May 12, 025 

Dear Jesuit Brothers and Jesuit Partners,

Thank you very much for signing the Open Letter to German Politics and Public on the occasion of my imprisonment in April. More than 120 signatures came together and contributed to the ongoing debate – the list of signatories can be found on the Jesuitenweltweit website.

As you might have noticed, media reports of my imprisonment reached hundreds of millions in more than 20 countries due to this report of Associated Press, your Open Letter made “only” national media, but it was reported in church circles and the left and liberal leaning papers.

The impact of the Open Letter on the then-ongoing negotiations among partners of the new German government is more difficult to assess. Certainly, we had no effect on migration or climate change policies, but at least the plans to abolish the Ministry for Development were dropped, and the cuts to its budget were not as severe as feared. Therefore, again: Thank you!

Three more information which might interest you:

First, my time in prison was not particularly pleasant, as you may assume. Since I did not receive any special treatment and did not qualify for work, I was confined to my 8 m² cell for much longer than others, with access to fresh air and sunshine for just 1 hour per day. Since I was not permitted to bring any books (fear of drug smuggling), I was left to the bible and many rosaries. However, as a sociologist by training, I immediately began observing interactions in corridors, courtyards, and waiting rooms, taking field notes, conducting interviews, and so on. Ultimately, both prison inmates and prison guards requested that I share my observations publicly, in the hope of facilitating improvements in the prison regimes of Bavaria and Nuremberg. I will do this at the beginning of June.

Second: My ongoing legal struggle for my activism was rewarded with a surprise success: last Tuesday, I appeared in court once more, and the judge threatened me with additional prison time if I did not withdraw my legal objection to a punishment order he had issued. This obvious breach of procedural conduct and bias on the part of the judge was used by my attorney to file a motion for disqualification, which was successful! To our knowledge, this was the first time proceedings were initiated against climate protest and activism in Bavaria (although we were probably successful only because a journalist witnessed this threat and made it public). Now a new judge will have to deal with me.

Third: My activist friends met last Sunday at our Jesuit House and conducted planning for a new wave of protests, which is set to begin soon. Due to the increasingly populist tone of public debate, the impact of the wealthy, corporations and their lobbyists and the resulting distortions in democratic decisions they will now focus on new models of truly democratic decision-making governance and continue civil disobedience with activities aiming towards the “Right and Rich”, i.e. attacking the coalitions between money and right leaning political leadership.

My personal activism is currently on hold for several reasons, including the juridical backlog resulting from my activism in 2021-2023.

Thanks again, and God bless you all.
Jörg Alt SJ