A year ago there was a fire in the student town, in the basement of the “Red House”. A resident was found in the smoky hallway on the fourth floor, she died. Her friends and fellow students remember her and have put up photos and candles in a niche in the settlement. It’s a hidden place of sadness, in a sad place. Sadness is spreading in the student town in Freimann. Three large houses around the memorial site are empty, and the fourth will also be completely cleared in a few weeks. Almost 1500 cheap places in halls of residence are then missing, and that in an expensive city like Munich.
Anyone who sets out to fathom the vacancy will find themselves in a ghost town. Hardly anyone can be seen in the square between the four large houses. But there is a lot of rubbish lying around, in the bushes, in puddles, in the basement exits. This part of the Stusta, the “New Town”, looks run down. If you want to talk to those responsible in the student union, you first hit a wall: No, he is not available, the press spokesman says. The manager answers the phone, but hangs up before a question can be asked. Only written questions, only written answers.
When will which house be renovated and habitable again? Where does the necessary money come from? Everything unclear. And what does the fire protection report for the two largest buildings say that the student union had prepared after the fire? Were defects discovered? The spokesman writes that the decision to empty the houses was not based on the report and not on fire protection deficiencies, but “on a comprehensive overall assessment of the structural and technical condition of the building”. You would like to read the report yourself, but the Studentenwerk says no. There is insufficient public interest.
You hardly want to believe it. A young woman dies of smoke inhalation, fire protection experts arrive, whereupon the student union decides to quickly empty the largest of the houses with a good 600 living spaces. All this happens in a residential complex that belongs to an institution under public law, i.e. is in public ownership. And then such an important report remains closed? There will probably still be a lot to ask, to discuss and to report in view of the 1000+ apartments that will probably remain vacant in the Stusta for years (SZ Plus).
THE DAY IN MUNICH
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