German police are pursuing a 48-year-old suspect, Daniel V., in connection with five separate sabotage attacks on high-voltage electricity infrastructure carried out between Tuesday and Friday last week. The incidents spanned Brandenburg, North-Rhine Westphalia and Saxony, with explosives, homemade rockets and handwritten confession letters linking all attacks to the same individual.
The search intensified on Friday after officers discovered explosive devices in the suspect's apartment in Gevelsberg, North-Rhine Westphalia. A special operations unit later raided a converted truck in a forest near Niederzier, approximately 100 kilometres away, but Daniel V. was not found. Police in Cologne confirmed the manhunt continued into Monday morning.
What distinguishes this case from ordinary vandalism is the coordination and ideological framing. Confession letters arrived at multiple media outlets, including this publication, with one stating plainly: Stromerzeugung aus fossilen Brennstoffen ist ein Verbrechen, electricity generation from fossil fuels is a crime. Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the handwriting analysis as conclusive evidence of perpetrator knowledge.
Timeline of attacks across three states
The first incident occurred Tuesday morning in southern Brandenburg at the Turnow-Preilack substation near the Jänschwalde power plant. More than 20 homemade rockets fired conductive material toward high-voltage lines, causing two short circuits. The transmission operator reported no widespread power outage, though the grid sustained damage.
That evening, a second substation in Bergheim near Cologne experienced disruptions. Police found launch devices and pyrotechnics at the scene. RWE Power reported five lignite coal power plant blocks at Niederaußem and Neurath went offline temporarily. Most returned to service quickly, though one block remained disconnected until the following week. General power supply remained secured throughout.
Thursday evening brought a third discovery when a walker spotted suspected launch equipment at a substation in Dormagen, between Cologne and Düsseldorf. Police acted on tips from the confession letters to search the area around the Weisweiler power plant near Aachen on Friday. That evening, a major police operation unfolded at a former power facility in Hamm, though the site has been out of operation for some time.
Geographic pattern points to lignite regions
The targeting is not random. All three affected states, North-Rhine Westphalia, Brandenburg and Saxony, maintain active lignite coal mining and power generation. According to the industry association Debriv, open-cast lignite mining continues in North-Rhine Westphalia, southern Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt, and eastern and western Saxony.
In Saxony, police secured four explosive devices at two locations north of Bautzen on Friday evening. Interior Minister Armin Schuster confirmed the finds came from information in the confession letters. Officers spent the night securing evidence at the sites. The concentration of incidents near coal infrastructure suggests the perpetrator selected targets with specific ideological intent rather than opportunistic vandalism.
Political response emphasises infrastructure protection
State and federal ministers have framed the attacks as a warning about critical infrastructure vulnerability. Herbert Reul, North-Rhine Westphalia's interior minister, argued that stronger legal powers and modern technology are needed to protect essential facilities. He cited cameras, sensors and alarm systems as necessary upgrades.
Critical infrastructure designation covers sectors where disruption could cause supply shortages, public safety failures or other severe consequences. The classification includes energy, information technology, transport, health, water, food, finance, government administration and media. Germany's energy grid falls squarely within this definition, making attacks on substations a matter of national security concern.
Transmission operators call for transparency reform
Christoph Müller, chief executive of Amprion, one of Germany's four major transmission system operators, argued that current transparency requirements make attacks unnecessarily easy. Companies must publish extensive data about electricity and gas networks online, information that could aid anyone planning sabotage regardless of motivation.
Müller called for relaxed transparency rules and permission for companies to conduct regular drone surveillance of power lines. He also requested authority to operate cameras monitoring not just company property but surrounding areas. Amprion's transmission network spans approximately 11,000 kilometres of high-voltage lines across western and southwestern Germany, making comprehensive physical protection logistically challenging.
People mentioned
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Daniel V.
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Armin Schuster
Organisations
RWE Power · Amprion · German Federal Police
