On January 3, 2026, a fire damaged high-voltage cables on a bridge over the Teltow Canal near the Lichterfelde power plant, causing a massive blackout affecting approximately 45,000–50,000 households and over 2,200 businesses in districts including Lichterfelde, Zehlendorf, Nikolassee, and Wannsee.

Berlin police investigate the incident as arson, with a confession letter attributed to left-wing extremists (possibly the “Vulkangruppe”) deemed authentic in security circles. Berlin’s governing mayor, Kai Wegner, described the perpetrators as “evidently left-wing extremists.” This echoes a similar suspected arson attack in September 2025 that disrupted power in southeast Berlin.

Temperatures below freezing and persistent snowfall make the #Stromausfall in #Berlin particularly dangerous. NIUS interviewed passersby and people in the emergency shelters.

Temperaturen unter dem Gefrierpunkt und anhaltender Schneefall machen den #Stromausfall in #Berlin besonders gefährlich. NIUS befragte Passanten und Menschen in den Notunterkünften. pic.twitter.com/REjW2cSCe9

— NIUS (@niusde_) January 4, 2026

On January 4, 2026:

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Power outage in Berlin: 45,000 households without electricity – police investigate arson

From The Blackout News

In the southwest of Berlin, there was a large-scale power outage on Saturday, and the consequences also affected nursing homes. According to Stromnetz Berlin, around 45,000 households and about 2,000 commercial enterprises were affected. At the same time, emergency services secured the supply of critical places. The police are investigating arson as the cause (welt: 03.01.26).

Cause at the Teltow Canal

According to the company, the trigger was the fire of a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal, which damaged several lines to the nearby Lichterfelde power plant. The fire has now been extinguished, but the repair remains complex because several cable harnesses are affected and the network topology cannot be changed at will. Company spokesman Henrik Beuster named the affected districts Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, Wannsee and Lichterfelde, and thus an area with many residential quarters as well as important facilities.

The fire brigade also prepared for a longer scenario early on because the situation remained dynamic and a reliable forecast was missing. She wrote online: “It is still unclear when the power supply will be restored. A longer absence is to be expected.” In addition, it said: “Stromnetz Berlin is working as quickly as possible to find a solution to the problem. At the moment, it is not foreseeable how quickly it can be fixed. At the moment, it must be assumed that the power outage will last longer.”

Safety in the cold: Fire brigade warns and relies on simple measures

Because temperatures in the minus range create additional risks, the fire brigade advises clear precautionary measures, and they are targeting typical sources of danger in apartments. Literally, the advice reads: “Be careful when handling candles – do not leave them unattended. It’s better to use flashlights than candles! Do not use gas-powered heaters and disposable grills indoors. Warm yourself with sweaters and blankets.” In this way, it addresses not only fire hazards, but also the risk of exhaust fumes in enclosed spaces.

At the same time, the police warned that the power outage could also affect mobile communications and landlines. It therefore sent forces to the affected areas. Anyone who urgently needs help should contact emergency services directly or visit a station, because an emergency call in individual streets could temporarily fail. For residents, therefore, the following applies: keep calm, but remain prepared, and keep an eye on neighbors in case there are problems with the elderly or sick.

Large-scale operation in Steglitz-Zehlendorf and commemoration of attack in September

In the district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, a large-scale operation was underway with several hundred firefighters and other helpers. In addition, volunteer fire brigades and the Federal Agency for Technical Relief were involved. The situation was particularly delicate because there are several nursing homes and hospitals in the area and emergency power and logistics have to be neatly intertwined. According to the fire department, residents and patients from at least two homes were transferred to other facilities.

At the same time, the case brings back memories of September, when a similar power outage in southeastern Berlin lasted for days. At that time, Stromnetz Berlin initially also spoke of around 50,000 affected customers. At the time, the cause was considered to be a politically motivated arson attack on two electricity pylons. This time, too, the police are investigating a possible deliberate fire. It is precisely this suspicion that increases the sensitivity, because the critical infrastructure is increasingly in focus.

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Left-wing extremist attack on power supply and the failure of Wegner & Co

From Philisophia- Perennis

By David Berger

The left-wing extremist attack on Berlin’s power supply exposes serious failures of the Senate under Kai Wegner (CDU) and the federal government in the protection, prevention and crisis management of critical infrastructure. The late political reaction and the recourse to the Bundeswehr seem less like resolute leadership than an admission of a lack of preparation and a failed security policy strategy.

At the weekend, Berlin was shaken by a massive power outage in the southwest of the city – triggered by an apparently targeted arson attack on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal. Several high-voltage power lines were destroyed, around 45,000 to 50,000 households and over 2,000 businesses were left in the dark, many without electricity and at times without functioning heating systems in freezing temperatures – a situation reminiscent of infrastructure emergencies, not a well-organized, safe capital city center.

