Tesla’s construction site in Grünheide.
dpa, Uwe KOCH / Eibner
- According to German law, Tesla’s construction of the plant in Grünheide is an encroachment on nature – which is why the car manufacturer actually has to pay compensation so that the construction can be ecologically compensated elsewhere. This is what the building code provides.
- Factory compensation costs are now around 12.4 million euros. The Brandenburg government took over 8.1 million euros. The government took the money from a fund containing the assets of the former ruling party of the German Democratic Republic, the SED.
- This stems from a small request from left-wing MPs Christian Juerke (retired finance minister) and Thomas Domris.
There is a special provision in German building code that is important to Tesla’s work in Grünheide, but also to the state government of Brandenburg. The regulation, which appears in several paragraphs of the law, bears the cumbersome name “Land Use Planning Compensation Scale”. Put simply, it requires that larger construction projects, such as the Tesla factory in Brandenburg, be an encroachment on nature – and must be compensated elsewhere. One compensation option: the client pays a compensation. This money is then invested by the community in appropriate afforestation projects.
At Tesla, there is now a compensation volume totaling 12.4 million euros for the plant in Grünheide. The special thing about it: The Brandenburg state government paid the lion’s share of that sum to the American car manufacturer. The state government paid a total of 8.1 million euros for the compensatory measures in Tesla’s place. This stems from a small request from left-wing MPs Christian Juerke (retired finance minister) and Thomas Domris. The order is exclusive to Business Insider.
“A story from the house of madness”
But that’s not all: the judges from Brandenburg pulled the money out of one pot using the so-called PMO money. Specifically, it concerns the origins of the party and mass organizations in the German Democratic Republic. Thus Tesla is co-financed in Brandenburg with the origins of the injustice regime in the German Democratic Republic. The state government has sent 8.1 million to the community of Grünheide, so that the money will be invested accordingly in environmental compensation, such as reforestation and water.