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Power-grid attacks: Henrichmann warns against rushing to blame saboteurs
🇩🇪 Germany /Energy & Infrastructure

Power-grid attacks: Henrichmann warns against rushing to blame saboteurs

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources Ongoing story
  • Bundestag oversight chairman Marc Henrichmann urged caution after power-grid incidents in Brandenburg and North Rhine-Westphalia.
  • He said the pattern could fit both left-wing extremists and state-directed low-level agents, but the timing of the incidents alongside the Saxony-Anhalt election did not prove responsibility or a connection.
  • Henrichmann warned that further attacks remained possible and said targeted short circuits could cause major damage without explosives.

The recent attacks on Germany’s power network may not be the last, Marc Henrichmann, chairman of the Bundestag’s Parliamentary Oversight Panel, warned. But he also urged investigators and politicians not to rush to conclusions about who was responsible.

The lesson from Leipzig is that we must avoid premature assessments.

— Marc HenrichmannHenrichmann urged caution before investigators establish reliable facts about the power-grid incidents.

“The lesson from Leipzig is that we must avoid premature assessments,” Henrichmann, a Christian Democrat, told the Rheinische Post. He said professionally conducted investigations there had gradually produced reliable facts, and he expected the same clarity in the cases in Jänschwalde and Bergheim.

Henrichmann said the available pattern could point in more than one direction. It could fit left-wing extremists, who have attacked Germany’s energy infrastructure for years, or state-directed low-level agents seeking to destabilize society. The coincidence in timing with the election in Saxony-Anhalt might appear striking, he said, but by itself it did not prove either authorship or a connection.

The pattern fits both left-wing extremists, who have been attacking our energy supply for years, and state-directed low-level agents who want to destabilize our society.

— Marc HenrichmannHe described two possible lines of responsibility while stressing that the timing did not prove a connection.

The incidents in Bergheim and Jänschwalde occurred within 24 hours. Henrichmann said that meant they could no longer be treated as isolated events, calling them “a series of attacks against our energy supply.” He said attackers did not need large explosions or sophisticated arsenals. A deliberately caused short circuit at the right location could produce maximum damage.

Bergheim and Jänschwalde within 24 hours are no longer isolated incidents. This is a series of attacks against our energy supply.

— Marc HenrichmannHe characterized the incidents as a broader series rather than separate events.

The fact that the grid had continued to function was no reason to relax, Henrichmann told Handelsblatt. Instead, he said, it showed that resilience had to be built through sustained effort. He described the suspected approach as cold calculation using low-level means.

It takes no large explosions or sophisticated arsenal. A deliberately caused short circuit at the right location is enough to cause maximum damage.

— Marc HenrichmannHe warned that simple methods could produce serious disruption.
About this summary

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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