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The combination of open spaces, bushes, and trees is an ideal biotope for wild animals, birds, and insects,” says Helling. “The Heck cattle are important for the ecosystem, because they keep the undergrowth in check. Suddenly, as if answering a silent summons, the cattle lift their heads and gallop off. The herd started off with a dozen or so animals but now numbers around seventy-five. It includes a number of powerful bulls, each weighing more than a ton, as well as fleecy calves just a few weeks old. Right in front of the two men, a group of Heck cattle with imposing horns is grazing. Here’s where he has arranged to meet Carsten Helling, who’s responsible for the compensation area’s maintenance. Schultze leans against a fence separating the pasture area from the driving grounds. One measurable result, for example, is the Turbienchen honey (a play on the German words for “turbine” and “little bee”) produced in the game park, more than four hundred kilograms of which were sold last year. It’s also home to Heck cattle, Exmoor ponies, and around three million bees-one way in which the sports-car maker seeks to preserve nature and the environment. The land was restored and is now used to experience Porsche models under off-road conditions. Since 2002 Porsche has cared for the 132 hectares as an ecological compensation area for its production site. The adjacent game preserve was a military training ground during the German Empire and was more recently used as a place where the National People’s Army of the German Democratic Republic prepared for armed conflict. More than six hundred Macans and Panameras are manufactured every day at this location in eastern Germany.
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This futuristic structure houses the customer center at the Porsche plant in Leipzig. On the horizon a UFO-shaped building, nicknamed the “Diamond” by Porsche employees, seems to stand on the point of a cone. When the wind shifts, the rumble of engines can be heard faintly in the distance. This terrain, which looks like something out of Africa, lies on the outskirts of Leipzig, bordered by freeways and industrial parks. Schultze peers through binoculars at two roebucks a few hundred meters away.įrom military training ground to off-road obstacle course
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This prompts Schultze to reminisce about the African savannah, before abruptly stopping and calling out, “Here, Kalle!” The dog breaks out of the undergrowth and comes straight to the hunter’s feet. Two red kites circle overhead in the deep blue sky. A chorus of birds rehearses the soundtrack for the emerging day. Hawthorn bushes form prickly islands on an expanse of matte green. The morning light slowly peels back the darkness from the contours of the land. Schultze strides rapidly through the grass after the eager hound. Schultze’s hunting dog Kalle, a mixed-breed German wirehaired pointer and Labrador, leaps eagerly out of the car and dives straight into the bush, his nose never far from the dew-covered ground. The triple-barreled shotgun has a special story-but that’ll have to wait. For Bertram Schultze, it’s the moment to shoulder his firearm. That’s what hunters call the first traces of dawn by which they can spot the presence of game. It’s shortly after six in the morning, and the dark of the night is giving way to shooting light. For Bertram Schultze it’s simply his preserve. This off-road terrain at Porsche’s Leipzig site is a remarkable natural habitat. A natural paradise for Heck cattle, wild ponies, and deer is also where Porsche customers can navigate their Cayenne and Macan.