Left-wing radicals and Tesla: How dangerous is the volcanic group

People should not be harmed, Grünheide activists explain face-to-face in an interview with ZDF. However, some of them show solidarity with the sabotage actions of the left-wing extremist group Vulcan: “When our success depends on the good will of journalists and the government, you managed to paralyze the whole factory. A clear step! (.. .) ,” says one letter of solidarity.

However, this letter does not represent the activists in Grünheide as a whole, adds Caro, who is involved in the camp.

But who is behind the group of volcanoes? Possible members are working undercover and went into hiding after the Tesla attack. The fact is that this was not their first attempt to destroy important infrastructure.

The group named after the Icelandic volcano, “The Rumbling of Eyjafjallajökull,” blew a cable hole in Berlin in 2011, throwing the city into traffic chaos. It was probably the first attack of the group, which later called itself the Vulkangruppe. But what exactly does the group want to achieve with their arson attacks?

In March 2018, the attackers targeted the Berlin Mörsch Bridge in the Charlottenburg district. There they burned two strands of cable. Electricity is cut off in 6,500 households. The arsonists wrote: “With our act of sabotage, we interrupt the normal flow of various work processes in the capital – that was the goal.”

The Berlin Office for the Protection of the Constitution compared the old confessional letters of the Vulkan group and found that the analysis of at least eight texts suggests a (relatively) similar circle of writers.

Holger Münch, President of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), also emphasizes how dangerous the volcano group is: “The fact that the energy infrastructure is attacked from the left-wing spectrum is not new, but even with such destruction, the modus operandi operandi is different “It has a new quality,” he said of the arson attack in March.

The federal police made their first breakthrough in the manhunt before the Tesla attack. In February 2023, two people were arrested for allegedly trying to set fire to train tracks. The trial against him begins in May. They are supposed to belong to the volcano group, but they are silent.

And the activists in Grünheide? At the moment, they see no reason to end their camp, says Caro. They want to continue the fight against Tesla.