Luisa Neubauer – interview with this German Activist who’s really trying to change the world

Preview interview from December print issue #15

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ph. ©Jörg Farys – previous page ph. ©Wanda von Bremen

The new generations are not afraid to raise their voices, especially when it comes to important

topics like climate change. Perhaps because, with the youth, they also possess a good dose of hope, resourcefulness and boldness. Or perhaps, more easily, because the future belongs to them and they have no intention of loosing it.

We decided to ask one of them directly, to confront ourselves with the ideas and hopes shared by young activists of Friday for Future, the scholastic strike movement that takes them to the streets once a week, fighting for the climate. The movement started with Greta Thunberg in August 2018. Since then it has expanded, both geographically and for the number of participants, giving life to a

peaceful and resolute entity, which can no longer be ignored.

Luisa Neubauer is a 24-year-old German activist who, following Greta’s ideas, started student strikes in Germany. With her we talked about science, moral duties and education, but also about fast fashion and environmental impact. And we have discovered that each of us makes the difference, every day, and that everything always starts from believing in ourselves.

When did your start with the Friday for Future and what were your expectations when

organizing the event?

I started organizing Friday for Future in Berlin in December 2018 and, before the first strike, I was actually scared because I had no idea how to plan it and what to expect from it. I was scared nobody would turn up. I did not expect to be still striking ten months later.

Were you not afraid – or are you afraid now – of the responsibility you have, being the leader of such a movement?

No one ever asked you if you want to be a so-called leader or whatever that may be. So I think you’re kind of jumping into the water, which is good. I wasn’t told before what it could mean for my life, but I guess it’s okay.

Since all of this started, you’ve been subjected to media attentions, both in good and bad ways. This is part of the game but how does it affect your daily life? Do you try to keep some distance between your public image and you private life?

The media attention is huge in all ways. I think there’s a tendency to kind of glorify hate, as in “you need to get through this, you have to deal with it because it’s part of the game” and I think there’s literally no reason why it should be glorified. Hate is not normal and should never be normalised, so this is the first way of online hate I experienced. Us from Friday For Future had no idea how to deal with this, but I quickly found out that I didn’t want to just let it be and to accept it. For this reason, I started working together with an NGO that sues people if they use language that’s not legal anymore. I’m trying to find a good balance of the amount of time that I spent on social media when not organizing and obviously I’ve become more conscious about what am I saying, what language I use and how inclusive it can be: I try to use non violent language as much as I can.

The distance between my public image and private life is difficult to handle in terms of social media. On Instagram, people feel like they are part of your life: they know you, so they would say hi to me on the street asking me how my weekend was in Berlin, knowing that I’ve spent it there, whereas I wouldn’t even know who they are. That’s difficult and I think this distance is kind of blurry nowadays.