German Police Discover Explosives at Power Substations Near Polish Border

Discovery in eastern Saxony

German police initiated an operational deployment in eastern Saxony on 4 September after discovering explosive and incendiary devices at two power transformer stations. The targeted installations are located north of Bautzen in the Görlitz district, near the state border with Brandenburg and in close proximity to the Polish frontier. The facilities sit within the Lusatian lignite mining area, where energy company LEAG extracts brown coal to supply power stations at Jänschwalde and Boxberg. Saxon police focused their response around the municipalities of Weißwasser and Boxberg to inspect the equipment and secure surrounding high-voltage lines.

Spokesperson for the Görlitz police department Anja Leuschner addressed the tactical response:

A police operation is underway. For tactical reasons, we cannot comment on the matter.

Coordinated pattern of grid disruptions

The intervention in Saxony follows a sequence of attacks on energy infrastructure across Germany in early September. On 1 September, emergency services discovered homemade explosive devices at a transformer station in Turnow-Preilack, Brandenburg, roughly 20 kilometres from the Polish border. Investigators reported that perpetrators used homemade projectile devices to launch conductive materials into overhead lines to short-circuit the grid near the Jänschwalde power plant. On the same evening, an electrical disruption in Bergheim, 25 kilometres west of Cologne in North Rhine-Westphalia, knocked out multiple high-voltage lines. Authorities initially logged the Bergheim failure as a technical fault before reclassifying it on the morning of 2 September as an intentional criminal act.

Brandenburg Interior Minister Jan Redmann confirmed that the Turnow-Preilack incident constituted deliberate sabotage against the public grid. On 4 September, police in Dormagen responded after a passerby found a suspicious object near another electrical substation, prompting security checks across regional power facilities.

Manhunt and ideological motives

Federal and state authorities opened an investigation into offences against constitutional order and the disruption of public utilities. In North Rhine-Westphalia, police launched an extensive manhunt for 48-year-old Daniel V. in connection with the grid attacks. Officers searched the suspect's residence in Gevelsberg, discovering confirmed traces of explosive substances inside the apartment. North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul confirmed the findings and noted that investigators were evaluating potential ties to both foreign state entities and domestic left-wing extremism.

The search followed the recovery of an admission letter that investigators verified as authentic. In the letter, the author claimed responsibility for causing short circuits at several electrical sites, citing opposition to fossil fuel extraction and the suffering it creates. The statement also expressed hostility toward the defence sector and referenced the military conflict in Palestine.

Additional security incidents

The grid discoveries coincided with other security operations across the country. During the night between Wednesday and Thursday, police arrested two Bulgarian citizens (a 28-year-old woman and a 38-year-old man) in Munich after incendiary devices were thrown from a vehicle at a Rohde & Schwarz construction site in the Berg am Laim district. Firefighters extinguished the resulting blaze, and officers neutralized a second incendiary device that failed to ignite.

German authorities also pointed to foreign sabotage in an earlier August incident at Leipzig airport, where an explosive-laden drone targeted a Ukrainian cargo aircraft. Suspects in that investigation included a Russian-born man holding a Latvian passport and a Belarus-born Russian citizen. The heightened infrastructure alerts precede state elections on 6 September in Saxony-Anhalt, where polling shows the Alternative for Germany party holding approximately 40% support.