The perpetrator group “Vulkangruppe”, a left-wing extremist group that has been active for years, claimed responsibility for the attack. In their claim of responsibility, they celebrate sabotage as a “necessary step” in the fight against the social system – regardless of the consequences for the elderly, children, hospitals and general security of supply.

Berlin’s Ahr Valley disaster: Wegner laughs

While the city sank into cold and darkness, the Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) initially seemed absent – at least in the public perception. According to reports, he did not show up in person on Saturday but stayed in his office and made calls. Only later was the deployment of the Bundeswehr announced. When he turned up laughing at the press conference at noon today, some journalists were a bit irritated by the laughing face he showed at the beginning. Memories of his colleague Laschet and the Ahr Valley disaster were raised.

Clearly, no one expects political leaders to attend every fire brigade operation themselves. But it is precisely in crisis situations – when people are directly affected and insecure – that the visibility of those in positions of responsibility is decisive for trust or mistrust in the state and politics. Wegner’s answers seemed more managed than led, more reaction than proactive crisis management.

The chairwoman of the AfD parliamentary group, Dr. Kristin Brinker, is probably not entirely wrong when she remarks on the absence of Kai Wegner on the first day of the power outage in large parts of the southwest of Berlin:

! Another left-wing extremist terrorist attack against Berlin’s infrastructure with tens of thousands of people affected, but the supposedly ‘governing’ mayor is nowhere to be seen and the Senate only manages to convene a crisis team after more than 13 hours – a greater political failure is hardly conceivable.

It is inconceivable that Wegner is conspicuous by his absence during Berlin’s biggest infrastructure disaster since the Second World War. Instead of being there for the affected citizens on the spot, he apparently thinks he can sit out the situation in his home office or on vacation. This complete ignorance is fatally reminiscent of the failure of political decision-makers during the Ahr disaster Wegner has now disqualified himself as the father of the country at the latest.”

Not only a left-wing extremist, but also a structural problem

The decision to call in the Bundeswehr for support is currently being sold as pragmatic aid – especially to ensure the supply of the population with hot food, drinks and warmth.

But this step should rather be understood as a political alarm signal: If the civilian authorities and operational structures are no longer sufficient to protect a large city in one of Europe’s most important industrial countries, then this is not only an operational test – but a symptomatic failure of state precaution and planning. Bundeswehr support must not become a substitute solution because precautionary infrastructure security and rapid, effective crisis responses are insufficiently organized.

The energy policy spokesman of the AfD parliamentary group, Frank-Christian Hansel (here on the outside – in conversation with the Islam critic Irfan Peci, among others), reacted very quickly to the power outage and presented the completely neglected structural problem, which is particularly severe in Berlin:

“The massive power outage in Lichtfelde, Nikolassee, Wannsee and Zehlendorf is a serious warning signal for the state of Berlin’s energy infrastructure (…) The failure of a single network node was enough to paralyze the power supply and in some cases the entire telecommunications infrastructure over a large area. This makes a central network node problem visible. Critical distribution points are apparently poorly dimensioned and interconnected, so that faults do not remain localized, but cascade entire supply rooms. The redundancy and grid resilience that are often invoked simply does not prove to be given under real conditions.

Security of supply is not an ideological question, but a basic prerequisite for security, the economy and social stability. Today’s incident shows that Berlin needs an honest assessment of its grid node structure and an energy policy that consistently focuses on grid stability and reliability again. The energy supply brought about by the so-called climate policy, sewn on edge, is dangerous to the public.”

Wrong security policy

The question arises: How could it have come to this in the first place? Left-wing extremist acts of sabotage on critical infrastructure are not new – there have been repeated incidents in Berlin in recent years in which electricity, rail or communication networks have been attacked.

Despite repeated warnings, it seems that security and domestic policy has not taken these developments seriously enough for a long time. The expected early detection, prevention and protection of sensitive infrastructure remained – so the impression – a bureaucratic buzzword instead of a strategic obligatory programme. This spectrum also includes the fact that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the old parties have been trivializing the threat posed by left-wing extremism as well as Islamization for many years. And instead pay the greatest attention to a largely invented problem of right-wing extremism.

While Berlin struggled with the acute state of emergency, the German government remained conspicuously quiet about structural consequences. Crisis areas in critical infrastructure – from the power grid to digital networking – are not only a state but also a federal task. A national protection plan is needed that takes sabotage, terrorism, extremism and hybrid threats seriously. Instead, we are experiencing reactive politics that only get moving when tens of thousands of people are already affected. And which does not indicate that it intends to fight the real enemies of our democracy, freedom and security, but only to defend its “fleshpots” (Söder) against the strongest opposition party – whatever the cost. After all, the others have to freeze.