Arson attack near Grünheide (Oder-Spree) – Tesla production stops for days – Interior Minister wants to “hunt down” the perpetrators
dpa/Gollnow
Video: rbb24 Abendschau | 03/05/2024 | T. Schneider | Image: dpa/Gollnow
A left-wing extremist group has claimed responsibility for the arson attack on a power pole, which led to massive outages at Tesla and in municipalities. The Interior Minister wants to take tough action. Meanwhile, there were new power outages on Tuesday evening.
Note: This article is no longer updated. Our current information on the attack and the power outages You will find here.
- Burning electricity pylon leads to massive blackout in southeast Berlin
- New power outages in the region on Tuesday evening
- Production at Tesla will be at a standstill for days
- “Vulkangruppe” claims responsibility for attack
- Interior Minister Stübgen announces consistent persecution
- Economics Minister Steinbach questions the toleration of the protest camp
- Tesla boss Musk calls perpetrators “extremely stupid”
Late on Tuesday morning, the electricity supplier Edis gave the all-clear: the surrounding communities in the Oder-Spree district could be supplied with electricity again. The exception is the large industrial facility in Grünheide itself and a logistics center. Edis experts are on site and are preparing to repair the damaged mast, it said. It begins after approval by the investigating authorities.
On Tuesday evening there were power outages again in the area, including in Berlin. In the capital, almost 2,000 households and 90 commercial businesses in the districts of Rahnsdorf, Müggelheim and Neukölln had no electricity until around 8:40 p.m. According to police information, the substation in Erkner, which was also affected by the arson attack, is still responsible for this. A police spokesman told rbb that power outages should be expected here again and again in the coming hours.
Electricity pylon with burn marks in a field near Freienbrink | Image: picture alliance/dpa | Sebastian Gollnow
The fire on the high-voltage pylon near Freienbrink was discovered on Tuesday morning. According to the Oderland control center, there was a fire in a field between Gosen-Neu Zittau and Steinfurt. The fire department was called to the fire around 5:15 a.m., it said.
Due to the fire, there was a temporary power outage in the surrounding communities of Freienbrink, Erkner, Gosen, Neu Zittau, Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten, Neuenhagen, Woltersdorf and Schöneiche. Around 60,000 people live in the places mentioned.
According to the Berlin power grid, 3,000 households were affected by the power outage by mid-morning, in Rahnsdorf and Müggelheim, both districts of Treptow-Köpenick. These households are connected to the Erkner substation.
Works fire brigade forces on the Tesla site | Image: dpa/Gollnow
Several hundred million euros in damage for Tesla
Production at the Tesla factory also came to a standstill. The factory was evacuated immediately after the power outage around 5:30 a.m. The employees were sent home and measures were taken to secure the production facilities.
Tesla’s German management said at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon that production would come to a standstill for the rest of this week. It is hoped that electric car production can resume at the beginning of next week. The multi-day production downtime would result in expenses “in the high nine-figure range.” Things are currently going well in Grünheide 6,000 electric cars come off the assembly line every week. The basic price for the Model Y produced there is around 45,000 euros.
The company’s security systems worked properly, said a member of management. No one was injured and the technology was not damaged.
“We are deeply, deeply shocked by what happened today,” said Tesla representative André Thierig. It is the second direct attack on the factory’s power supply. There was also a third attack on the railway facility nearby. Tesla is now very concerned about the safety of its employees. From Tesla’s point of view, it was clearly an “attack on this industrial settlement” in Brandenburg, said Thierig. He cannot currently say whether this could have an impact on the further expansion of the factory.
Letter of confession from the “Volcano Group”
The police are now assuming an arson attack. According to the police, the electricity pylon in question is free in a field and is not fenced off.
The focus of the investigation is likely to be the “Vulkan Group,” which is classified as left-wing extremist and which claimed responsibility for an attack on the power supply in an email. “We sabotaged Tesla today,” the letter says: “Our goal with our sabotage is to achieve the greatest possible blackout of the Gigafactory.” Power lines were “flambéed” because “damage to cable joints is often time-consuming and expensive to repair.” The fire on the utility pole was intended to be large and high “to weaken the steel structure and cause instability of the pole.” That’s why car tires were also piled up.
The “volcano group” was suspected to be responsible for several arson attacks in the Berlin-Brandenburg area in the past. This was the case in Berlin-Charlottenburg in 2018, for example destroyed a power cable to hit a technology company. In 2020 there was an arson attack on a cable shaft in Berlin to hinder the development of a Corona app.
Tesla himself was probably already a target of the group. In March 2021, a fire broke out 500 meters from the factory construction site, in which a small area of forest measuring around three square meters went up in flames. Cables that supplied the construction site with electricity were also damaged.
Stübgen: “We will hunt them down!”
Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) has meanwhile threatened the perpetrators with strict prosecution. Stübgen said on Tuesday evening in rbb24 Brandenburg aktuell about the “Vulkangruppe”: “These are criminals who accept that people will be harmed or killed as a result of their attacks. These are criminals – and we will hunt them down with all means possible, that our constitutional state provides.”
Stübgen also promised that everything would be done to restore the power supply. And similarly sensitive points like the electricity pylon that was set on fire are now being checked more closely, because “the volcano group has announced a repeat. They have announced that they want to burn the whole of Tesla so that we can prevent this repeat.”
Steinbach: Toleration of forest occupation is being reviewed
Brandenburg’s Economics Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) spoke of a “terrorist act” at the joint press conference with Tesla representatives. The fire on the electricity pylon affected the entire region – tens of thousands of people in six communities as well as hospitals and old people’s homes, where some people were dependent on oxygen supplies, the minister said. “Those who carried out this attack accepted that people would be injured as a result. I believe this is a new quality that we have here.”
On behalf of the Brandenburg state government, he promised Tesla “full support”, including with regard to securing the Tesla site and the critical infrastructure in the region. In this context, Steinbach also did not rule out the initial restriction until March 15th Tolerance of the forest occupation next to the Tesla area should not be extended or the toleration itself should be reconsidered. The state Ministry of the Interior is currently reassessing the situation, said Steinbach.
Meanwhile, Tesla boss Elon Musk has also commented on the events in Grünheide: “These are either the stupidest eco-terrorists in the world or they are puppets of those who have no good ecological goals,” he wrote on “X” (formerly Twitter ). “Stopping the production of electric cars rather than combustion cars is extremely stupid.”
Environmental activists distance themselves
The Association for Nature and Landscape in Brandenburg, as a member of the “Turn off the tap from Tesla” alliance, described the incident as damaging to the concerns of the various initiatives. The “Stop Tesla” group said they found out about the fire from the press. “Our form of resistance is an occupation of water. We oppose the expansion of the factory with our bodies and tree houses. We do not endanger human lives.”
Broadcast: Antenne Brandenburg, March 5th, 2024, 11:00 a.m
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