In a recent incident at Tesla’s Giga Berlin facility, four young men were taken into custody on October 22, 2024, after occupying and deliberately contaminating construction equipment. Local police removed the protesters from two excavators near the new Fanschleuse train station, where they had positioned themselves in the machines’ baskets.
Upon inspection, authorities discovered the protesters had deliberately defiled the equipment by relieving themselves in the excavators. A police spokesperson confirmed the contamination and noted that authorities are investigating whether the individuals had any prior criminal offenses or existing bans from the area.
The excavators, which Tesla uses for forest construction work, were rendered inoperable for several hours due to the protest action. Law enforcement officials believe the demonstrators’ primary goal was to impede Tesla’s ongoing construction efforts at the site.
This incident follows similar protest actions from recent weeks, where demonstrators occupied both an excavator and a tree within Tesla’s construction zone to oppose the facility’s expansion plans. The protests come in the wake of Grünheide’s local environment ministry’s October 15, 2024 decision to approve the initial phase of Tesla’s expansion plans for the Giga Berlin facility.
The police investigation is ongoing as authorities work to determine if the detained individuals had any connection to previous protest activities in the area.
