Arson attacks in Berlin in 2011

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Arson attacks on railway systems in October 2011 caused considerable disruption to rail traffic in the greater Berlin area. A presumably left-wing extremist group claimed responsibility for the attacks. The federal prosecutor took over the investigation.

Attacks and attempted arson attacks

On October 10, 2011, unknown persons set fire to a cable duct on the Berlin-Hamburg railway near the Finkenkrug train station in Havelland, thereby destroying signal cables . The fire broke out just before 4 a.m. In addition, on the same day an incendiary device was discovered near the Berlin main train station in a transformer house, but it did not ignite. On October 11, 2011, railway employees found incendiary devices on the railway site in Berlin-Treptow and alerted the police. The police assumed that all incendiary devices found were deposited at the same time and have been discovered since then.

On October 12, 2011, rail workers found several incendiary devices while inspecting the track in the Staaken district in the west of Berlin and in the Schöneberg district in the south. One of the incendiary devices had already burned down. A total of 16 timed incendiary devices were identified. Due to the damage caused and the police measures taken, there were significant restrictions on rail traffic in the greater Berlin area. Initially, the LKA Berlin took over the investigation until the Federal Prosecutor intervened on the same day and commissioned the Federal Criminal Police Office with the further investigations. The reason was the suspicion of "unconstitutional sabotage and other crimes".

The German railway offered a reward of 100,000 euros for information leading to the perpetrators.

background

A group called the “Hekla Reception Committee - Initiative for more social eruptions”, probably a German left-wing militant group, whose name is based on the volcano Hekla that erupted during the same period, had committed itself to the attack on October 10, 2011 . A letter of confession published on the Internet said that the attack was a protest against German participation in the war in Afghanistan and German arms exports. The group also demanded freedom for the imprisoned US soldier Bradley Manning , who had disclosed military information on the Internet platform Wikileaks . As inspiration, they cite an attack on Deutsche Bahn cable systems at Berlin's Ostkreuz station five months earlier , as a result of which rail traffic in east Berlin, Deutsche Bahn internet services and Vodafone's mobile network were temporarily disrupted. According to a preliminary assessment of October 12, 2011, the Brandenburg State Criminal Police Office held the letter of confession to be authentic. The propagated sabotage of the “functionality of the metropolises” is based on the manifesto The Coming Uprising .

Reactions

After the arson attack and the incendiary devices found afterwards, German politics discussed the danger posed by violent left-wing extremists. SPD politician Wiefelspütz said it was not about playing down the dangerous incendiary devices. A comparison with the RAF , for example , is out of the question. The incendiary devices on railway systems have nothing to do with terrorism .

Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer ( CSU ) condemned the attempted arson and called them “criminal terrorist attacks”.

In the left scene, the pamphlet was criticized as being apolitical. Hekla was accused, among other things, of not being credible if, as an anti-militarist group, one used violence itself. The time of the act of sabotage was also cited as awkward, since state institutions would anyway be viewed critically by the public through the unauthorized use of a “ state Trojan ”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Attacks on railway systems: incendiary devices found on tracks again ( memento of October 14, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Tagesschau.de, October 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ Incendiary devices found: attack at Berlin Central Station prevented. In: Spiegel Online . October 10, 2011, accessed April 3, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Sebastian Fischer: After the arson attack on Ostkreuz. The train is rolling again , taz - the daily newspaper , May 25, 2011
  4. ↑ Controversy over left-wing extremist violence: Police see new terror - SPD contradicts ( Memento from December 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), Tagesschau.de, October 13, 2011.
  5. ^ Incendiary devices in Berlin. Left scene scoffs at letters of confession . In: Spiegel Online . October 11, 2011. Retrieved December 3, 2011.