From
Olaf Przybilla, Erlangen
The chances of preserving larger parts of the historical sanatorium and nursing home in Erlangen (HuPfla) are getting smaller and smaller. On Thursday, the city council decided against a compromise proposal submitted by five parties. An emergency application provided for “at least an additional small piece of the facade” of the remaining wing of the building to be preserved “as a demolition edge”.
With votes from the CSU and SPD, however, the majority of the Erlangen Council voted to continue the previous plans. Hundreds of patients starved to death in the “sanatorium” during the Nazi era. The crime scenes were mainly in the basement of the two wings of the building. The second wing is also to be demolished soon in favor of university research institutions.
The alternative proposal brought forward by the Greens would have aimed at “irritation”. In discussions with the state building authority and the university hospital, proposals from the Auschwitz Committee and the Jewish community should also be examined. Both reject the demolition plans. The Jewish community has proposed that the remaining basement of a starvation station be preserved and to be provided with a green flat roof.
The city council majority, on the other hand, fears that the construction of research buildings could be delayed. If the demolition edge were not vertical but inclined, this would “trigger a renewed need for replanning”. Mayor Florian Janik (SPD) points out that the current plan is already a compromise. This envisages setting up a place of remembrance in the central avant-corps of the building plus “appendixes”. After weighing all interests, it was determined that the planned buildings could not be realized without further demolition “or only with the acceptance of unacceptable disadvantages”. The state government also recently received a petition from the Auschwitz Committee to stop the demolition, rejected.