Germans Attend ‘Blackout Courses’ as Energy Crisis Worsens Ahead of Christmas

Germans Attend ‘Blackout Courses’ as Energy Crisis Worsens Ahead of Christmas

With Russian energy supplies drying out and nation’s gas reserves running low, most Germans seem to have to resigned to their fate, and are looking for ways to cope with the impending blackouts and power shortages ahead of Christmas, news reports suggest.

Many Germans are taking public courses on how to survive a dark and cold winter caused by the foolish climate and energy policies of their elected leaders.  The French TV channel Euronews reported Saturday that “a growing number of Germans are turning to citizens’ courses to learn how to act if they find themselves plunged into darkness.”

The Euronews covered the surging interest in Germany for these “blackout courses”:

[A] growing number of Germans are turning to citizens’ courses to learn how to act if they find themselves plunged into darkness.

“If the electricity goes out then absolutely nothing works any more. And we need to understand what ‘nothing working’ really means,” said Birgitt Eberlin, an instructor at the Workers’ Samaritan Federation (ASB).

Simple tasks – from cooking a meal and keeping hydrated to caring for pets or ringing a neighbour’s doorbell – become major challenges. The German aid and welfare organisation offers free-of-charge courses on the subject on behalf of the BBK government agency for civil protection and disaster assistance.

Eberlin talks her students through the basics – including being prepared with candles, matches and headlamps – at the charity’s premises in southeast Berlin before hitting the lights and conducting part of the lesson by torchlight.

“Three generations ago people knew what being without electricity was like. Today we realise that we can barely function without electricity,” said Albrecht Broemme, a former Berlin fire chief who was brought out of retirement to help build infrastructure for the pandemic then the arrival of Ukrainian refugees.

Germany’s national network agency has warned of possible gas rationing this winter after Russian energy imports to Germany plunged following the invasion of Ukraine.

The German angst over blackouts are well founded. Last week, the head of Germany’s energy regulatory authority, Die Bundesnetzagentur, warned that country’s natural gas reserves were running so low that a “few freezing cold days” was sufficient to empty them.

The availability of cheap Russian supply prompted Germany to convert large parts of its electricity generation and industrial production to natural gas. In the wake of recent Western sanctions on Kremlin, and recent blowing up of Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines have almost halted Russian gas supply to Western Europe. Berlin is now paying a huge price for this fatal energy dependence on Russia.

With energy reserves running low, Germany has announced plans to ration energy and electricity across the nation. Berlin has passed an “Energy Saving Decree” ordering German cities to cut on public lighting, heating, as well as warm water for kindergartens and schools.

Not just ordinary households, the German industry and economy too have also taken a big hit. “The German government and leading economists say that Germany is heading toward a recession,” the German state TV channel DW News reported recently. “Inflation, rising energy prices and supply bottlenecks all add up to a perfect storm for the economy — which, according to economists’ theories, goes up and down in waves,” the broadcaster added alarmingly.

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