Berlin Power Outage: Anarchist Group Claims Responsibility, Citing Industrial Targets
Berlin, Germany – A major power outage struck southeast Berlin early Tuesday morning, impacting approximately 43,000 households adn 3,000 businesses after two high-voltage pylons were deliberately set ablaze in Johannisthal, Treptow-Köpenick, around 3:30 AM according to police reports. the disruption paralyzed public transportation, darkened traffic signals, and prompted a large-scale police response with mobile units deployed to inform residents.
The Berlin criminal police’s state security division is leading the investigation, with arson suspected and a political motive considered possible, as stated by a police spokesperson.
An anarchist group has since claimed responsibility for the incident, releasing a detailed statement on Indymedia identifying Adlershof technology park as the intended target. While acknowledging the widespread blackout, the group stated, “It was by no means our intention” to cut power to private residences, but rather “to turn off the juice to the military-industrial complex.” They characterized the resulting collateral damage as “acceptable compared with the destruction of nature and the often deadly subjugation of people” caused by the industries they targeted.
The communiqué specifically named Atos, jenoptik, Siemens, and the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), accusing them of contributing to military supply chains, enabling border surveillance, and driving environmental damage. The statement further asserted, “Their well-sounding slogans of innovation, sustainability and progress are nothing more than a manoeuvre on the battlefield of discourse, to cover up that they are actually building instruments that bring death and destruction.”
This act of infrastructure sabotage represents the most notable such incident in Berlin as a 2024 attack on pylons disrupted power to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Grünheide.
Recent weeks have also seen a series of attacks targeting vehicles and businesses associated with the landlord of rigaer 94, a left-radical housing project currently facing ongoing court cases and potential eviction proceedings this month.