Germany has been forced to introduce new energy-saving policies as it struggles to meet the demand amid a downturn in Russian energy exports due to sanctions and closure of pipelines to Russia’s European clients.
Recent posts on social media went as far as to suggest Berlin residents have taken to chopping down trees in its largest park, Tiergarten, to keep the lights on. But was the claim ground in fact or fiction?
The Claim
A tweet posted on October 9, 2022, purportedly citing Bloomberg, claims that Berlin residents have begun chopping down trees for firewood as Germany’s energy crisis continues.
Several Russian outlets, including the Kremlin-linked Rossiyskaya Gazeta, published stories referencing Bloomberg’s article. A number of Telegram and Twitter (mostly low-engagement) posts, in Russian, English and German, in recent days repeated the claim.
The Facts
Germany is among the nations most severely affected by the closure of the Nord Stream pipeline following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Having resisted the use of nuclear energy prior to Russia’s excursion, it has been pushed to even turn to coal despite plans to phase out its use by 2038.
It is among the countries in Europe that have most heavily relied on Russian gas supplies; the government is set to pay the December monthly gas bill for all households to shield its citizens from rising energy prices.
However, despite the difficulties it finds itself in, the claims that Germany is eyeing up the Tiergarten for timber are not accurate.
The Bloomberg article, which appeared to be the “inspiration” for the false claim, simply mentions how trees were chopped down in the park after the end of the Second World War. It has nothing to do with the ongoing energy crisis, as it highlights in literally the next sentence.
It appears this inaccuracy was spread by, among other outlets, Russian state-run broadcaster RT, possibly as an accidental or deliberate mistranslation of the original.
The channel, whose U.S. sister network ceased production in March due to Western sanctions, has been previously linked to multiple misleading claims on the war in Ukraine and surrounding topics.
A number of pro-Kremlin newspapers and news websites in Russia also ran with the headline falsely attributing the claim to Bloomberg, with some, including Komsomolskaya Pravda, later deleting the article.
Although the main content of the original article is about the demand for firewood because of gas shortages in Germany, it has not resulted in Tiergarten, one of the country’s most well-known parks, being chopped down.
The reference to World War II is in the last few paragraphs of the Bloomberg article. As Bloomberg uses a paywall model, meaning readers cannot see more than a handful of articles before they are asked to subscribe with payment, the outlets who shared the article can do so in the knowledge that most readers are unlikely to be able to see context of the claim.
The Bloomberg piece states: “In Berlin, the crisis creates unsettling echoes of the desolation following World War II. With fuel in short supply, residents chopped down nearly all the trees in the central Tiergarten park for heating.
“While Berliners aren’t going to such extremes now, concerns about staying warm are widespread.”
Berlin has nonetheless implemented a number of energy-saving measures across the city, such as turning off the lights at monuments including the Victory Column in Tiergarten.
The Ruling
Misleading Material.
Germans have not been chopping down trees in Tiergarten, Berlin, to meet energy needs. The claim is a misquote from a Bloomberg article about firewood demand.
While the article mentions that residents in the German capital did resort to felling parts of the park after the Second World War, the article clearly states that no such thing has happened today following Russia’s shutdown of gas supplies to Europe.
The misquote, however, has been widely shared by pro-Russian accounts to support their narrative about the energy crisis in Europe.
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team
