German Capital Struggles to Restore Electricity After Sabotage Campaign

BERLIN — The facts of this matter are stark and troubling. A coordinated arson attack on critical electricity infrastructure has left tens of thousands of Berlin residents without power during one of winter’s coldest stretches, and authorities are calling it what it is: terrorism.

The attack occurred Saturday morning in southwest Berlin, where saboteurs destroyed several high-voltage cables near the Lichterfelde heat and power station. The result was one of the most severe blackouts the German capital has experienced in recent years, affecting nearly 45,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses across four districts in the southern part of the city.

A left-wing extremist organization calling itself the “Vulkangruppe” has claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement circulated online and deemed credible by police investigators, the group declared it had deliberately targeted what it characterized as affluent neighborhoods to “cut the juice to the ruling class.”

The group’s manifesto framed the sabotage as protest against fossil fuel energy consumption and the expanding power demands of artificial intelligence data centers, which it claims accelerate climate change and enable mass surveillance. While the statement included what it termed an apology to less wealthy residents affected by the blackout, it expressed no remorse for the hardship inflicted upon homeowners it deemed sufficiently prosperous.

The reality on the ground tells a different story than the perpetrators apparently intended. The consequences of this attack extended far beyond any single economic class. Hospitals, elderly care facilities, and residents of high-rise buildings dependent on elevators found themselves in precarious situations. Cell phone networks failed in several districts. Commuter rail services experienced disruptions. Police resorted to loudspeakers mounted on patrol vehicles to inform residents of the situation, and some schools delayed reopening after the holiday break.

As temperatures plummeted well below freezing, the loss of electricity meant many homes also lost heating and hot water at precisely the moment they needed it most. According to Stromnetz Berlin, the operator of the city’s electricity network, engineers managed to restore power to portions of the affected areas by Monday. However, as of this report, approximately 30,000 households remained without electricity while technicians worked to replace damaged underground cables buried in frozen soil. Full restoration of service is not expected until Thursday.

Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner has not minced words in his assessment of the attack. In an interview with German public broadcaster RBB on Monday, he characterized it as terrorism, pure and simple.

“These are not childish pranks, but rather professional criminals who attacked these power grids,” Wegner stated. “This is not just arson or sabotage. This is already terrorism. It was a left-wing extremist group that once again attacked our infrastructure and, in doing so, also endangered the lives of people, of elderly people who may need ventilators, of families with small children, and we now have to catch these perpetrators.”

The mayor’s use of the phrase “once again” points to a disturbing pattern. The Vulkangruppe has been linked to a sustained campaign of infrastructure sabotage, raising serious questions about Germany’s ability to protect critical systems from ideologically motivated attacks.

This incident serves as a sobering reminder that extremism, regardless of its origin on the political spectrum, poses real threats to public safety and civil society. When ideology supersedes concern for human welfare, the results are measured not in political statements but in suffering citizens and strained emergency services.