On Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Burning Cables, and the Art of Staying in the Saddle
There are years that creep through time like tired cats, and there are years that gallop. The year 2026, after barely a week, already belongs to the latter category. While we were still busy sweeping up New Year's Eve fireworks and devouring the last remnants of Christmas cookies, history had already decided that tranquility is a virtue of bygone eras.
Night in Caracas
On January 3rd, a Friday, the day that gives this column its name, two events shook the world order in a way that astonished even seasoned observers of current events. In Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, US special forces launched what was discreetly referred to in diplomatic circles as "Operation Absolute Resolve." Nicolás Maduro, the controversial leader of the South American country for years, was arrested in a nighttime commando raid and taken to the United States. The elite Delta Force unit, the legendary "Night Stalkers" who once tracked down Osama bin Laden, had found their target. Maduro has been sitting in a New York courtroom ever since, facing charges of drug trafficking.
The international community reacted as it usually does in such cases: divided. María Corina Machado, Venezuela's Nobel Peace Prize laureate and opposition leader, rejoiced: January 3rd would go down in history as the day "justice triumphed over tyranny." China and Russia immediately demanded Maduro's release in the UN Security Council and condemned Washington's actions as a violation of international law. International law expert Holger Hestermeyer of King's College London spoke of a "potential turning point for the rules-based international order that has existed since 1945." And even the German government, otherwise always striving for transatlantic harmony, announced through its spokesman Stefan Kornelius that the USA had "not convincingly demonstrated that its actions were in accordance with international law".
When the Lights Go Out in Berlin
While Caracas burned, the lights went out in Berlin—literally. On the same day that American helicopters circled over Venezuela, unknown perpetrators set fire to a cable bridge in Berlin-Lichterfelde. The consequences were devastating: over 40,000 households and more than 2,000 businesses in the southwest of the German capital were plunged into darkness. In the depths of winter, heating systems failed, refrigerators fell silent, and digital life ground to a halt. It was the longest power outage in Berlin since the end of World War II.
A so-called "Volcano Group," a left-wing extremist organization that describes its attacks as "public-spirited actions" against the fossil fuel industry, claimed responsibility for the attack. The perpetrators, that much is certain, did not act out of stupidity, but with frightening professionalism. Berlin's Governing Mayor Kai Wegner minced no words: "This is no joke; people's lives are being deliberately played with." Senator for the Interior Iris Spranger spoke of a "dehumanizing attack." The Federal Prosecutor General has taken over the investigation – the charge: membership in a terrorist organization.
The Year of the Fire Horse
Caracas and Berlin, separated by an ocean, connected by the simultaneous occurrence of the unheard-of – one might think that history has developed a sense of drama that would overwhelm even Shakespeare. But wait: Before we lose ourselves in gloomy reflections, the calendar casts a different, more hopeful shadow. On February 17th, the Chinese New Year begins, and with it, the Year of the Fire Horse.
The Fire Horse, 火马 (Huǒ Mǎ) in Chinese, is no ordinary constellation. It appears only once every sixty years, when the Third Heavenly Stem meets the Seventh Earthly Branch—a rare conjunction considered particularly momentous in Chinese astrology. The last Fire Horse year was 1966, a year of upheaval, of the Cultural Revolution in China, and of social upheaval worldwide. And now, sixty years later, we are once again riding this fiery steed through time.
In Chinese tradition, the horse symbolizes freedom, energy, and an indomitable will to live. The saying 马到成功 (Mǎ dào chéng gōng)—"Success comes with the horse"—heralds dynamism and assertiveness. But when the horse meets the element of fire, an explosive mixture is created. Fire represents passion, transformation, and a drive for action—but also destruction and unpredictability. People born in a Fire Horse year are considered self-confident and inspiring, but also impulsive and headstrong. Tradition holds that the year itself will be characterized by movement, radical changes, and passionate breakthroughs.
