Musk’s giant Tesla factory casts shadow on lives in a quiet corner of Germany

Politics of carmaker's owner has soured sentiments in Grunheide, south-east of Berlin, where the factory promised jobs and revitalisation

When Elon Musk advised Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) in elections last year, Manu Hoyer - who lives in the small town where the billionaire had built Tesla's European production hub - wrote to the state premier to complain.

How can you do business with someone who supports rightwing extremism?" she asked Dietmar Woidke, the Social Democrat leader of the eastern state of Brandenburg, who had backed the setting up of the Tesla Giga factory in Grunheide.