Far-left climate extremists have claimed responsibility for an arson attack on electrical infrastructure over the weekend that left tens of thousands of people in Berlin without power.
Early Saturday morning, a fire was started with incendiary devices at an electrical cable bridge over Berlin’s Teltow Canal, leading to the Lichterfelde power plant. The fire damaged vital power lines and left approximately 45,000 private residences and 2,200 businesses without power, German broadcaster NTV reported.
The Stromnetz Berlin grid operator said Sunday evening that it has since restored power to 7,000 households and 150 businesses. However, due to the complex nature of the lines affected, it may be some time before power is fully restored, raising concerns that some residents may need to seek other shelter, particularly when temperatures drop in the evening.
Meanwhile, the Mayor of Berlin, Kai Wegener, has called on the German Armed Forces to be deployed for their “expertise” in helping restore power as quickly as possible. Others, including Berlin Senator Iris Spranger, have suggested that the military be used to hand out hot meals during the outage.
On Sunday, Spranger revealed to the German Press Agency that the far-left anarchist Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group) claimed responsibility for the attack. “This is a despicable attack on the people of Berlin that willfully endangers human lives,” the Social Democrat politician said, according to Die Welt.
In the letter admitting responsibility, reported by Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, the leftist ludites cited the supposed climate crisis as their motivation, saying: “Last night we successfully sabotaged the gas-fired power plant in Berlin-Lichterfelde… The attack on the gas-fired power plant is an act of self-defence and international solidarity with all those who protect the Earth and life.”
“There were power outages in the wealthier districts of Wannsee, Zehlendorf, and Nikolassee,” the Vulkangruppe continued. “Power outages were not the goal of the action, but rather the fossil fuel industry. We apologise to the less affluent people in southwest Berlin. Our sympathy for the many villa owners in these districts is limited.”
The leftists also cited the proliferation of artificial intelligence (AI) and its high energy requirements as a motivation for their attack on Berlin infrastructure, writing: “We are operating our own surveillance, and it is total… The tech companies are in the hands of the men of power that we give them… One day, we will simply die of thirst and hunger sitting in front of glowing screens or inert devices.”
The Vulkangruppe, believed to have been founded in 2011, has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on the Tesla gigafactory in the Berlin suburb of Grünheide, sabotaging a high-voltage power pylon that supplied energy to the Elon Musk-owned factory.
It comes amid a broader trend of far-left climate-inspired anarchist attacks on critical infrastructure across Europe in recent years, often targeting power and data cables, factories, and railways.
The latest attack has been compared to a similar sabotage in September, which left upwards of 50,000 people without power for several days. It remains unclear, however, if the arson attack on two power pylons in southeast Berlin was the work of the Vulkangruppe or another radical group.
Commenting on the latest attack, Berlin Mayor Wegner said: “We will place a high priority on the pressure on the perpetrators. We want to catch them.”
“It was a left-wing extremist group that once again attacked our infrastructure and thereby threatened the lives of people, of elderly people who may need ventilators, of families with small children… And we have to catch these perpetrators now… this is no joke, this is a terrorist attack.”
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