Overview
- The group said its arson targeted the Lichterfelde gas plant rather than Berlin’s grid, claimed it expected only hours of disruption, and wrote it would have acted in a warmer season given the hardship caused.
- The blackout lasted several days and affected roughly 40,000 to 45,000 households and thousands of businesses, closing schools and supermarkets while hospitals and care facilities relied on generators.
- In the new letter, the authors assert they avoided district heating infrastructure, reject terrorism accusations and false‑flag theories, and even blame the grid operator for failing to reroute power.
- Germany’s domestic intelligence agency regards the claim as authentic and characterizes the Vulkangruppe as franchise‑like cells within a militant‑anarchist current with a history of infrastructure arson since 2011.
- Federal prosecutors and investigators are analyzing forensic traces, witness accounts and surveillance footage after the attack, and some security officials still raise unproven doubts about possible foreign exploitation.