Wednesday, September 3
Brandenburg’s “Mr Tesla” forced to give up consulting job due to conflict of interest
As the former Minister of Economic Affairs, Jörg Steinbach (SPD) played a key role in obtaining planning permission for Tesla’s enormous Giga factory outside Berlin in Grünheide. He was also known to have a close personal relationship with Elon Musk – a closeness he maintained even after the tech billionaire came out as a supporter of Donald Trump, performed an on-stage Nazi salute, and openly backed the AfD in Germany (Steinbach has commented that while he has spent time “arguing” with Musk, he still values him as an innovator). Despite this controversial friendship, however, we might assume that Steinbach would keep a clear line between his political duties and outside interests. Right?
Under Brandenburg law, government ministers are barred from taking any employment directly related to their former position for two years after leaving office. For Steinbach, this restriction runs until 10 December 2026. Despite this, he took a consulting role with the commercial law firm CMS, which had advised both the state of Brandenburg and Tesla in matters related to the Giga-Berlin project. A government advisory body has now judged this consulting role to breach the Ministerial Act, and Steinbach has been asked to suspend his CMS-related work.
The former SPD minister has rejected any claim that he was seeking to benefit his favourite company, or his friend Musk, insisting he was simply acting as a “freelance consultant for technology issues”. In response to the government order, he expressed “regret” and told reporters he would “now analyse the reasoning… with my lawyer”.
