Youth protests | Who governs Gen Z?

Call for a demonstration on Düsseldorf's Königsallee Photo: dpa/Christoph Reichwein A countdown is running on the "Gen Z regulates" website. Every second you can see how long it will be until the planned protests on Saturday. According to organizers, there are now over 150,000 people who want to take to the streets in 32 cities. “We are young people who no longer want to watch our future being decided without us,” they write on the website. What brings young people onto the streets? Broken schools, austerity measures, the rising cost of living, the threat of conscription, more and more surveillance and climate change. There are enough topics, and there is also a role model: the protests by students in France, which have sparked a nationwide movement.

However, “Gen Z regulates” does not want to copy everything from France and, as a precaution, distances itself from “all violence”. That doesn't change the fact that there has been a lot of talk about "French conditions" in the last few days. There are warnings about excesses of violence and looting, a CDU politician is bringing up bans on demonstrations and the Junge Union Berlin-Mitte wants to use the Bundeswehr against the demonstrators. The Federal Student Conference distanced itself from “Gen Z regulates” and announced its own actions in November. In a press release, she writes that she supports the initiative's demands, but considers the organizational structures to be opaque. In addition, calls for violence distracted from the actual problems in the education system.

So who is behind “Gen Z regulates”? And where do all the warnings about excessive violence and political capture come from? Veronika Dinter, the press spokeswoman for “Gen Z regulates Berlin,” says that the movement actually started as a social media phenomenon “as a reaction to the blatant frustration of young people,” for example over rising costs and the threat of conscription. So it is not a fixed organization, but a movement that comes together under united demands and where everyone who shares these concerns can join.

"We will not allow ourselves to be divided into 'good' and 'bad' protesters"

The organizers write on the website that they are non-partisan. »We are the center of everything. No matter whether left, right, green or another direction: everyone is welcome. Who is involved and plans the demonstrations varies from city to city, says Dinter. A map with the cities involved shows where “Gen Z regulates” is primarily responsible for the demos: in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and Munich. All other cities have followed suit; here Gen Z is not responsible for content and organization.

The movement is just starting to form and is trying to transfer the spark from France and other countries to Germany. This is precisely why it is difficult to say who exactly is behind “Gen Z is in charge”. Very different groups and people have an interest in bringing a large youth movement onto the streets in Germany. Akram Selo, an 18-year-old student, tells “Taz” that he is part of the organizing team of around 30 people who first met through social media. They built the website out of a common interest and called for a day of action. A spontaneous organization of many individuals.

For some, the momentum they have created is already getting to them. Gianni Matheja, who makes content about university life on Instagram, resigned from his role as spokesman after a short time and explained on Instagram that different groups were now coming together under the name "Gen Z regulates" whose ideas about the goals and forms of protest differed greatly. Under these circumstances, he no longer sees a common, peaceful framework.

At the same time there is solidarity. On Wednesday a building at the FU Berlin was blocked, and on Thursday the Alice Salomon University was blocked. The participants are clearly referring to the protests on October 31st. "As a blockade, we join the Berlin-wide demands of the Gen Z regulated movement," they write in a press release and criticize "the media and racist smear campaign of the bourgeois media" against Gen Z: "We will not allow ourselves to be divided into 'good' and 'bad' protesters." Dinter sees it that way too. She sharply criticizes the statements of some politicians who frame "Gen Z is regulating" as a violent mob that must be fought back with all severity: "I would like to see the demands of the youth addressed with the same energy that is currently being used to delegitimize our protest."

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