The location is excellent. It’s only a few minutes’ walk from Schwabing’s Hohenzollernplatz to Herzogstraße 86, a “four-story building with a Gothic facade decor” from 1899, as the house is described in the Bavarian monument atlas. Because of its optics towards the street, the front building is a listed building. But there is also something worth seeing inside: a wooden staircase with ornate railings, for example, colorful tiles in the hallway and herringbone parquet in the living rooms. In addition, historical apartment doors with mailbox slot. And not to forget: green tiled stoves. Everything from when it was built. But now a renovation project is calling this ensemble and the coexistence of the people living there into question. Because both the eleven apartments in the front building and five in the rear building are to be renovated and remodeled as well.
Marvin Lüben, Constanze Ziegler and Giovanni Gabai like to live in the house. They love the atmosphere and the open communication between tenants. Because of the large apartments, which are allocated room by room, both the front and the rear building have the character of a dormitory. The advantage: the rents, although expensive per square meter, remain affordable. Also for young people like her.
In the course of the renovation, attic extensions, extensions of balconies and a facade lift as well as a change of use from commercial to residential in the rear building are under discussion. This can be seen from the drafts that were presented to the local politicians in western Schwabing for the hearing.
The long-term landlady passed away in 2020, and since October 2021 the property has been owned by Thurner Verwaltung GmbH, based in Munich, and Herzog Hausverwaltung GmbH, based in Pöcking, in a community of heirs. The community of heirs, represented by the almost 22-year-old Vincent Dowdy, Managing Director of Herzog Hausverwaltung GmbH, is indicated as the client. And from Christian Lealahabumrung, Managing Partner of Rock Capital Group. The fact that Lealahabumrung is involved in the project leads the tenants to suspect “a case of share deal” – a construction in which investors use a legal tax loophole to save on real estate transfer tax. However, the community of heirs contradicts this: “Neither shares were sold to the Rock Capital Group nor was there a share deal,” is the answer to a corresponding SZ request.
Like a flat share: the tenants Giovanni Gabai, Constanze Ziegler and Marvin Lüben in front of the main building (from left).
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The tenants officially know nothing about the considerations to this day. “We were only informed of a new property management to which we should transfer in the future,” says Marvin Lüben. It was therefore a “shock” for the residents to follow the discussion of the plans at the district committee meeting. “The floor plans in a listed building are to be changed, they want to tear down walls and redistribute the apartments,” explains the 31-year-old. “It would be radically different than it is now, in no way more suitable for shared flats.” The result: “We would have to get out.” At least that’s how social worker Ziegler sees it.
The residents do not complain about the repairs, on the contrary: They say that a renovation is “urgently necessary”. The heating alone: It’s cold in Lüben’s room, because when the man from Schwabing turns on the radiator he’s supposed to use to heat his home, he hears “the electricity meter buzzing, it’s turning so fast”. So he rarely uses the controller. The temperatures at his neighbor Constanze Ziegler are even chillier than those of the physicist, who now works for an environmental protection organization. The windows in the 12-square-meter room that the 25-year-old lives in are leaking, and she would have to provide heat with an electric heating plate. “But it eats up so much electricity that I’d rather leave it out.”
Whether the rear building is also a monument is currently being examined.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The fact that a renovation is necessary is not disputed by the residents either.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
The roof is also an issue. “A few years ago,” says Lüben, “the plaster flaked off the chimney.” The chunks had penetrated the outer skin, since then it has been raining into the house. The holes in the roof are so big, “you can see the stars at night”.
The plans, however, criticize the tenants, focus on far more than consolidation; they go “in the direction of luxury refurbishment”. If the conversions were implemented, the house would change its character. “Basic housing for students, young professionals and people with low incomes who keep the city running would then be gone.” And with that, another piece of the charm that makes Schwabing what it is.
However, it is not only the residents of Herzogstraße 86 who are worried about their future. The project also threatens the existence of a goldsmith who has had his workshop in the back building for 27 years. The “Goldhannes” is an institution in the district: he offers workshops for forging wedding rings, but also works for other goldsmiths in Munich, for whom he casts workpieces. Johannes Heinrich, as the 54-year-old’s real name is, has already made the fittings for a clock for the Green Vault in Dresden and restored spare parts for a chandelier in the throne room of a European royal family. Now everything that he has built up over decades could be liquidated in favor of an apartment. His lease expires in May 2024, and nobody has spoken to him either. He thinks it’s “terrible”. Especially since he can’t just find suitable replacement premises somewhere else. “They just leave me hanging in the air,” he scolds.
The community of heirs is currently examining the options
For the community of heirs, on the other hand, everything is just a preliminary request “to clarify the possibilities of creating additional living space”. One in which “the expansion of empty storage areas is in the foreground”. “Only when a result is available, all technical issues have been checked and other considerations have been made,” argue the owners, “can we inform the tenants in a meaningful way. Anything else would just be a source of uncertainty”.
Unfortunately, they “can’t say yet” whether the plans will “develop in the direction of partial renovations, an expansion of the roof storage system or a holistic renovation”. The increased construction costs and interest rates should also be included in the considerations. And it is not yet clear that Goldhannes will have to leave. The requested change of use from commercial to living space “does not mean that this will also be implemented”.
In any case, Westschwabing’s local politicians have rejected the project in its current form. They want the goldsmith’s manufactory to be “maintained in this location for the long term” and individual elements of the existing building, such as the stairwell in the back building, to be protected. The rear building has already been inspected by the Lower Monument Protection Authority and the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, but the decision is still pending.
The tenants have already announced that they will fight “to the end” to keep their living space. “And if I have to chain myself to the excavator”, says Marvin Lüben.