How much fun is it to go swimming in the Munich baths? If you are lucky enough to get hold of a city apartment, does the rent remain affordable? And how are you cared for if you eventually need a place in a nursing home? From childhood to old age: the city often takes care of the banal, but also the existential questions of everyday life. After all, it not only consists of the city council and many authorities, but also has a number of subsidiaries with billions in sales and billions in value.
They are headed by managers, some of whom earn significantly more than Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) with his annual salary of over 180,000 euros. They shape the life of the city and are ultimately chosen by the city council. Sometimes it happens quietly, sometimes with heaves and stabs. More top jobs are being reassigned than ever before. An overview:
Reside
Two become one: in just under a year, the two housing associations GWG and Gewofag are to merge. From 2024 onwards there will only be one company called “Münchner Wohnen”. With a total of almost 70,000 apartments, the municipal company will become the fourth largest municipal housing association in Germany. The management should consist of three people.
Klaus-Michael Dengler, the current speaker of the Gewofag management, has already expressed an interest. The SPD wants to fill another post, the head of housing management and social services, with its parliamentary group leader Christian Müller. He is a trained social worker and currently works as a department head for day-care centers at Munich Caritas.
Criticism of the planned personnel comes from the opposition: “A political appointment to the management post by a – with all due respect – absolutely unrelated person” would jeopardize the merger project, “a more suitable person is needed,” said the ÖDP/Munich-List faction. The third member of the management team of the new “Münchner Wohnen” could be Doris Zoller, an architect with a doctorate and currently managing director of Gewofag.
elderly care
Nine old people’s and nursing homes, four homes for the elderly, plus home care: the employees of the Münchenstift take care of thousands of senior citizens in the city. In the summer, the previous managing director Siegfried Benker will retire. He will then have managed the municipal company for more than ten years. After many years in town hall politics and as leader of the Greens parliamentary group, and the great responsibility he bears as managing director of the Munich Foundation, he is “fine with handing over responsibility to others,” says Benker.
The Greens have the right to propose a successor. Renate Binder is emerging as a possible favourite. The 57-year-old heads the “Municipal Health Planning and Coordination” department in the health department and sits on the Sendling-Westpark district committee for the Greens. She is a trained nurse and has studied health and social management. The management of the Munich Foundation describes her as a “dream job” and confirms that she has applied.
Eco and heat transition
The most powerful and largest corporation in municipal hands are the municipal utilities. Whoever sets the direction here also governs the city. The bosses decide how much heating and electricity cost, how often and how reliably the subways and trams run, and what happens to the bathrooms. That is why, of course, there is a hard political struggle to fill the top posts, and two positions are currently being reassigned.
The Greens and the SPD have pushed through in the supervisory board that the top floor is expanded to include a manager for regional renewable energies. The position is to be awarded through a call for tenders. The Greens have the right to choose. They assert that there are no prior agreements. The mission is clear: accelerate the heat transition, promote geothermal energy!
The Greens are thus gaining more influence over the top management of the public utility company, which has so far been considered the domain of the SPD. The top boss Florian Bieberbach is a social democrat, in the structures there is a close proximity to the SPD. Former city councilor Christian Amlong, for example, has found a middle management position in the company after a somewhat unfortunate excursion as managing director of GWG.
Shortly before Christmas, the supervisory board also announced that the contract of the top manager for personnel, real estate and the bathrooms, Werner Albrecht, would not be extended. This expires on October 31 of this year. Personnel representatives, Greens and SPD are said to have voted unanimously on both personnel issues, alone neither the coalition nor the employee representatives would have had a majority. For the opposition, it smells like a deal: Green-Red gets a managing director for the Ökowende and the employees get a new, agreeable head of human resources.
health
The Munich Clinic with its 7,000 employees in Schwabing, Neuperlach, Bogenhausen, Harlaching and on Thalkirchner Strasse form the urban backbone of medical care in Munich. A radical new beginning is taking place at the top of the group. All three managing directors should or must be replaced, although the company for the five municipal hospitals is currently in a severe economic crisis.
From the previous management trio around the boss Axel Fischer, nobody will remain in office. Fischer himself surprisingly announced shortly before Christmas that he did not want to extend his contract and would like to retire this summer if possible. He was hired in 2014 from a consulting role as chief and renovator of the city hospitals. His selection was not considered politically motivated at the time.
This time, too, there are no signs of party tactics in the search for the new top management. The new managing director for the commercial area was found in-house and is already in office. Tim Guderjahn succeeds Dietmar Pawlik, who retired at the end of October 2022 for reasons of age. The head of human resources, Susanne Diefenthal, will probably not receive a new contract either. This is considered agreed by the city council and the supervisory board, but has not yet been officially announced.