[Note of Sans Nom: On Saturday, January 3, at around 6:30 a.m. in Berlin, the “Volcan group: Cutting off the power to those in power” set fire to several cables at the fossil fuel power plant in Lichterfelde. This resulted in the interruption of electricity supply to 2,200 businesses and 45,000 households (i.e., 100,000 people) in various upscale neighborhoods in the southwest of the German capital (Lichterfelde, Zehlendorf, Nikolassee, Wannsee). Specifically, five 110,000-volt (high-voltage) cables and ten 10,000-volt (medium-voltage) cables were destroyed by this arson attack, at the point where they crossed the Teltow Canal on a dedicated footbridge, disconnecting the “electricity” part of the gas power plant from the Berlin grid, while its “district heating” section remained intact. The municipal operator Stromnetz Berlin immediately resorted to workarounds to restore power to 7,000 homes and 150 priority businesses, while announcing that the complete (and temporary) restoration of the network would not be effective until next Thursday, January 8. On Tuesday evening, nearly 25,500 homes and 1,220 businesses were still without power in what was described as “the worst terrorist attack ever perpetrated against critical infrastructure in the capital” by one of Berlin’s leading newspapers (Berliner Zeitung, January 6).

It should also be noted that, taking advantage of the blackout among the wealthy, several expropriations took place: between Saturday and Monday evening, the authorities recorded seven successful burglaries/robberies and 13 attempted burglaries/robberies, targeting villas, supermarkets, and ATMs, prompting them to deploy 450 additional police officers and a helicopter equipped with thermal cameras and searchlights in these neighborhoods every night. On Sunday, the regional interior minister (SPD) declared a state of emergency, facilitating the intervention of the army and federal police. In terms of cell phone towers being knocked out, Vodafone announced that 27 sites (out of 39) were down, Telekom reported 17 sites (out of 29) affected, and O2 counted 18. Two days later, cell phone coverage returned to southwestern Berlin, but remains in degraded mode. The same was true for the S-Bahn lines (S1 and S7) and the regional express train (RE7), all of which were interrupted because their signal boxes were also without power. And to top it all off, around 20 schools will also remain closed until Wednesday.Recall that in March 2024, a group called “Volcan: EteindreTesla!” claimed responsibility for setting fire to a high-voltage pylon in Berlin supplying the company’s Gigafactory, while in September 2025 “a few anarchists” had already caused a partial blackout in the German capital during the anti-militarist sabotage of a pylon supplying Europe’s largest technology park. Continue reading Berlin (Germany): The Volcan group disconnects the capital’s gas power plant →