No, it really isn’t easy for Triton. Not only did they turn the water off years ago, but now the sea god is sitting in his scallop shell behind a construction fence, and on top of that, someone has a bicycle lock wrapped around his wrist. The sandstone figure at the southwest end of the fountain on Orleansplatz looks correspondingly gloomy – which of course goes well with the dreary semicircle on which Triton’s gaze rests. Because the Orleansplatz is among the Munich squares what the SpVgg Greuther Fürth is in the Bundesliga. Or to put it in the words of Maximilian Seidel: “The square has degenerated into a place that actually no longer serves the citizens.”
Seidel grew up on Orleansplatz; As managing director of the Hotel Stadt Rosenheim, he looks down from his office every day at the semicircle. “Orleansplatz is simply not attractive to the neighborhood. It is not pleasant to sit there and it is used as a shortcut at best.” In fact, despite the sunshine, most of the benches are orphaned even on this October day. There is rubbish along the paths and under the trees. And the construction site at the fountain, which has not been bubbling for five years, does the rest of the appearance. In short, only the pigeons feel good at Orleansplatz, fluttering around in swarms – also because of the tireless feeders.
The Orleansplatz was intended as the “lovable center” of the French Quarter, as a “small district park” and “real enrichment for Haidhausen and for our entire city”. This is how Lord Mayor Georg Kronawitter wrote it in a brochure on the redesign of the square after the end of the construction work at the Ostbahnhof underground station. In October 1988, Orleansplatz, which had been pimped up for 8.2 million marks, was opened – including an 86-meter-long fountain, the splashing of which was supposed to keep the noise of the busy Orleansstrasse away. Before the renovation, the square was even greener and “much nicer for many,” says Andreas Micksch, who lives not far from here and sits on the Au-Haidhausen district committee for the CSU. But at that time the city wanted to create a place where events could also take place – so instead of lawns, so-called water-bound ceilings were created, i.e. solid sandy areas.
“Today you would probably not do it like that anymore,” says Micksch. There have been considerations for years as to how Orleansplatz could be redesigned. Any thought games were put on hold by the plans for the second trunk line, which provided for a new stop at Orleansplatz. In the meantime, however, the railway has rescheduled: Now the stop is to be built on the other side of the track on Friedenstraße. Which of course does not mean that the way is now free for a renovation of Orleansplatz. After all, there are at least three more hurdles. First, Orleansplatz is copyrighted; The architects who designed the redesign in the 1980s would have to agree to any changes. Second, Orleansplatz could still become a construction site if the planned tram to Ramersdorf and Neuperlach ends at Ostbahnhof. Third: In times when Corona has ordered the city to cut costs, the millions required for a redesign are unlikely to be loosened so quickly.
The history of Orleansplatz goes back to the construction of the Franzosenviertel, which started in 1871 with the opening of the “Braunauer Bahnhof in the suburb of Haidhausen” – today’s Ostbahnhof. On the one hand, Orleansplatz formed the basis for the symmetrically laid out city quarter along the axes of Weißenburger Strasse, Wörthstrasse and Belfortstrasse. On the other hand, the semicircle was a “classic station forecourt”, says local researcher Hermann Wilhelm, who has written several books on the history of Haidhausen. He himself still remembers Orleansplatz as a “very beautiful place with benches, flower beds and trees, where there was a lot of life,” says the 72-year-old. At that time, Orleansplatz did not have to shy away from being compared with neighboring Bordeauxplatz or Weißenburger Platz.
At the time, the former large ornamental fountain of the Munich Glass Palace, designed by August von Voit, stood in the center of the semicircle. The fountain was set up on Orleansplatz in 1901; In the 1970s it then had to give way in the course of a redesign and the construction of the S-Bahn and moved to Weißenburger Platz. In the meantime, the big cut on Orleansplatz was made with the construction of the underground station at Ostbahnhof, says Wilhelm. As a result, Orleansplatz became a major construction site for years before it was redesigned in the mid-1980s as a result of an architectural competition. The hope at the time that the square would develop into a place to stay and a meeting point for the district after the renovation was never really fulfilled, says Hermann Wilhelm. “Since then, Orleansplatz has not been as busy as it used to be.” stä
“The city has no money at the moment,” stated Sabine Hofstetter from the building department in the meeting of the BA planning subcommittee. Correspondingly, she sees “currently not the big moment of change” with the subject of Orleansplatz. One or the other BA member had little hope after the building department had announced that it would take part in the subcommittee meeting to talk about the “renovation of Orleansplatz”. However, this will only happen superficially, says Hofstetter. From April onwards, the paved paths are to be repaired for 800,000 euros, the water-bound ceilings renovated, ten trees planted and benches and rubbish bins replaced. In addition, the fountain on Orleansplatz will go back into operation in the spring, announced Hofstetter.
“I think it’s basically good that something is being done now,” says Maximilian Seidel. However, he does not want to accept the statement that there is not enough money for a more far-reaching transformation. Together with Christian Horn from Kaufring on Orleansplatz, he had thought for a long time how the semicircle could be made more attractive, says Seidel. “The square needs an attraction, for example a small café in the middle, and more green so that people can sit down and have a coffee or children can play there.” Seidel and Horn want to present their ideas to the district committee this week and thus bring new momentum to the debate about redesigning Orleansplatz. “I just don’t know anyone who finds this place attractive,” says Maximilan Seidel. “And I haven’t given up hope that the situation there can be improved.”