“And Porsche said, there will be a hole”
In Frankfurt, the sports car manufacturer is being kicked out of the DAX. Things are going better at home with Porsche in Salzburg. There, Wolfgang Porsche is allowed to build a 500-meter-long private tunnel for himself and his cars through the heart of the city.
The Paschinger Schlössl is a villa-like building on the Kapuzinerberg, rising 640 meters high like the back of a humpback whale in the heart of Salzburg. It once belonged to the family of the writer Stefan Zweig until he sold it in 1937 because he no longer felt safe in Austria, which was increasingly dominated by National Socialism, and emigrated. It was acquired by a textile entrepreneur, whose heirs sold the property to Wolfgang Porsche five years ago. The current head of the Porsche dynasty, while spry, is still a proud 82 years old. And the road to the Schlössl is narrow, steep, and icy in winter – probably not suitable for a 911, and quite narrow for the Panamera too.
An engineering firm has drawn up the plans; the tunnel will likely be cut into the mountain rather than blasted. The cost is estimated at around ten million euros. However, experience shows that tunnel projects often turn out to be more expensive than expected. The Riederwald Tunnel in Frankfurt, the expansion of the Autobahn 66 in eastern Frankfurt, for example, recently increased in cost by one billion euros – but it's also 2.2 kilometers long. Wolfgang Porsche isn't deterred.
His assets are clearly well invested, so small withdrawals are no problem. The sports car manufacturer, which shares the same name as the billionaire and whose supervisory board is chaired by Wolfgang Porsche, currently has more worries than a potentially expensive tunnel. Profits are declining, and return targets have been repeatedly dropped.
Since its IPO in the fall of 2022, Porsche AG 's share price has almost halved. And just on Wednesday evening, Deutsche Börse announced that Porsche AG would be delisted from the top German stock exchange (DAX) on September 22. However, the tunnel project isn't expected to hinder this. On the contrary: For Wolfgang Porsche, there's good news coming from there.
Just one day after the Deutsche Börse's decision, the Salzburg City Planning Committee met on Thursday and approved the construction project. A broad majority from left to right were in favor; in the city council, only the Greens and the Communists, who don't drive Porsches anyway, opposed it – but to no avail.
Of course, the worthy planners of Mozart's city of Salzburg, which is now becoming a bit like Porsche's city, used strict administrative logic to bring about the decision: They are solely concerned with landscape and nature conservation. Because the Porsche cars will disappear into the mountain in the future, their "negative impact on the cityscape and landscape" will be lessened, and the tunnel will reduce the "traffic risk on the heavily frequented Stefan Zweig path" leading up to the Schlössl. The project will have a "positive effect on the potential danger from contact with other road users" – such as garbage collectors. All good reasons, then.
The affected properties under the mountain belong to the City of Salzburg. They were already transferred to Porsche in March 2024 through an easement agreement – in return for a one-time payment of €48,000. However, the legal debate surrounding the project has not yet been finally resolved. A report commissioned by the Green Party by law professor Karim Giese concludes: "The entire project is not eligible for approval."
The Kapuzinerberg is a nature reserve – a status that normally entails strict building regulations. "There is simply no legal right to a private garage and a tunnel in a protected area," emphasizes Ingeborg Haller, parliamentary group leader of the Green Party in Salzburg. Deputy Mayor Kay-Michael Dankl of the Communist Party has investigated the matter in detail and even cites supreme court rulings stating that parking spaces are not essential for residential use – "especially in a listed historic villa."
After the city, the state of Salzburg must now formally approve it. However, it's good practice there to adhere to the ideas of the local authorities, which would then clear the very last hurdle for the tunnel. The city's Green opposition party seems to have sensed this, as they have already announced that they will support residents in future appeals. "The project could become a case for the highest courts," says state parliament member Simon Heilig-Hofbauer. Posters denouncing the plan have already been painted and hung. "And Porsche said there would be a hole," reads one of them.
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