Plans by Wolfgang Porsche, a billionaire heir of the luxury carmaker Porsche, to build a private tunnel and underground garage beneath his mansion on one of Salzburg’s most iconic hills have triggered widespread outrage in the Austrian city.
Local media recently revealed that Porsche had struck a deal in 2024 with Salzburg’s former conservative mayor, Harald Preuner, allowing him to drill an underground tunnel below his villa on the Kapuzinerberg.
The agreement saw Porsche paying €40,000 ($43,300) for rights to construct the tunnel and a garage capable of housing a dozen cars on city-owned land.
Currently, access to the mansion is via a steep and narrow road, which can become treacherous during colder months. However, news of the private tunnel has provoked strong criticism, particularly from politicians who argue that the city council was never informed about the arrangement.
Local Green leader Ingeborg Haller has led opposition to the project, calling it a "back-door deal" handled with a "very intransparent" process. She stressed that Salzburg, a UNESCO-listed city, is also home to a protected nature reserve, making such a development highly controversial. She further condemned the notion of “special treatment for the super-rich.”
In response to the backlash, Salzburg’s current Social Democratic mayor, Bernhard Auinger, appointed a court-certified expert to assess the deal. The report, made public this week, concluded that the compensation paid by Porsche was “appropriate.”
A Controversial Deal
Wolfgang Porsche purchased the historic Paschinger Schlössl villa, located near a Capuchin monastery on the forested hill, in 2020. The mansion was previously owned by Austria’s renowned Jewish writer Stefan Zweig, who lived there for 15 years before fleeing to Britain to escape Nazi persecution.
The deal with Preuner was finalised in early 2024, just before Auinger assumed office as mayor. While the former mayor was not legally required to inform the city council, Christian Hacker, head of the mayoral office, admitted that it "would have been more appropriate to inform the public about the project in advance."
"Whether the tunnel is in tune with the times and morally defensible is for others to judge," Hacker added.
The final decision on the project will rest with the city council, which is set to vote in mid-May. Approval of the underground garage would require a zoning plan change, and it remains unclear whether a majority will support it.
Contacted by AFP, a spokesperson for Wolfgang Porsche declined to comment, stating that the matter was a private issue unrelated to the Porsche company, which is a subsidiary of German automotive giant Volkswagen.
Wolfgang Porsche, 81, is the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the Austrian-born founder of the car company. He currently serves as the chairman of Porsche’s supervisory board.
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