28-year-old Luisa Neubauer is regularly the target of hate and insults. She now requires personal protection at public events.
Germany’s best-known climate activist Luisa Neubauer admits that her personal relationship with Greta Thunberg is more complicated today than it used to be. Thunberg has repeatedly taken a one-sided stance in favor of Palestine. In an interview with “Stern,” the spokeswoman for the climate movement “Fridays for Future” said: “We thought it was important after October 7 to express solidarity with Jews all over the world, as well as with the hostages and their families.”
In the interview, she says she tries to separate hate from criticism. “95 percent of the hate comments come from men,” says Neubauer. “I read a lot of arguments there about what a woman is allowed to be. But I don’t spend my days thinking about whether I’m allowed to do that. I do it.”
She is calm about rumors about her family’s supposed wealth. She says: “People sometimes say that I have a millionaire father who supports me and makes life easy for me. My father died eight years ago. That changes a lot. Otherwise, I live independently, as a student and author.”