Grünheide near Berlin
Tesla factory evacuated – left-wing extremists claim responsibility for attack
The Tesla Gigafactory in Grünheide
© Geisler-Fotopress | Thomas Bartilla / Picture Alliance
After a fire on a free-standing electricity pylon, the Tesla factory in Brandenburg is at a standstill and the factory has been evacuated. The police have a letter of confession.
Production at Tesla’s only European car factory comes to a standstill after a power outage. The factory in Grünheide was evacuated, said a spokeswoman.
The “Vulkan Group”, classified as left-wing extremist, has committed itself to an “attack on the power supply” near the Tesla factory near Berlin as a protest against the US car manufacturer. “We sabotaged Tesla today,” the group said in a letter on Tuesday. The authenticity of the letter is being investigated, said a police spokesman. The Brandenburg police are currently assuming arson, and the State Security Office of the State Criminal Police Office has started the investigation. The power outage caused a production stop at Tesla, and numerous households in the region were also affected.
The “volcano group” was already suspected of carrying out an arson attack on the power supply at the Tesla construction site in 2021. At the time, she accused Tesla on the radical left-wing website Indymedia.org of being neither green, ecological nor social. The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution wrote about the confession letter in its 2021 report. It also said: “In recent years, left-wing extremists have carried out arson attacks in Berlin as “volcano groups” several times.”
Tesla secures production facilities
As Tesla said, all measures have been taken to secure the production facilities. After consultation with the electricity provider Edis, the company does not expect production to restart quickly. star-According to information, the repairs at the factory are expected to take several days.
Southeast of Berlin
“Giga” in Grünheide: This is Tesla’s car factory in Brandenburg
Again star As we learned from Tesla circles, the factory fire brigade had to extinguish a fire in the production facility with sand and ventilate it due to smoke in the drive unit. A technical operations management team is currently being set up and a crisis team is being formed. The Red Cross, the Technical Relief Agency and local fire departments will soon also be providing support, and sanitary supplies and emergency power will be provided.
Burning electricity pylon near Tesla factory near Berlin
A burning electricity pylon had previously caused a major power outage in the region. As the police announced in the morning, the fire department was called to the fire in the Goßen-Neu Zittau area (Märkisch Oderland district) at around 5:15 a.m. and began extinguishing the fire.
According to a spokesman, the fire caused a power outage in the area. But the communities surrounding the plant have had electricity again since late Tuesday morning, the supplier Edis said. The exception is the large industrial facility itself and a logistics center. Edis experts are on site and are preparing to repair the damaged high-voltage pylon, it said. The damage site is secured. The repairs will begin after approval from the investigating authorities.
Police spokesman Roland Kamenz said the electricity pylon was said to be free-standing in a field. A police helicopter was also deployed in the morning after the alarm was raised about the fire.
Brandenburg’s Interior Minister speaks of a “perfidious attack”
The car manufacturer said that an arson attack was assumed and referred to information from the responsible authorities. Regarding the possible cause, the police spokesman initially said: “We are investigating in all directions.” It was later said that the police were investigating a possible arson attack. The “BZ” and the “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung”, among others, had previously reported. spoke of a “perfidious attack” on the electricity infrastructure.
“If the initial findings are confirmed, it will be a perfidious attack on our electricity infrastructure,” said Brandenburg’s Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU). “This will have consequences. Thousands of people have been cut off from basic services and put in danger.” But nothing can yet be said about the perpetrators. “That’s why I warn against hasty speculation.”
There was a power outage in the factory around an hour before the start of the shift, the newspaper “BZ” reported on Tuesday, citing the Oderland control center. In the early hours of the morning there was a loud bang and the Steinfurt substation near the Tesla factory caught fire. Next to the burning transformer, the emergency services discovered a tent belonging to environmental activists.
Environmental activists occupy forest areas
When asked, the authorities initially did not comment on the possible connection with protests around the Tesla factory site. Since Thursday, around 80 to 100 environmental activists have been occupying part of the state forest in Brandenburg near the Tesla factory, which Elon Musk’s company wants to clear in the event of an expansion of its site.
The activists have built around ten tree houses several meters high and announced that they want to hold out for as long as possible. The Grünheide citizens’ initiative also speaks out against Tesla’s expansion plans and shows solidarity with the occupiers.
Tesla has been manufacturing electric cars in Grünheide for almost two years. According to the company’s most recent information, around 12,500 employees work there. Environmentalists criticize, among other things, the fact that the site is in a water protection area. In a citizen survey in Grünheide, a majority turned against the expansion plans. Tesla also wants to expand production.
Note: This article has been updated several times.