Andreas Hofmeir begins his short speech with understanding for Katja Wildermuth, the director of Bavarian Radio (BR). The station’s economic situation is difficult, “the director can only work within the framework that politics dictates.” And then comes Hofmeir’s big “but”.
A public broadcaster has “an educational mission,” continues the musician, tuba professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and former member of LaBrassBanda. But Hofmeir sees the fulfillment of this mission at risk: The cultural program of the radio station Bayern 2 is to be reformed and the historic “studio building” on the BR headquarters is scheduled for demolition. For Hofmair, the radio program in its current form and the studio construction form “a unique legacy that we have to save somehow.”
Hofmeir, who also plays two pieces with his partner, the organist and pianist Barbara Schmelz, is one of the more than 20 artists and speakers who will appear on Tuesday evening during a rally on the Rundfunkplatz and campaign for the preservation of the studio building – and again and again against the reform of the cultural program.
Around 150 people came to show solidarity with the request. In addition to Hofmeir and Schmelz, the wedding band, the harpist Evelyn Huber and the cabaret artist Holger Paetz will perform, among others. The singer and pianist Konstantin Wecker sent a greeting message.
“Culture needs space”: This slogan can be read at a rally for the preservation of the BR studio building in Munich.
(Photo: Peter Kneffel/dpa)
It’s a birthday celebration, says demo organizer Eva Demmelhuber, and the studio building was inaugurated 60 years ago to the day. It houses several larger studios for recordings and concerts with excellent acoustic quality, and there are also numerous radio studios and other recording rooms, for example for radio plays or readings.
Once the BR has completed the current move to Freimann, it will no longer need the studio building for broadcasting operations; it should be moved for economic reasons. It has been planned for some time to build a “media campus” with new buildings on the current BR main site and to rent out large parts of it.
But resistance has emerged against the demolition of the studio building, which the SZ reported on at the end of February. There is now also a “fire letter” to the BR management that more than 3,000 people have signed online; the first signatories include Gerhard Polt, Hans Well and Christian Gerhaher.
The BR studio building is also a place for concerts, like here at the “Puls Festival” in 2018.
(Photo: Steffi Rettinger)
In August, the BR said that an external report had shown that a renovation of the studio building would cost 300 million euros. As a result, the administrative board, chaired by State Parliament President Ilse Aigner (CSU), decided in July to continue with the demolition. This is possible because the State Office for Monument Preservation did not classify the studio building as a monument after an examination – a decision that opponents of demolition sharply criticize. A demonstration banner calls on Bavaria’s top monument conservationist to show “insight” and put the building under protection.
“It would be madness to demolish a building of this unique quality,” says Konstantin Wecker in his welcoming address. Shortly afterwards, harpist Evelyn Huber added: “We musicians would lose a piece of home.”
The tuba player Andreas Hofmeir pointed out in his speech that the studio building would offer “so many unique opportunities after the end of broadcasting operations, it could be used much more intensively”, for example by the music college, which is constantly running out of space, and by the independent music scene or for educational projects. “To build a building with these possibilities,” says Hofmeir, “would no longer be financially possible today. But here it is already.”