Will it continue this way? Will we gallop through this year on the back of the Fire Horse, from one upheaval to the next, from one transformation to the next? The first days of 2026 suggest this is the case. The pace is set, the rhythm predetermined. Those not firmly in the saddle risk being thrown.
The Horsemen of Revelation
The symbolism of the galloping horse inevitably evokes older, darker imagery. In the Book of Revelation, that enigmatic keystone of the New Testament, four horsemen enter the stage of the end times: on white, red, black, and pale steeds. They bring conquest, war, famine, and death. Their horses thunder through the centuries, through years of plague and battlefields, through the smoke of burned cities and the silence of extinguished hopes. The horse as a harbinger of doom—a motif deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the West.
Is the end of the gallop the Last Judgment? Are we, riding the fiery horse, hurtling toward an abyss from which we will not return? The question arises when one reads the headlines of today: military interventions, terrorist attacks, a world that seems to have gone off the rails. But wait—before we succumb to the temptation of cultural pessimism, let us remember a wisdom older than the Book of Revelation: The horse is also a symbol of life, of strength, of overcoming. It carries us not only into darkness, but also through it.
History teaches us that humanity has weathered many a gallop. The year 1966, the last Fire Horse year, brought the Cultural Revolution, but also the moon landing plans, which would become reality three years later. It brought the Vietnam War, but also the Civil Rights Movement. Every era has its apocalyptic horsemen, and every era has people who withstood them. The historian Leopold von Ranke used to say that every era is "directly connected to God." In other words: No time is merely a precursor to another, no generation simply a baton-bearer for those to come. Each must prove itself.
Of Neighbors and Candles
In Berlin, where the power is back on and the heating is working again, people are sharing stories of those dark days. Stories of neighbors helping each other, of firefighters illuminating stairwells, of elderly women eating dinner by candlelight with their grandchildren for the first time in years. The Volcano Group's statement claiming responsibility included, almost cynically: "Ring your neighbors' doorbells." What was meant as a mocking request became a lived reality. The catastrophe revealed what remains hidden in everyday life: that community is possible, even and especially when the lights go out.
And in Venezuela? The country is at a crossroads, torn between relief and fear. Eight million people have fled in recent years, a quarter of the population. Whether Maduro's arrest will pave the way for democratic elections or plunge the country into chaos, no one can say. Latin America expert Jesús Renzullo summed it up perfectly: January 3rd was "both a high and a low point." Many would have liked Maduro to leave, but no one mourns his departure. "However, it is problematic that the state's territory has been violated and the US is acting dominantly like a colonial power." The dilemma of liberation through foreign intervention – a theme as old as the history of revolutions.
Staying in the Saddle
Chinese astrology advises people in the Year of the Fire Horse to exercise caution. Those who want to keep pace with the horse's dynamism need "inner grounding," according to ancient texts. The element of fire must be balanced by earth (stability) and wood (growth). It's a wisdom that still holds true today: those who don't want to lose their footing while galloping must know where they're going. Aimless speed is not a virtue; it's a danger.
Perhaps this is the true message of these first days of January: that we are called upon to be vigilant, but not despairing. That the horses of history may gallop wildly, but we don't have to relinquish the reins. That darkness comes, but also recedes. That at the end of every gallop, an abyss doesn't necessarily await, but perhaps a clearing.
The poet Erich Kästner, who had lived through darker times than we have, cultivated an attitude toward an uncertain future that uniquely combined skepticism and optimism. In his "Lyrical Home Pharmacy," there is a verse that seems tailor-made for this moment, as we set off into the unknown on the Fire Horse:
"Will it get better? Will it get worse? We ask ourselves every year.
Let's be honest: Life is always life-threatening!"
In this spirit: Hold on tight, dear readers. The Fire Horse has broken into a gallop. Where it will take us, we do not know. But that we will ride—of that there is no doubt. And perhaps, just perhaps, the ride will not lead to ruin, but to a land we do not yet know, but which awaits us. The Chinese call it: 马到成功. May success come to us through the horse.
Sapere aude!
S.
The Freytag appears every Friday as a literary column. 📚📘📖
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