In the last four days over 15 Firebombs were found near in seven different locations in and around Berlin. Only some went off, damaging technical equipment, disrupting rail traffic – but nobody got harmed. On the other hand tens of thousands of commuters are late on a daily basis – anger and frustration are on the rise. Especially since it seems to be quite unclear who placed these fireboms along the rails in the first place – and why.
Although there is actually claim of responsibility, signed by somebody/ a group named “Hekla”, pointing out “they” would protest against Germany’s involvement in the war-like activities in Afghanistan. But since nobody, not even left wing extremists seems to “get” the connection between war in Afghanistan and disruption of rail traffic, one has to doubt that these claims of responsibility are “real”.
The name “Hekla” however points in the direction of another incident, that took place earlier this year: a cable connection bridge was set on fire, destroying import cables providing not only railway infrastructure, but also phone and internet connections for thousands of Berlin households. Back then the claim of responsibility was also signed by a group that refered to an Icelandic vulcano: “Das Grollen des Eyjafjallajökull.” – which means something like “The rumbling of Eyjafjallajökull”. This name again refers to the disruption of plane traffice due to that Icelandic Vulcano in 2010.
Well. Whatever. Now the German national railway company Deutsche Bahn is even offering a 100000,- Euro reward for hints and clues that could lead to the arrest of the perpetrator/perpetrators. We’ll see if that is leading anywhere.
And by the way: I found it quite surprising that there seems to be no mentioning of the current incidents neither on the website of Deutsche Bahn, or on the website of S-Bahn-Berlin. I do understand that the companies would like to ignore those firebomb-incidents – but wouldn’t it be nice at least to inform their customers about disruptions and closed connection?
Instead the website of Berlin S-Bahn feature a large ad for the musical Dance of the Vampires at Theater des Westens and how to win tickets. Well – thank you very much, everybody..=/