved several days of security detentions in some cases because the group had announced actions until April 6. The last four people held should be released on Thursday evening, a police spokesman said.

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