The truth: Using drones to combat saboteurs

Jessica Burstorf took work home with her. The electrical engineer has sponsored a piece of critical infrastructure in Gröblingen, Swabia, for a regional energy company. “Such a substation can be protected much better if it is not located on a green field,” explains the woman in her mid-40s.

With the help of colleagues, neighbors and the technical team at a secondary school, the employee dismantled the entire system, including transformers and load distributors, and integrated it into the four walls at home. Since then, thick cable strands have been carrying a maximum voltage of up to 380,000 volts from power plants and wind farms directly into the end-of-terrace house at Wendehammer.

While husband Boris Burstorf patrols the property boundaries to ensure that no foreign agents or local fossil opponents make their way through the borders, the rest of the family sits at the kitchen table to trim the load with craft scissors to a low voltage so that the electricity can be fed into the local grid.

“The children do this after their homework,” explains energy expert Burstorf. In return, the family is allowed to operate their Christmas lights at public expense.

Jessica Burstorf is taking part in a pilot project that aims to combine civic engagement with community protection. "According to the law, not only the energy industry, but also transport and traffic, finance and insurance, health, drinking water, wastewater, waste disposal, information technology and telecommunications, nutrition, space and public administration are considered critical infrastructure in our country. Actually, all trades except cabaret are included. State bodies and operators cannot possibly keep an eye on everything," admits top official Martin Pfinzholm.

In coordination with interior ministries, employment agencies and the Federal Office for Disaster Relief, the Ministerial Director sets up a Federal Voluntary Service for Critical Infrastructure (BufKrInf). "We need more private initiative in all areas, including in the security sector. Deploying expensive officials against cheap drones is no longer affordable. In addition, experts can also benefit from citizens' know-how."

Pfinzholm alludes to the courageous intervention of the bus driver who recently knocked out the explosive Semtex drone at Leipzig Airport with a kick. The bus driver now not only trains the federal police in hand-to-hand combat against quadrocopters, but also an amateur team from Leipzig.

The old men of SV Missmut Gohlis should play their games next to the runways in the future and watch out for drones that should take them out of the air with an overhead kick. In return, the senior athletes receive points for the league and pension. “I want to go to the Bundesliga and then retire at the level of a skilled worker,” says the penniless central defender Kurt Horwart, 58, happily.

At Frankfurt Airport, passengers have recently been standing around with drones to ensure flight operations. In return, they receive airline miles in a bonus program. If the participants catch an object with an explosive charge, their surviving relatives receive a free flight.

“I earn my winter vacation here,” says retail salesman Bernd Tellert, hitting a wood pigeon with his bat. “I’m still missing five terrorist drones for Thailand.” Shortly afterwards, the short-sighted Tellert takes a federal politician's expensive Cessna out of the sky, so that his bonus mileage account initially slips into the six-figure minus range.

Hertha and Günther Ziechowski from Recklinghausen have also registered as infrastructure protectors. Hertha wants to “look after the Russians” from the window of her ground floor apartment every day from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., while Günther has taken up his post in the drinking hall on the corner to prevent “hybrid dangers” to the body and liver.

By midday, the couple had reported more than 150 suspicious incidents to authorities, including the CIA, the Land Registry and the Catholic Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The BND is currently investigating their tip that Russian President Vladimir Putin parked a beige Opel Corsa in a no-parking zone.

The security system should also benefit from civil society know-how in other areas. “Our national champion when it comes to disinformation is Deutsche Bahn because their operations are difficult to decipher, even for secret service professionals with a rail app,” explains Pfinzholm. The Bundesbank’s gold reserves are to be loaded onto a Rhenish regional express, which always departs on a different track. The defense company Helsing moves its production facility from Munich to an unscheduled ghost train from the company's shadow fleet.

In the future, democracy should also be protected more closely to the citizens. The German Alpine Association is organizing the upcoming state parliament and parliamentary elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin. Selected mountain huts in the high mountains that are difficult to access will serve as polling stations. “The thin air calms minds, the long climb prevents hasty decisions at the ballot box,” believes the ministerial director. In addition, the beleaguered federal government hopes to finally get the dangerously increased voter turnout back under control.

In the Gröblinger end-of-terrace house, the children Leon and Annika are still sitting at the kitchen table while their father Boris prepares to untie a tangled net knot with his bare hands. There are bangs and flashes, then darkness falls over Wendehammer and the district. A short circuit put the substation out of operation.

A short time later, hundreds of letters of responsibility were received by media companies all over Germany, all of which were signed with the real names of perfectly normal German citizens. The alleged saboteurs claim that their actions are taking action against the climate crisis or gender, population change or the forced retirement of Thomas Gottschalk. Apparently not only the protection of the infrastructure finds numerous supporters among the angry population, but also its sabotage for political purposes. But the ministerial director had also called for more private initiative in all areas.