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German authorities suspect climate extremists behind wave of attacks on major power grid infrastructure

There’s been a series of coordinated sabotage incidents targeting the German power grid infrastructure over recent weeks and months. The media initially reacted by pointing the finger at Russian involvement, but the evidence is pointing to another source.

Leftists suspected of committing rash of major attacks on Germany’s power grid infrastructure. Symbol image generated by Grok AI. 

“Climate extremism”

The hard evidence indicates no Russian involvement. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt characterizes the new attacks as acts of “climate extremism,” citing confessory letters sent by a 48-year-old suspect claiming responsibility to protest fossil fuel use.

Attack 1. Turnow-Preilack substation / Jänschwalde (Brandenburg)

On Tuesday morning, September 1, high-voltage lines connected to the Turnow-Preilack substation—servicing the Jänschwalde (Brandenburg) power station region—were targeted using homemade launch devices. Authorities reported that the launch mechanisms used fireworks-style devices to shoot conductive wires into overhead power lines.

Attack 2. Bergheim substation (North Rhine-Westphalia)

Also on Tuesday evening, an attack occurred at a substation in Bergheim, near Cologne. Conductive materials were launched onto high-voltage lines, triggering a short circuit that forced five power generation units to shut down. Investigators recovered several launch devices and pyrotechnics near the scene. A 48-year-old suspect has explicitly claimed responsibility for this site in confession letters sent to authorities and news outlets. German security agencies highlighted key structural parallels between this device setup and the Turnow-Preilack substation incident, leading state security forces to probe links between the two.

Attack 3. Dormagen substation (North Rhine-Westphalia)

In another incident occurring last Thursday evening, a passerby alerted police after spotting suspicious device components aimed at a substation in Dormagen, south of Düsseldorf. Responding officers discovered pipes fitted with cables, timers, and launch mechanisms targeted directly at the high-voltage equipment. The attempt was thwarted before the mechanisms detonated or caused an outage.

During a joint briefing, Interior Minister Dobrindt and North Rhine Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul confirmed that a manhunt was underway for the suspect following the discovery of suspected explosive materials at his residence and the seizure of his truck near the Hambacher Forst.

Major Berlin attack last January

On January, 2026, a major arson attack targeted the electricity infrastructure in southwest Berlin, resulting in one of the city’s longest and most severe power outages in decades. The fire destroyed five 110-kV high-voltage lines and ten 10-kV medium-voltage lines supplying several key substations across the region.

The sabotage cut off power and heating to roughly 45,000 to 50,000 households and over 2,000 businesses in the region. The loss of electrical heating created a major mid-winter public safety emergency. Hospitals and care homes were forced to switch to emergency generators and schools were closed for days while repair crews worked in frozen soil to rebuild the severed lines. Full power was not restored until January 7.

A confession letter posted on the far left-wing platform Indymedia claimed responsibility on behalf of theAntifa-friendly Vulkangruppe (Volcano Group). The letter framed the sabotage as a protest against fossil fuel consumption, corporate power use, and AI data centers. Berlin Mayor and Federal prosecutors designated the event as an act of political terrorism.

Police have little success

The ecoterrorist groups are difficult, to monitor, according to authorities. They operate via small, autonomous, clandestine cell structures without centralized leadership. They publish post-attack manifestos anonymously online, leaving little to no digital footprint prior to an incident. While German federal and state governments are treating the threat with urgency, critics say authorities are not taking the left-wing threat seriously enough.

In response to the January blackout in Berlin and prior high-profile grid sabotage, around 500 police officers raided 17 to 19 locations across Berlin, Hamburg, Brandenburg, and North Rhine-Westphalia. Sites searched included radical meeting spaces, such as the Kalabal!k anarchist library in Berlin, as well as residences linked to key suspects aged 28 to 36.

No arrests!

Police seized dozens of laptops, phones, encrypted storage drives, and timers. However, no arrests were made during or immediately after the operation because prosecutors lacked sufficient direct, physical proof linking specific individuals to the active crime scenes.

Double standard

Federal prosecutors claim they need concrete evidence that a suspect was physically at the site or directly participated in constructing the device—mere association with radical spaces or possession of extremist literature is insufficient under German law – a standard that is rarely applied, however, when it comes to rightwing radicals.

Worse, even vocal conservative voices see their homes raided by the police before dawn for just making critical comments (all protected by “freedom of speech”) on social media. Here, German police and prosecutors are especially quick to raid homes, detain individuals indefinitely, confiscate property, close bank accounts and seize mobile devices.

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