(Update: Update train to S-Bahn – 13th paragraph)
BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Tens of thousands of people in the middle of winter without electricity, heating and hot food, darkness and a large-scale deployment of police and rescue workers: The attack on Berlin’s power supply on Saturday has dramatic consequences for the capital that will be felt for days. One day after the attack on important cables near a power plant in southwest Berlin, it is clear to politicians and authorities that it was a politically motivated attack and that left-wing extremists were behind it.
Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD) said a surfaced letter of confession from a “volcano group” was authentic. The police state security agency had previously examined the letter, which was also published on several relevant web portals. At the same time, Berlin declared a so-called major damage situation, which made it easier to get help Bundeswehr to be able to take advantage of.
Second attack within a few months
“It is unacceptable that obviously left-wing extremists are once again attacking our power grid and thereby endangering human lives,” said Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) about the letter. “We will investigate massively and with great commitment who these perpetrators are; they deserve a truly just punishment.” As recently as September 2025, a similar attack resulted in a major blackout in the Treptow-Köpenick district of Berlin.
The long list of suspected perpetrators in the current case bears the heading “Stifling the power of those in power.” “In the greed for energy, the earth is drained, sucked dry, burned, violated, burned down, raped, destroyed,” it said. The gas power plant in Berlin-Lichterfelde was “successfully sabotaged”. “Power outages were not the target of the action, but rather the fossil energy industry,” the group claims in the letter.
Early on Saturday morning, within sight of the power plant, a fire on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal damaged more than a dozen important lines, including several high-voltage lines. According to the Economics Senator Franziska Giffey (SPD), who is responsible for energy, incendiary devices were placed directly under the cables, which destroyed the lines with great heat.
Tens of thousands of households without electricity
The resulting power outage initially affected 45,000 households and more than 2,200 companies. Stromnetz Berlin announced that 10,000 households and 300 commercial customers have now been reconnected. The districts affected are Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, Wannsee and Lichterfelde, where there are many single-family homes and villa developments, but also high-rise buildings. The police are calling for witnesses.
Power outage expected to last until Thursday
According to the operator Stromnetz Berlin, the damage to the power grid is so serious and the repairs are so complicated that the emergency will last an exceptionally long time. All electricity customers could probably only be supplied again on Thursday afternoon.
With frosty temperatures and lots of fresh snow, this poses significant problems for many people. Several large hospitals in the districts were reconnected to the power grid after a day and did not have to be evacuated thanks to emergency generators.
Lots of everyday problems for people
The power outage also affects numerous care facilities and people in need of care in their homes. According to Health Senator Ina Czyborra (SPD), the Berlin Senate is in close coordination with the fire department, among others, in order to move these people, if necessary, to care facilities in other parts of the city that have reported free capacity.
Fire departments, aid organizations and fire departments set up emergency accommodation in a leisure center or in the Zehlendorf town hall where people can spend the night, warm up, eat something and drink something. According to the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district office, on the first night these were only used by a few, including a 97-year-old pensioner.
Church communities also opened their rooms. However, many older or infirm people cannot take advantage of such services because the elevators in their high-rise buildings do not work and they are sitting in increasingly cold apartments.
Charge cell phones
For many people it is important to charge their cell phones. They can do this in the emergency shelters, but also in other decentralized contact points that the fire department or the technical relief organization have hastily set up. You can also make emergency calls there. Most people in the affected districts do not have internet reception.
Also as a result of the power outage, there were significant disruptions on S-Bahn lines 1 and 7. A railway spokeswoman announced in the evening that S-Bahn line 7 should run normally again from 10 p.m. on Sunday evening. Regional train 1 has been running again since around 6:30 p.m.
A number of supermarkets remained closed on Saturday, and it should be no different on Monday.
Schools closed
In the area without electricity, around 20 schools will remain closed from Monday to Wednesday, as the education administration announced. If there is an urgent need, emergency care for students will be set up in schools with electricity, it said.
When speaking to a dpa reporter, many people in Zehlendorf complained about a lack of information and, in their view, a lack of practical everyday help. “You’re cut off from the world,” said a woman whose apartment had already dropped to 14 degrees.
But there are also many examples of neighborhood help or other support. The management of the Diakonie Hospice Wannsee thanked the firefighters for helping without any ifs and buts in taking the residents to a nearby hospital that offered help. There, people could continue to be cared for by the hospice team./kr/ane/nif/DP/he