More than six months after a major arson attack on Berlin’s power supply, police staged a large-scale raid against suspects from the left-wing extremist scene.
Around 500 officers searched 17 properties across Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, and North Rhine-Westphalia. Authorities said the investigation concerns suspected unconstitutional sabotage, the formation of a criminal organisation, and arson.
According to Tagesspiegel, the operation targeted four suspects and was carried out under 19 search warrants, 14 of them in Berlin. Additional searches took place in Brandenburg, Hamburg, and Düsseldorf. German media reports describe the group under investigation as an “anarchist group” or a “left-wing extremist sabotage cell.” The “Anarchistische Bibliothek Kalabal!k” in Berlin-Kreuzberg was among the locations searched.
The Berlin Attorney General’s Office confirmed the raids relate to the arson attack of September 9, 2025, near Adlershof. A spokesman said the investigation is directed at suspects known by name.
The attack severely damaged key parts of the electricity supply in southeast Berlin, leaving around 50,000 private and commercial customers without power. The outage hit the Adlershof Technology Park—home to companies and research institutes in IT, robotics, bio- and nanotechnology, space, and the security and defence sector—particularly hard. Economic damage was later estimated at between €30 million and €70 million.
A claim of responsibility published online identified the technology park as the intended target, while describing the blackout affecting residents as “collateral damage.”
A separate suspected left-wing extremist sabotage attack earlier this year also disrupted Berlin. In January, arson on high-voltage cables in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district left around 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses without electricity, forcing schools and hospitals to close.
