Many people in Bavaria have little idea about monument protection, but at least they have a clear stance on it: The best thing to do is to push the old Glump and Graffel away so that there is peace. Exceptions to this are churches, palaces and castles. Nobody would think of moving the pilgrimage church of the Holy Trinity in Waldsassen, for example. Or the Regensburg Cathedral. But crooked farmhouses, farms or rotten barns are primarily considered a nuisance, unless they are in a prime location on Lake Tegernsee.
Industrial monuments have an even harder time: The Maxhütte steelworks in the Upper Palatinate has now been almost completely demolished, even though Bavaria’s industrialization began there 160 years ago. But the few monument protectors who had recognized the cultural value of the Maxhütte were unable to cope with the mixture of political ignorance and rust. In Völklingen an der Saar, the metallurgical plant was declared a World Heritage Site, in Sulzbach-Rosenberg the last remaining facilities are falling into disrepair.
Another era of the industrial age is coming to an end in Bavaria these days: the Isar 2 nuclear power plant, one of the most powerful reactors in the world, is going offline. The system will then be “dismantled”, as the authorities say. Nothing should remain of it, except for a few poor exhibits for the Landshut City Museum. The question of whether a decommissioned nuclear power plant could possibly have the character of a monument has so far been dismissed as absurd and not even remotely discussed with the requisite seriousness.
The striking dome of the reactor building is almost predestined for preservation. With its two-meter-thick concrete walls, unlike a steel works, it would not be in need of renovation, at least for the next 2000 years – sees the Pantheon in Rome. Like the Maxhütte, the reactor building stands for a whole era in Bavaria with all its contradictions. Under the dome, future generations could debate which was the bigger mistake: going nuclear or phasing out nuclear power? And if they don’t feel like it, they could always grow mushrooms where the reactor once stood.