Munich’s Gasteig is being completely renovated; the plan for just a basic renovation is off the table. This is already clear before the city council meeting on December 20th, where the future of Europe’s largest cultural center will once again be decided. Because this Wednesday, Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) and Mayor Dominik Krause (Greens), as head of the supervisory board of Gasteig GmbH, agreed to this in a joint statement.
“Even in difficult economic times, we stand by our cultural institutions,” explains Reiter. The Gasteig continues to stand for “offering culture for everyone”. Munich wants to give the Gasteig “radiance” beyond the city again, says Krause, which is why a cheaper, basic renovation is not an option. “That would be a rejection of the future and is out of the question for me.” The winning design by Henn Architekten is now being implemented, including a state-of-the-art library, a glass cultural bridge and the new concert hall.
Due to the increase in construction costs for the renovation of the Gasteig, which should have started three years ago, doubts arose as to whether the city wanted to – and could – continue to pursue this comprehensive solution. Based on cost estimates that were calculated before the Corona crisis, politicians wanted to cap the general renovation at 450 million euros. But last year the city had not found a private investor who wanted to get involved.
The Free State is also struggling with cost increases for concert halls
The sum of a good 700 million euros is now circulating in the town hall. The Free State is also fighting for its concert hall project in the Werksviertel with a similar percentage increase in construction costs. Some therefore believed that the state government would move away from this and join the Gasteig. This proved to be a fallacy at the latest when the new coalition agreement was concluded between the CSU and the Free Voters, who wanted to implement their concert hall in a slimmed-down manner.
In the meantime, the city had once again examined whether a basic renovation of the Gasteig would be significantly cheaper than the general renovation associated with modernization. After all, the city of Munich has problems preparing its budget in accordance with the law. It threatens to reach a limit as early as 2026, after which it will no longer be able to take on any new debt. However, Gasteig GmbH had been emphasizing for years what now seems to be the consensus. The financial difference is so small that it is not worth changing course and re-planning accordingly. Many factors come into play, such as tax advantages, which apply to modernization measures but not to pure renovation.
The city has now apparently finally given up the search for a private investor, in which a lot of time was lost – which is particularly costly in the construction business. A municipal company is supposed to renovate the building complex, taking on a company from the construction industry as a partner. A so-called partnering model is intended to break the Gordian knot that has formed due to constant delays and the resulting cost increases. The supervisory board approved this plan at a meeting on Wednesday. According to the city leadership’s statements, a majority in the city council is considered certain.
The makeshift roof bar will likely have many more summers ahead of it
Nevertheless, the day when the people of Munich will be able to step on the old Gasteig again with new freshness is still a long way off. Because a time-consuming search begins again: the city also has to put out a tender for the partner model and then wait for the response. It will take years before the construction crews arrive. Anyone who asks around at the affected institutions such as the adult education center and library, the Philharmonic Orchestra or the town hall will not find any hope that the Gasteig will be ready for occupancy again this decade. The temporary roof bar and its temporary use will probably have many more summers ahead of it.
The opposition sees the reasons for this as homemade. “A lot of time was lost due to wrong decisions on the Gasteig. Green-Red moved the Gasteig into their own departments for political reasons, delaying the search for investors for years and ultimately causing it to fail,” says CSU parliamentary group leader Manuel Pretzl. But he also has a clear commitment to the big solution. “The Gasteig must be completely renovated in order to continue playing in the first league in the future.”
Stefanie Jenke, as Max Wagner’s successor and managing director of Gasteig München GmbH, is responsible for the location on Rosenheimer Straße as well as for the interim use and the interim in Sendling. She is still hopeful about the latest developments and tells the SZ: “The general renovation is the best solution for the Gasteig, for all institutes and for the future of culture in Munich. There is now a coordinated plan on how the project can be realized We hope that the urgently needed renovation can begin soon.”