You can only dream of a carefree visit to the beer garden at the moment, but in Harlaching again with the prospect of future fulfillment: After the owners and the local building commission (LBK) were unable to agree on the plans to renovate the Menterschwaige on the Isar high bank for months, a revised building application is now available, who designed a controversial extension to the east of the beer garden to be smaller and therefore has a good chance of obtaining approval.
In the spring, the new owner of the Menterschwaige, the “Qcoon Real Estate”, announced that they wanted to renovate the technically outdated interior of the listed manor. At the same time, the disordered collection of sales stands in the beer garden was to be combined in an eastern transverse building, with additional space for 22 guest rooms, for example for wedding guests.
The licensing authority had little objection to the interior renovation. The two-storey new building framing the beer garden to the east, on the other hand, seemed to the LBK oversized and incompatible with the 123-year-old main wing of the manor, even if project manager Bastian Große Halbuer had tried to loosen it up with an ensemble of staggered gables.
Some chestnuts have to be felled
The current variant is around a third smaller. Große Halbuer speaks of a single-storey pavilion, which is now intended exclusively to bundle the serving and sales stands. The guest rooms initially planned here are now to be set up in the main building. Otherwise, its interior renovation is mainly aimed at contemporary fire protection and hygiene standards in the kitchen area. The client had refused to renovate the interior without additional construction as it was not economically feasible.
There is space for 1,800 people in the beer garden.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Tenant Christian Schottenhamel, known as the Nockherberg and Wiesn host, was also not happy with the existing hut village in the beer garden. The Harlaching district committee could therefore have made friends with the extension more than the LBK, but was concerned about the trees in the beer garden.
In fact, some heavily attacked chestnuts have to be felled, but in the long term the Menterschwaige is to be “secured as a beer garden under a thick canopy of leaves through targeted tree management”, assures Qcoon company spokesman Ralf Kunkel. Aligned with the historic tree grid of the 1,800-seat garden, dead trees are to be replaced and new ones planted.
The client is holding out the prospect of a one-piece plan that is compatible with residents, after he has also bought the “Lola-Montez-Haus” in the south-west of the ensemble, which was previously operated separately as a festival location. The fact that the annex, also known as the “Swiss House” because of its alpine style, actually served Ludwig I and his unpopular Gspusi as a discreet love nest can be considered an effective advertising legend, as the house was probably built decades later. What is certain, however, is that party guests have had a blast here in recent years – at least in the ears of the neighbors, who can now hope for a quieter use.