According to several sources, capitalist enterprises active in the
property sector that are presently pushing for a new underground
railway station and railway tunnels in Stuttgart are eager to
invest 10 billion Euros [about 10 billion US $] in the production
of prime office space, prime residential downtown residential
buildings and malls.*

In order to undertake this vast property speculation they must
acquire the areas now occupied by the Stuttgart central station
that was already illegally demolished in part, as well as the
acreage occupied by above ground railroad tracks, and the large
downtown park that Deutsche Bahn AG [German Railway, Inc.]
wants to destroy with the help of the police, felling the first 25 of
300 trees in the night of Sept.30/Oct.1, 2010 illegally under
police protection.**

The acreage destined for the envisioned property deal amounts
to approximately 100 hectares. An advertisement in the
Hamburg weekly, DER STERN, already tried to lure additional
investors, saying about the project quite openly that prime
downtown sites for construction would be created on thew
cleared acreage (“In bester Innenstadt-Lage entsteht auf den
freiwerdenden Gleisflächen ein nachhaltiges Neubaugebiet.”):
this was described in the ad as much more important than the
new underground central station („noch wichtiger“ than the
station).***

High-ranking politicians in the Baden-Wurttemberg state
government and in the governing CDU as well as close relatives
(spouses, quasi-spouses or ex-spouses) of such politicians seem
to be very interested in pushing the deal through. And this
perhaps because of possible improper involvement in the
speculative side of it. Thus, it was shown that Ms. Tanja
Goenner, the Christian Democrativ Minister for the
Environment, who supports the “Stuttgart 21 project” that
requires the cutting of 300 trees and the permanent destruction
of the large downtown park, was a member of a foundation with
so-called “urbanistic” goals (ironically called “Lebendige Stadt”
Stiftung, i.e. Lively or Livable Town Fundation) that is close to
the ECE property corporation. She stepped back from her
position in the foundation when this questionable connection
was made known to the public. Incidentally, ECE Project
Management GmbH & Co. KG has formed a consortium with
Bavarian Property Ltd. and STRABAG, Inc., and according to
one source, this consortium alone intends to invest 500 million
Euros in contruction that they want to produce on the coveted
acreage.

On Oct. 14, 2010, we could read in the press that until last week,
the mayor of Stuttgart, Mr. Schuster, another strong advocate of
the new project, was also sitting on the board of “Lebendige
Stadt” Foundation, with Ms. Goenner. Ms. Friederike Bayer,
whose permanent marriage-like relationship with Mr. Oettinger,
until very recently the prime minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg, is
also active in the Foundation. The Chairman of the Board of
Trustees [the so-called Kuratorium] of the Foundation is none
other than the ECE boss, Alexander Otto, a member of the Otto
clan, a dynasty of Hamburg capitalists probably worth several
billion dollars. According to MANAGER MAGAZINE, the
family owns more than 8 billion Euros which makes it one of the
ten richest families in Germany.
 

NOTES

* Even the ministry of transport recognized that the STUTTGART 21 project 
and the decision to build a new subterranean central station in that city is not 
dictated primarily by the professed need to realize the high-speed connection 
between Stuttgart and Ulm.
As the ministry pointed out when it refused the allocation of the substantial 
means which the proponents of the project has asked for, STUTTGART 21 
is primarily an urbanistic project.

**The illegality of these actions was established by the Stuttgart Administrative 
Court. (See the report in: "Ruege fuer die Deutsche Bahn", in: Sueddeutsche 
Zeitung , Oct.15 , 2010, p.6 – The Munich daily  has reported continually in a 
biased way in favor of the new project Stuttgart 21, however.).

*** Wolfgang POMEHN, „Raffe, raffe, Bahnhof baue / Die Spätzle-Connection:
Befürworter von Stuttgart 21 in Stiftung von Immobilienkonzern aktiv / [...]“, in: 
Die junge Welt, Oct.14, 2010, p.1 – Many detailsregarding the connection 
between politicians and big property corporations have been gleaned from this 
very informative article