Demonstrators in cities including Berlin, Hamburg and Bonn called on Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government to exit oil, coal and gas and end fossil fuel investments.
Some held up signs that read "Save Our Future" and "Earth First".
Overall, more than 75,000 people rallied in around 110 towns and cities across the country, Fridays for Future said.
Mass protests are "the most important way to achieve change", Carla Reemtsma, a spokeswoman for Fridays for Future Germany, told Bavarian broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.
But a similar nationwide protest day five years ago attracted a far bigger crowd of 1.4 million people.
The Fridays for Future movement started in 2018 when Swedish activist Greta Thunberg began sitting outside Sweden's parliament every Friday to demand more climate protection efforts.
The movement quickly snowballed into global youth climate strikes and marches that attracted millions of people.
However, the movement was less visible during the pandemic and it has struggled to regain momentum in recent times.
Friday's protests came after Storm Boris brought torrential rain and widespread flooding to parts of central and eastern Europe this month, causing devastation and leaving 24 people dead.
Sebastian Bock, a demonstrator in Berlin, said the floods were a reminder that the catastrophic effects of climate change were already being felt.
"With the bad floods that we have seen, you have to draw the connection that they are simply more frequent due to climate change," he told AFP.
Experts say climate change caused by human-generated greenhouse gas emissions is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as torrential rains and floods.
UK drops case against climate activists who targeted ex-PM's home
London (AFP) Sept 20, 2024 -
A judge on Friday threw out criminal damage charges against four Greenpeace activists who scaled former British prime minister Rishi Sunak's country home and draped it in black fabric to protest his fossil fuel policy.
The protest in August 2023 came days after Sunak angered environmentalists by approving hundreds of new oil and gas licences in the North Sea off Britain's east coast.
The Greenpeace UK activists posted videos of themselves climbing onto the roof of Sunak's constituency residence in Richmond, northern England, and covering it with black sheets.
Two more activists unfurled a banner reading "Rishi Sunak -- Oil Profits or Our Future?" on the front lawn.
Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Mathieu Soete, 38, and Michael Grant, 64, had been accused of damaging 15 roof slates during the five-hour demonstration.
But a judge at York Magistrates' Court said the evidence against them was "so tenuous" there was no realistic prospect of securing a conviction.
The trial started in July but after the prosecution closed its case the defence argued that it could not be proved that damage to the roof was caused during the protest.
Sunak -- whose government lost power in a July general election -- and his family were away on holiday at the time.
His Conservative government had insisted that allowing new oil and gas licenses was essential to ensure Britain's domestic energy security and that it could still meet its 2050 net-zero goals.
He said that even if Britain achieved net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century around a quarter of its energy needs would still come from oil and gas.
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