Chassis engineers, aerodynamicists, specialists in engines and batteries - experts from numerous disciplines work on the Mercedes test site in Immendingen. But none is as exotic as Alexander Zonta's. Because his job is literally only marginally related to cars.
He owes his job to around 100 sheep that live on the former military training area and are part of the sophisticated environmental plan. Because Daimler, too, has built 200 kilometers of new roads here for 100 million euros, built workshop and administration buildings, plowed off-road slopes through the hills or paved drift or handling areas up to the horizon, there are almost endless heaths, meager or orchards, hedges and forests, all of which are to be preserved. And while the works security has hermetically sealed off the area for people with meter-high fences, they even built their own wilderness bridges, through which foxes and rabbits not only come in to say goodnight. Even the first lynx feel at home there again now.
Sheep since university
At 59 years old, Zonta is the only shepherd in Daimler's service, but cannot make a living from it himself. Even if he spends at least two hours with his flock every morning and evening, sheep farming is a hobby for him. It started early when the trained Walldorf teacher and landscape gardener took over the sponsorship of four sheep at the university, which at one point were too many. This has meanwhile grown to around 150 animals, with which he has grazed parts of the Black Forest for years for the Lower Nature Conservation Authority of the region. When Daimler then took over the former military training area in Immendingen and converted it into a test site, it came into play - especially since strict nature conservation requirements apply to the area, even during ongoing testing.
"Of course you can also maintain the meadows, forests and heather areas on the site by machine," admits Zonta. "But that is extremely time-consuming and very expensive." His sheep are not only cheaper, but also better, eat not only the grass, but also the bushes and thus prevent desertification: "They are born landscape gardeners," says the shepherd, while his gaze slides over the rolling hills in front of the distant Black Forest panorama in search of the first fresh grass of the season.
Llamas are also there
And they have plenty to do on the site. So far, only 10 of the more than 500 hectares of the area are official pasture areas, but the sheep, which Zonta knows by name, have to chew properly. And they are not alone in this: to protect against the many foxes and birds of prey that have returned to the former military training area, he mixed six llamas with the herd. Large and terrifying, they stand between the sheep and the very sight of them scares away any attacker. “And if a fox or even a wolf should try, they wouldn't have a chance,” Zonta is convinced.
His sheep are still on winter break, most of the time they are in the barn on the edge of the country road circuit and only occasionally graze on one of the dry meadows around them. But in May at the latest, the official grazing begins again and Zonta leads them up to the site, pegs one of the poor meadows and lets the 120 animals do their job. And every time they move, there is even a short test run and the prototypes take a break so that the herd can safely cross the streets.
Extra light sheep
Just like the prototypes are around them, the sheep are of a special kind: Because the shepherd is not after their meat or their wool and even now at Easter no lamb has to give its life for a good roast, but Zonta only the landscape protection in Makes sense, he wants to go back to the original sheep. Because with its 40 to 60 kilograms that is only half as heavy and therefore puts less strain on the floor. To do this, he has his own mouflon ram, which leads a correspondingly fulfilled love life and which turns evolution back a few chapters with each new generation of sheep: while the future is moving on the streets of the test site, things are going on in the meadows around it So year after year a little further into the past. “But it will probably take a decade or two before we are back with the primeval sheep from the past,” says Zonta, and he also hopes for a little more free time. Because while he still has to shear the modern breeding sheep regularly, the wild animals change their fur by themselves. The corona pandemic of all things has already given him a little relief. Because while everyone is groaning about the lockdown and complaining about homeschooling, he is happy about his young assistant Noel, who got stuck on a Sunday walk and now comes by every day during his digital school hours to check on the animals.
Here the herd from the stable of the real shepherd and there the army of developers from the department of the real shepherd - in Immendingen they maintain a peaceful coexistence: Not only that there has never been an accident with the animals and no involuntary moose - or sheep test. The sheep haven't even raised their heads for a long time when a formation of AMG cars with thundering eight-cylinders flies past on the high-speed oval next to the pasture. Especially since this is becoming less and less the case anyway. Because the more electric cars Mercedes puts on the road, the quieter it gets here in the hills above Immendingen - and the sheep no longer need that thick skin.