Jan 5, 2026, 9:02 amJan 5, 2026, 9:02 am
Thousands of people in the southwest of Berlin have to start the first full week of the new year on Monday without heating or electricity – with snow and icy outside temperatures.
After the major power outage on Saturday due to an arson attack in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district, several schools remain closed. Many households could be without power for days.
The German capital is in darkness.Image: keystone
For many students, the Monday after the Christmas holidays starts differently than expected. Parents can access emergency care in other schools. Daycare centers are also affected.
For those who couldn’t stay with family or friends in other parts of the German capital, the start of the first full week of the new year means having to cope with snow without electricity or heating. Police and rescue workers help where they can. The Bundeswehr should also provide support, and Berlin declared a so-called “major damage situation”.
According to the operator Stromnetz Berlin, the damage to the power network is serious and the repairs are complicated: all electricity customers are only expected to be supplied again on Thursday afternoon.
Power outage expected to last until Thursday
The attack on cables on a cable bridge over the Teltow Canal to the Lichterfelde power plant has caused a power outage since early Saturday morning, initially affecting 45,000 households and more than 2,200 companies. 14,000 households and 500 commercial customers have now been reconnected, as Stromnetz Berlin announced in the evening. The districts of Nikolassee, Zehlendorf, Wannsee and Lichterfelde are affected.
Heaters, lights and internet no longer work.Image: keystone
Since Sunday it has been clear to politicians and authorities that this was a politically motivated attack and that left-wing extremists were behind it. According to Senator Iris Spranger, a letter of responsibility received by the authorities from suspected left-wing extremists is authentic.
The long letter from the alleged perpetrators of the “Volcano Group” is entitled “Stifling the juice from those in power”. “In the greed for energy, the earth is leached, sucked dry, burned, violated, burned down, raped, destroyed,” it said. The gas power plant in Lichterfelde was “successfully sabotaged”. “Power outages were not the target of the action, but rather the fossil energy industry,” the group said in the letter.
Several large clinics in the district were reconnected to the power grid after a day and did not have to be evacuated thanks to emergency generators. The power outage also affects numerous care facilities and people in need of care in their homes. Fire departments and aid organizations set up emergency shelters. (sda/dpa)