Germany’s Enemies Within
An on-the-ground report from the German capital about the sabotage that caused the worst power outage in Berlin since World War II.
The security guard was not happy to see a visitor taking pictures near the Lichterfelde power plant. “You are not allowed here,” he told this reporter. “No photos.”
Why?
“This is a crime scene,” he declared.
Perhaps it’s not surprising that the guard wants to shoo people away from the cable bridge that spans the Teltow Canal. On January 3, saboteurs ignited an incendiary device under the bridge that damaged more than a dozen high- and medium-voltage cables. Within minutes, a raging fire cut off the flow of electricity through the lines, and some 45,000 homes and 2,200 businesses on the southwest side of Berlin were plunged into darkness.
For four days after the sabotage, some 100,000 Berliners did without heating or electricity while temperatures in the city dropped to -10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit). One 83-year-old woman died due to the cold.
The attack exposed the fragility of Germany’s energy infrastructure. More than that, it provides further evidence of the country’s precarious energy situation and the cluelessness of the German police. Today — some seven weeks after the worst instance of energy-related sabotage in modern European history — the vaunted German police, despite a $1.2 million reward, have still not made a single arrest or publicly identified any suspects.
Here’s a report from Berlin on the attack that caused the longest power outage in the German capital since the end of World War II, with two on-the-scene photos, a map of the affected area, and two graphics that illustrate Germany’s energy madness.
