On Tuesday morning, a power pole burned in Brandenburg, and shortly afterward, Tesla’s Gigafactory shut down. In addition, many households in Berlin and Brandenburg were without power. The so-called “Vulkangruppe” reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack.
Not much is known about the group of left-wing extremists, which the Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies as belonging to the anarchist spectrum. It is said to have been founded in 2011. Since then, it has been committing arson attacks in Berlin and Brandenburg.
Tesla not the first target of the “volcano group”
The “Vulcano Group” is said to have targeted Tesla as early as 2021. At that time, a power cable supplying electricity to the Tesla factory construction site caught fire. The “Vulcan Group” boasted about the attack. In 2018, a high-voltage cable was destroyed in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Even after the attack, a claim of responsibility from a so-called “Vulcan Group” surfaced.
In 2020, a cable duct burned in Berlin. A claim of responsibility from a “Vulkangruppe” claimed that the target of the attack was the Heinrich Hertz Institute, which was involved in the development of a coronavirus app that the “Vulkangruppe” wanted to stop. The targets of these sabotage attacks are often cable ducts, radio masts, and data lines.
Objective: Disturbance of public order
The choice of sabotage targets is no coincidence, says extremism expert Felix Neumann of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. “The group wants to highlight how fragile communication and public life are.” The group also wants to draw attention to the fact that everything is vulnerable, Neumann continues. “That’s why they choose targets that cause power or telecommunications outages not only for large companies like Tesla, but also for the nearby population.”
The 2019 report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution also states that the group’s goal is to disrupt public order. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution also writes about the acts of sabotage: “In this way, the functioning of ‘capitalist everyday life’ is to be disrupted and people are forced to pause.”
Confession letter with changing names
After acts of sabotage or arson attacks, claims of responsibility repeatedly surface. What’s striking, however, is the group’s changing names. At one point, the group called itself “Vulcan Group Against the Progress of Destruction,” at another, “Vulcan Group Shut Down the Power.”
There are several theories about the changing names, according to extremism expert Neumann. “This could mean that it’s the same group under a different name. But it could also be that there’s a new leadership within this group that wants to set a new tone with this new name.” In the claim of responsibility for the alleged arson attack on a power pole in Brandenburg, which surfaced on Tuesday, the group calls itself “Volcano Group: Shut Down Tesla!”
Exact organizational structure unclear
It is unclear how many members have joined the “Vulkangruppe” in recent years. Furthermore, information on the group’s exact organizational structure is lacking. The Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution declined to comment on this matter when contacted by rbb. The 2019 Office for the Protection of the Constitution report indicates that the Office assumes a stable structure. The agency assumes that several of the claims of responsibility were made by “a (partially) identical group of authors.” The reason for this assumption is that the claims of responsibility are similar in structure, style, and content.
Whether there will be further arson attacks on the Tesla factory remains to be seen. However, the enemy image of the “Volcano Group: Shut Down Tesla” is clear. Their claim of responsibility states: “No Tesla in the world shall be safe from our fiery fury.”
