Elon Musk visits the Tesla factory in Germany

Tesla boss Elon Musk was greeted with cheers and shouts of ‘Elon’ by his employees on Wednesday during a short visit to the factory in Grünheide. After the attack on the power supply and the interruption of production at the site for several days, the American came to get an idea of ​​the situation.

Around noon he addressed the employees in a large tent on the factory grounds. Production there resumed on Wednesday and the first early shift since the incident showed up for work that morning, a spokeswoman said.

“With the early service we are back at full capacity and can produce again,” was the response to the request. The employees are happy with the resumption of production, works council chairman Michaela Schmitz told RBB Inforadio. She feels great relief among the employees. “People are happy to be able to go back to work.”

Lost confidence?

The employees are probably also hoping for a commitment to Musk’s Grünheide location. Economic Affairs Minister Jörg Steinbach (SPD) said in the days that followed that confidence had been lost as a result of the attack. According to the minister, no negative consequences for the settlement are foreseen.

If all Brandenburg’s armed forces respond adequately – if the state government, the police and others restore the certainly damaged relationship of trust in the location – no consequences are to be expected, he recently emphasized. That was also the gist of the conversations he had with Tesla managers at the time.

Last Tuesday, previously unknown perpetrators set fire to a freely accessible electricity pylon in a field in eastern Brandenburg, which is part of the power supply for the car factory in Grünheide. The far-left Vulcan group said it was responsible for the attack. The federal public prosecutor’s office has taken over the investigation.

Ongoing protests

Very close to the factory, environmental activists are protesting against a planned expansion of the Tesla factory. The police will temporarily tolerate the camp with tree houses until Friday (March 15). With the occupation since the end of February, the ‘Stop Tesla’ initiative aims to prevent the forest from being cleared as part of an expansion of the factory site. The initiative said it had nothing to do with the attack.

The activists are preparing for a possible evacuation of the forest, which is owned by the state of Brandenburg. SPD faction leader Daniel Keller demanded on Friday that Interior Minister Michael Stübgen (CDU) and Environment Minister Axel Vogel (Greens) vacate the protest because it was private property. (sda/awp/dpa)