Governing mayor gives interview
Power outage in Zehlendorf: Wegner sees no fault in the tennis match
January 14, 2026 – 7:37 p.mReading time: 2 min.
There was criticism of Kai Wegner because he played tennis during the power outage in Berlin-Zehlendorf. He doesn’t want to have made any mistakes himself, he says in an interview.
Berlin’s mayor Kai Wegner said on January 3 that he locked himself in his office all day and made phone calls. Only days later did he admit that he played tennis for an hour with his partner, Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch, at midday on the first Saturday of the year. Around 45,000 households in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf district had already been without electricity for several hours.
In an interview with “Spiegel”, the CDU politician commented on the tennis match and the criticism that followed his brief communication maneuver. According to “Spiegel”, Wegner said that he did not want to describe either of these as mistakes. He does not see an existential crisis in the aftermath of his handling of the power outage that could possibly cost him re-election in the House of Representatives election in September.
In addition, according to “Spiegel”, Wegner said that he did not mention the tennis game immediately because playing tennis was something very usual for him.
He emphasized that he was always available. His cell phone was on the bench at the tennis court with the ringtone on. “I kept going to the bank and checking: Is there a message? Did something happen? Is there anything new?”
Berlin’s governing mayor also reacted to statements by Interior Senator Iris Spranger (SPD). Spranger recently claimed that Wegner’s cell phone was turned off when she tried to inform him of the power outage early on the morning of January 3rd. “That’s wrong. My smartphone is never switched off,” the “Spiegel” quoted Wegner as saying.
