Arson as Solidarity: Anarchists Claim Vehicle Attack on Prison Services Firm in Berlin
Executive Summary
An anarchist cell in Berlin has claimed responsibility for torching a company vehicle belonging to Stölting Group, a private contractor linked to prison management in Germany. The action, carried out in mid-June 2025, was framed as an act of solidarity with imprisoned anarchists across Europe, particularly Maja, currently on hunger strike in Hungary. The communique reflects an escalation in targeted sabotage aimed at institutions supporting the carceral state.
Analysis
In the early hours of June 13, 2025, a vehicle belonging to Stölting Group was set ablaze in Berlin. The action was later claimed by anarchists via Act For Freedom Now! and Attaque, two platforms known for publishing direct action communiques. The perpetrators explicitly link the arson to the company’s role in profiting from incarceration—managing prison food, healthcare, and logistical operations across Germany. The message positions the company not just as a profiteer, but as a structural enabler of state repression.
Stölting’s alleged anti-union practices further fueled the action, with claims that workers were bribed to leave unions. The communique ties these labor abuses to a broader critique of capitalist exploitation, with prisons cast as a tool to isolate and punish those who resist integration into this system.
The arson is not portrayed as an isolated incident but as part of a transnational struggle. The attackers express solidarity with multiple imprisoned anarchists:
Maja in Hungary, who began a hunger strike on June 5 to protest solitary confinement and seek repatriation to Germany.
Daniela Klette, a former RAF member arrested in February 2024 and currently on trial.
Anarchists in Greece, including those held in connection with a deadly explosion in Athens in October 2024.
Antifascists and unnamed prisoners across Germany, where the communique claims more comrades are jailed now than at any point in the last three decades.
The language in the communique is explicitly militant. It justifies acts such as “blowing up prisons” and “burning cop cars” as legitimate forms of resistance. It reframes arson and sabotage not as criminality but as “counter-violence” against the structural violence of the state.
This messaging reinforces a trend in contemporary anarchist praxis: linking local sabotage to international resistance networks and prisoner solidarity. The action is framed as both symbolic and tactical—intended to disrupt systems of oppression while maintaining pressure on the state through constant, decentralized actions. It also signals continued coordination among militant cells across borders, relying on digital platforms to circulate communiques and amplify political messaging.
