The Munich City Youth Hostel has been welcoming guests again for a few weeks. Visitors enter the new building through the belly of an electric guitar – the long, glass entrance allows the futuristic-looking lobby to be flooded with light. However, the flagship of the Bavarian Youth Hostel Association at Winthirplatz in Neuhausen is not yet fully built.
Just looking at the concrete steps of the curved outside staircase inside shows that the house is still a construction site. “We were able to welcome the first guests on June 9, about a year late,” says association spokesman Marko Junghänel. “But only in the new building. The opening of the old building is planned for next summer.”
As with many other construction projects, the reason for the delay is the corona pandemic and the resulting delivery problems with building materials such as wood. On the other hand, the company responsible for the loft conversion had to file for bankruptcy – and because the youth hostel is a non-profit organization, the job had to be put out to tender again.
Just looking at the concrete steps reveals: there is still a lot to do here.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Hostel manager Peter Krausnick can currently only occupy half of the new building.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
But that’s not all: Four weeks before the opening, there was water damage on the fourth floor, the moisture found its way through the building down. “That’s why only 50 percent of the new building is currently occupied,” explains hostel manager Peter Krausnick. The drying devices are running in the rooms affected by the leaked water, but the 58-year-old cannot say how long the renovation will take. “That would be reading coffee grounds”. After all, the 39 rooms with a capacity of around 120 beds that are currently available are fully booked.
The new extension actually offers accommodation for 304 guests. These include two-, four- and six-bed rooms for families and groups such as school classes, choirs or sports clubs. All with shower and toilet. Plus the so-called dorms, dormitories with ten or eleven beds, which are mostly booked by backpackers. Before the pandemic, these travelers made up the majority of bookings, but now only a few guests with large backpacks arrive at the inner-city hostel.
The costs rise to 37 million euros
Due to the water damage, there are no online bookings. “That’s why we’re now using the dorms for school classes, but we’re only using half of them,” says Krausnick. “Our maxim is to make it as comfortable for the guests – with what we can offer at the moment.” Not all visitors react in the same way to the current situation. “Some people are bothered by the incompleteness, others not,” says the hostel manager.
The young and old guests should feel comfortable, says the manager.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Some are bothered by the unfinished, others not.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
According to Junghänel, the youth hostel didn’t really have a choice anyway, “after all, we have to earn money to service the loans”. Because the project, originally calculated with an investment sum of 31 million euros, will cost significantly more than planned due to the delay and the increase in the price of the building material. According to the spokesman, 37 million euros as of today.
The focal points that will one day define the young people’s district between Hirschgarten and Rotkreuzplatz can already be seen today. Pictures of music greats like Freddie Mercury and Donna Summer hang on the walls on the ground floor alongside sharp-tongued lyricists like Gerhard Polt or Franz Xaver Kroetz. The corridors on the upper floors are decorated with lyrics from songs.
Sound showers are yet to be installed
And the ten conference rooms are also named after musicians: Carl Orff, the Philharmoniker, Konstantin Wecker or the Spider Murphy Gang. “We are a house that is committed to promoting culture,” says Krausnick. “We hired a cultural educator especially for this.” Workshops are planned, for example how to create a song, work as a DJ or rehearse dances. A recording studio is already being built, but the technology is still missing.
An overnight stay with breakfast costs between 35 and 55 euros.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
Many guests appreciate the prime location close to the Olympic Park, the Hirschgarten and Nymphenburg Palace.
(Photo: Robert Haas)
A dance hall, complete with parquet floor, mirrors and poles, is also in the making. And there will also be a black light theater in the future. For groups of children and young people such as choirs, for example, according to the hostel manager, the youth hostel is the ideal rehearsal location. Especially since classics such as a romping room for the youngest guests and a room with table football, table tennis and a Playstation for the youngsters are also planned for the house. Both in the old building.
Junghänel also refers to sound showers that are yet to be installed: Loudspeakers hanging from the ceiling in niches that look like lamps and deliver acoustic information about artists. “The content is ready, the devices only have to be installed.”
What follows after that? “We’re now gathering experience of where the interests lie, and then we’ll tailor our offer,” says Peter Krausnick. One thing about this location can hardly be topped anyway: the location. Close to the Olympic Park, the Hirschgarten, Nymphenburg Palace and soon also not far from the new Biotopia natural history museum. An overnight stay with breakfast in the Munich City Youth Hostel costs between 35 and 55 euros, depending on the room. If you book half-board, you add another 8.90 euros.