Tesla construction site in Grünheide.
dpa, Uwe KOCH / Eibner
- According to German law, Tesla’s construction of the factory in Grünheide is an encroachment on nature – and for this the car manufacturer actually has to pay compensation so that the construction can be ecologically compensated elsewhere. This is what the building code provides.
- The compensation costs for the factory now amount to around 12.4 million euros. The Brandenburg government has taken over 8.1 million euros. The government took the money from a fund that contains the assets of the former governing party of the GDR, the SED.
- This emerges from a small request from left-wing MPs Christian Görke (retired finance minister) and Thomas Domres.
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There is a special provision in the German building code that is important for Tesla’s work in Grünheide, but also for the Brandenburg state government. The regulation, which appears in several paragraphs of the code, bears the cumbersome name “land-use planning compensation measure”. Put simply, it stipulates that larger construction projects, such as the Tesla factory in Brandenburg, interfere with nature – and must be compensated for elsewhere. One compensation option: the builder pays compensation. These funds are then invested by the community in appropriate reforestation projects.
At Tesla, there is now a compensation volume totaling 12.4 million euros for the factory in Grünheide. The special thing about it: The Brandenburg state government paid the lion’s share of this amount for the US car manufacturer. The state government paid a total of 8.1 million euros for the compensatory measures in place of Tesla. This emerges from a small request from left-wing MPs Christian Görke (retired finance minister) and Thomas Domres. The request is exclusive to Business Insider.
“A story from the madhouse”
But that’s not all: the rulers from Brandenburg have drawn the amount from one pot with so-called PMO funds. Specifically, it concerns the assets of the party and mass organizations of the GDR. Tesla is thus co-financed in Brandenburg with the assets of the injustice regime of the GDR. The state government has forwarded the 8.1 million to the community of Grünheide, so that the funds will be invested in ecological compensation, such as afforestation and water.
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