Sandra Overlack

Sandra Overlack (born 2000) is a German climate change activist and student of engineering management at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In September 2020 she co-founded a regional branch of the Klimaliste political association in Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg along with 24 others, with the aim of advocating for the implementation of more environmental and youth-centric policies. She had intended to represent Klimaliste in the Rastatt constituency for the 2021 Baden-Württemberg state election, but in January 2021 she and three other fellow Klimaliste candidates announced they no longer wished to run for their respective seats.
In January 2021 the German edition of The Economist, published by Focus magazine, labelled her as one of 20 people who would help shape and influence Germany in 2021 alongside personalities such as Jens Spahn and Friedrich Merz.
Personal life
Overlack was born in Rastatt in 2000 and completed her Abitur at LWG in 2018. Since 2019 she has been studying a Bachelor of Science in engineering management at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, with an expected graduation date of 2025. She has previously worked as an intern for the Schnitzer Group from June-August 2019, and in November 2020 she began an internship at Pacifico Renewables Yield AG. In the past she has also taken on voluntary work for several years with the German local youth magazine Ravolution. Alongside her native language of German, she claims to have linguistic skills in Chinese, English, Italian, and Latin.
Political activism
Overlack was previously a member of the youth division of the for a few weeks, but left as she felt that she would be "unable to make much of a difference". and thus potentially costing the Green Party seats in the upcoming election. Overlack has, however, stated that she does not see Klimaliste as a threat, but instead as an additional, supportive political power; born out of impatience with progress thus far. News organisations, such as Die Tageszeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, have stated that the association will be the biggest real challenge to the existing environmental parties in Baden-Württemberg in many years.
Overlack's political ideas fall into the left-wing side of the spectrum, primarily owing to her belief that the environment is of a greater priority than the economy. She states that is vital we meet the carbon neutrality goals of the Paris Agreement by 2035, and emphasises that Germany needs to further research how best to exploit solar and wind power. Comparisons have been drawn with the Fridays For Future campaign, with this being a source of inspiration for the association.
Withdrawal from politics
In mid-January 2021 divisions started to appear within the regional branch of the Klimaliste association, with board members Jessica Stolzenberger and Jessica Hubbard announcing their intention to leave their posts and to abandon their campaigns for local government. Shortly after, Overlack herself and Sebastian Olejek also announced they would be doing the same. This move was described as 'surprising' due to Klimaliste's unexpected success during the COVID-19 pandemic in obtaining the required 5,000 signatures for standing for election.
Overlack stated her reason for withdrawing from the race was due to The Left, the Greens, and the Social Democratic Party of Germany committing also to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperatures, thus meaning Klimaliste no longer had a 'unique selling point' in the state election. She further stated she intends to remain part of Klimaliste as an ordinary member, and believes that the association is responsible for the Greens deciding to commit to the 1.5 degrees Celsius temperature goal.

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