Attack on Tesla: The left-wing extremist “volcano group”

In connection with the fire of an electricity pylon near the Tesla factory in Grünheide, the “volcano group”, classified as left-wing extremist, is coming into focus. Not much is known about its members. The Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution has assigned the group to the anarchist spectrum for several years. According to this, it was founded in 2011 and has since carried out a series of arson attacks in Berlin and Brandenburg.

The attacks usually targeted cable shafts on railway lines. In some cases, the group also attacked radio masts or data lines, and sometimes also company vehicles. According to the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution from 2019, the “volcano group” is said to be “revealing the vulnerability of the urban mobility and communication infrastructure, disrupting public order and causing significant property damage” through acts of sabotage.

In at least eight cases in recent years, according to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the texts of the letters of confession are said to be so similar in structure, style and content that the authority assumes a “(partially) identical group of authors”. A strategy paper from 2015 also points to a fixed structure.

The “volcano group” was already suspected of carrying out an arson attack on the power supply at the Tesla construction site in 2021. At that time, power cables were burning in a forest about 500 meters from the car manufacturer’s factory. In March 2018, the group carried out an arson attack on power lines in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Around 6,500 homes and 400 companies were without power for hours. The property damage ran into the millions.