Tuesday morning this week: Unknown perpetrators attempted to disrupt the electricity supply near the important coal-fired power plant in Jänschwalde, Brandenburg, and in some cases succeeded. That same evening, there was an outage at a substation near Cologne, also suspected of being caused by sabotage.
Then, on Wednesday, an explosion occurred near the Augsburg train station, caused by a hand grenade, according to investigators. While overnight, incendiary devices were thrown at a construction site in Munich, near several defense companies. And on Thursday evening, a suspicious object was found at a substation in Dormagen, between Cologne and Düsseldorf. Investigators have received a letter from an as-yet-unidentified source claiming responsibility for the attack, they say.
Hundreds of cases
This year alone, there have been over 160 attacks on critical infrastructure. While it remains completely unclear who is behind the attacks in Jänschwalde, Cologne and Augsburg, at least two suspects, apparently Bulgarian citizens, were arrested in Munich.
What all of these incidents have in common is that the attacks appear to be directed against so-called critical infrastructure. This includes energy supply facilities, railways, companies that are essential to the country’s security, and weapons manufacturers.
All of this can hardly be fully defended. The media reports, citing an internal document, that the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) has already recorded 160 possible acts of sabotage and more than 700 suspicious drone footage this year alone.
Anxiety, silence, fear…
Even if the exact background to each individual incident is unclear, they create a constant sense of threat among the population, also due to their continuity and frequent repetition. DW interviewed people on the streets of Berlin.
“Fear. I was talking to my colleague: It’s very worrying. I’m thinking about this a lot, and at the same time, no one is talking about it,” says a woman. A man adds: “First we have to understand that something is happening, that we are being attacked. I have very close ties to Russia, I have very close Russian friends, and it hurts me very, very much to see what is happening.”
“I’m not only worried about the risk of further attacks, but also that this is creating an atmosphere of insecurity. And that doesn’t seem right to me, especially in a month with so many important elections,” says another man.
A Cold War between Germany and Russia
There’s a reason why many people immediately think of Russia when asked about this surge in attacks. Also this week, on Tuesday, Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) addressed the press and announced: The German government is certain that Russian forces are behind the attempted drone attack on Halle/Leipzig Airport on August 4th.
The government responded by closing the Russian Consulate General in Bonn. It also took several other measures. Moscow, in turn, closed the Goethe Institute in Russia. Relations have cooled significantly between Germany and Russia.
“We are not at war, but we are no longer at peace,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) declared last year. The fact is: Since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine in the spring of 2022, Germany has been among Ukraine’s strongest supporters – financially and militarily – even though both previous and current governments have repeatedly claimed that they are not a party to the conflict.
Is Germany’s support for Ukraine a motive?
Since then, the German armed forces (Bundeswehr), which had been steadily reduced for many years, have been rapidly rearming – in response to a potential threat, including from Russia, in Central Europe.
Sönke Marahrens, a colonel in the Bundeswehr and security expert at the University of Kiel, believes that it would be better for the German population to prepare for this new form of confrontation, regardless of who is responsible.
He told DW: “In my opinion, hybrid warfare or hybrid activities are the same thing because they use the same tools. Foreign states or organizations pursue their strategic interests without bothering with diplomacy. This can mean sabotage, disinformation and attacks on critical infrastructure.” But the academic also emphasizes that a state of war is difficult to achieve.
Private companies need to better protect their infrastructure.
Is Russia always to blame?
But attributing each of these events immediately and directly to Russia is too simplistic. Earlier this year, for example, an attack on a cable bridge in southwest Berlin caused a power outage that lasted several days.
Hundreds of thousands of people were affected by the attack in the cold and freezing weather. Left-wing extremists are suspected of being behind the attack, which remains unsolved.
There has been a long-running debate in Germany about how to better prepare for such attacks in the future. In the spring, the government passed a law called “Kritis” (Critical Infrastructure Protection Act) that aims to better protect infrastructure, but the law has not yet come into force.
Authorities say that critical facilities, such as those belonging to private companies, can now be monitored by cameras, but monitoring the surrounding environment is the responsibility of police authorities.
They recommend that companies themselves invest more in the security of their facilities. The German Police Union (DPolG) shares a similar view. Its chairman, Heiko Teggatz, explained that protecting critical infrastructure is not the primary responsibility of the police, but rather the responsibility of the operators themselves.
“Anyone who is responsible for the security of their facilities should also invest in their protection,” Teggatz said. He criticized the lack of ongoing investment, not the lack of technical skills.