In Germany, security is now a major concern. A map dense with episodes, intrusions, and anomalies scattered across the German territory tells a reality monitored with increasing attention: over the past year, authorities have recorded more than three hundred possible sabotage actions, with a particular concentration in the western and northern regions.
This was revealed by a confidential report from the Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, Bka), which documents 321 reports in 2025 and new episodes already emerged in the first weeks of the following year. What the authorities outline is a systemic action of boycott, espionage, and disruption, spread across energy infrastructures, transport, and sensitive facilities, attributable to perpetrators sometimes internal, sometimes external.
VANDALISM AND INCIDENTS AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR
The first days of January offered a series of emblematic examples of the reports collected. In Wuppertal, unknown individuals broke into an electrical substation by forcing an entrance, leaving tools abandoned on site. Shortly after, in Bavaria, an intrusion attempt was recorded at a wind farm, while in the Ruhr two radio devices belonging to the railway network disappeared, theoretically making it possible to listen to freight traffic communications.
Also in that area, a locomotive carrying chemical substances derailed: metallic elements fixed to the rails had been placed on the line, a circumstance that attracted investigators’ attention. The episode gained further significance because a U.S. military convoy was scheduled to pass on the same route but was subsequently diverted.
In Berlin, at the beginning of this year, a far-left group blew up an electrical control unit, plunging three southwestern districts of the capital into darkness and freezing temperatures for four days, when temperatures had dropped to 10 degrees below zero. The claim by the Vulkangruppe organization contested the government’s energy policy, which they considered still too tied to fossil fuels.
However, the majority of the overall cases continue to concentrate in the northwestern Länder of North Rhine-Westphalia and Lower Saxony, territories that also lead the annual statistical distribution.
NATIONAL MAPPING OF THE EPISODES
Since last autumn, the systematic collection of information has been centralized in an analytical platform called “Zeitenwende,” created to coordinate the recording of sabotage attempts and espionage activities. The data collected in the system, consulted by a journalistic consortium composed of the regional TV stations Ndr and Wdr and the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, show a widespread distribution of episodes: besides the two most affected regions, significant numbers emerge in Bavaria and Saxony, followed by Hesse, Baden-Württemberg, and other Länder with progressively lower values.
Reports have increased in recent years and concern a wide range of targets: from railway lines to energy plants, from water infrastructures to military facilities, including communication installations, airports, and administrative offices. Thanks to this classification, authorities can highlight recurring dynamics and points of vulnerability.
SUSPICIOUS OVERFLIGHTS AND ESPIONAGE HYPOTHESES
At the same time, authorities keep track of unauthorized flights of unmanned aerial vehicles. In 2025 alone, nearly 1,300 episodes were reported, with over two thousand objects sighted. In some circumstances, such as a nighttime observation over the Baltic by a federal police unit, multiple drones were reportedly identified simultaneously while flying over sensitive areas near maritime routes.
Security agencies do not rule out that some cases may hide activities attributable to foreign services, with particular attention to strategic infrastructures and military sites. In this context, the phenomenon of recruiting occasional collaborators emerges, contacted online and tasked with informational or disruptive duties in exchange for compensation. Suspicions point towards Russia. Arrests and judicial proceedings in several European countries testify to the existence of such strategies, although Moscow denies any involvement.
THE INSTITUTIONAL RESPONSE
To strengthen prevention, the Ministry of the Interior plans to create a structure dedicated to countering hybrid threats at the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, Bfv), conceived as a coordination platform between federal and regional entities.
Furthermore, the federal government is considering the creation of a four-year extraordinary fund of two billion euros to strengthen the security of critical infrastructures against shocks related to armed conflicts, prioritizing the energy sector. According to internal documents revealed a few days ago by Handelsblatt, the public reserve could mobilize up to 500 million annually to support companies in upgrading sensitive plants. However, disputes between ministries over competencies and budget coverage are currently slowing down the project.
Periodic meetings between authorities already allow the exchange of information on suspicious cases, while some investigations have produced concrete results: indictments abroad for dangerous acts in air transport, convictions in Germany for illegal railway monitoring, and arrests related to alleged attempts to damage naval units. In other episodes, however, the perpetrators have not been identified or investigative leads proved unfounded, as in some drone sightings or alleged damages to military installations.
