In a number of the country’s largest metropolises, including Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, and 14 other administrative centers, the water in central city fountains temporarily acquired an intense bright green hue. In this unconventional visual manner, yet another group of public activists is expressing their protest against the federal government’s current long-term energy strategy in the gas sector. This incident sparked active discussions among citizens regarding the permissible limits of public demonstrations in urban spaces.
Voicing sharp criticism of Germany’s current gas supply policy, participants of the environmental protest movement Extinction Rebellion deliberately colored the water in the fountains of numerous German cities. According to official information provided by the event organizers themselves, these coordinated actions simultaneously affected engineering facilities in 17 municipalities, among which Nuremberg, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Dresden, and Cologne particularly stand out. Representatives of the Extinction Rebellion movement officially characterize the event as a peaceful artistic action. Its key practical goal is to draw civil society’s attention to what environmentalists view as a destructive reliance by the state apparatus on natural gas as a key transitional energy source.
Technological Specifics of the Conducted Action
The special glowing organic dye used for the large-scale action, uranine, is an absolutely safe chemical compound and contains no toxic substances in its composition. This sodium fluorescein is frequently and universally used in the field of housing and communal services and water management for the rapid detection of hidden leaks in main pipelines, and it is also used as a certified bait in sport fishing and added as a pigment to regular household bath salts.
The organizers emphasize that under the influence of external factors, the coloring substance completely and harmlessly disappears within a few hours or days, depending on the intensity of solar ultraviolet light and the total volume of circulating water. Minimizing the amount of fluorescent composition was required to color the municipal fountains—according to expert calculations, the dosage ranged from approximately 0.1 to 1 gram of pigment for every 1,000 liters of water, which rules out any damage to the hydraulic equipment.
This public event is directly aimed at pointing voters toward what activists see as an overly accommodating stance toward the interests of major energy conglomerates by the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Katerina Reiche (a representative of the Christian Democratic Union—CDU). Environmental activists directly accuse the head of the relevant ministry of so-called “greenwashing”—a systematic attempt to pass off conservative, non-eco-friendly solutions in the energy sector as progressive environmental protection and climate neutrality.
Legislative Context and the State’s Energy Strategy
Last week, the German cabinet officially approved and forwarded for further interdepartmental review a new draft law detailing the construction of additional modern gas-fired power plants across the country. Within the framework of the phased coal phase-out approved earlier to be completed by 2038, these new facilities are intended to guarantee the baseline reliability of power supply to national industry and act as operational reserve capacities. They will be deployed primarily during periods of so-called dark doldrums (Dunkelflaute), when electricity generation from volatile solar and wind stations drops to a critical minimum due to weather conditions.
According to the strategic plans of the federal authorities, by 2030, the share of renewable sources in Germany’s total domestic electricity consumption should rise to 80 percent. Meanwhile, according to current statistical data, in the first quarter of 2026, this macroeconomic indicator sat at around 53 percent, pointing to the need to navigate a complex transitional period.
In conclusion, the Extinction Rebellion action clearly exposes the deep contradictions between long-term environmental declarations and the harsh economic reality facing Germany’s leadership. For a critically thinking civil society, it is obvious that reaching a compromise between the energy security of Europe’s largest economy and the demands of climate activists will require a more transparent dialogue, ruling out populism from all participants in the discussion.
