On Saturday, January 3, 2026, there was a significant interruption to the power supply in the Berlin district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. The districts of Nikolassee, Whensee, Zehlendorf, and Lichterfelde were affected by the outage for a period of around 4.5 days. The initial results of the quick response research conducted by a team led by Cordula Dittmer (KFS) have now been published in a blog entry. The analysis of the events highlights the far-reaching dependencies of critical infrastructures in an urban environment.
Technical causes and background
According to the operator Stromnetz Berlin, more than 45,000 households and over 2,000 commercial enterprises were affected by the power outage. The cause was identified as a fire on a cable bridge and in a distribution station in Lichterfelde, which led to the destruction of several main cables.
The investigating authorities classified the incident as deliberate arson at an early stage. A letter of confession published on the internet by a left-wing extremist group corroborated this suspicion. Statistics from the last five years show an increase in acts of sabotage against Berlin’s energy and transport infrastructure; as recently as September 2025, damage to electricity pylons in the southeast of the city left around 50,000 people without power for two and a half days.
Impact and cascading effects
The power outage triggered various subsequent disruptions due to systemic interdependencies. As a result of the winter weather, the failure of the heat supply was immediately noticeable. The impact on telecommunications was particularly far-reaching: due to the failure of 86 cell towers, the affected area was largely without network coverage, which also limited the availability of emergency calls.
Other infrastructural impacts included:
- Transport: Failure of traffic lights and restrictions on suburban rail services.
- Building services: Elevators stopped working and electric shutters and doorbell systems failed.
- Water supply: In high-rise buildings, the supply could not be maintained across the board due to dependence on electric pumps.
- Commerce: Supermarkets had to cease operations and transfer or dispose of their inventories in refrigerated trucks because digital payment systems and refrigeration failed.
Crisis management and measures taken by the authorities
As there are five hospitals, 74 care facilities, and refugee shelters in the affected area, the situation was classified as critical. The district of Steglitz-Zehlendorf set up a crisis management team and used Steglitz Town Hall as a central emergency call center and as a warming and care center.
Aid organizations such as the German Red Cross and ASB set up emergency shelters in gyms. The police increased their presence and, together with the THW, installed light poles at traffic junctions, which also served as information and charging points. On Sunday afternoon, the Senator of the Interior declared a “major disaster” for the first time since the Civil Protection Act came into force in 2021. This legal classification enabled centralized operational management, the involvement of volunteers, and support from the German Armed Forces.
Restoration of supply
To stabilize the situation, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia provided five emergency power generators. The German Armed Forces took over the logistical refueling of these systems and supported the supply of food to the population. On Wednesday morning, the grid operator announced that power would be restored at 11:00 a.m., along with a call for economical use of electricity to avoid grid overload. Communication took place via the media, loudspeaker announcements, flyers, and digital warning systems such as cell broadcast and the NINA app. The major incident was officially lifted on the following Friday evening.
The lessons learned from this incident underscore the need for resilient urban infrastructure design and close coordination between technical operators, authorities, and scientific support.
Further information here.
More on the activities of the THW here.
(Image source: Pixabay)