From the dream: The ex-multibillionaire René Benko filed for personal bankruptcy as a sole proprietor at the Innsbruck regional court on March 6th. And for months now, Hamburg has had a ruined building as its new landmark – once again.
Anyone approaching the Hanseatic city from the south on the motorway or by train will see, after the bridges over the Norderelbe, an almost 100 meter high concrete frame, the lower floors of the Elbtower.
What was planned as a 245-meter-high eye-catcher with a viewing platform turns out to be the most striking symbol of the financial collapse of the Tyrolean René Benko: The shell of the building is just as affected by a construction halt, as are dozens of other Sigma Group real estate projects that have initially failed.
No crane turns anymore
The cities are mainly affected by the standstill of the construction sites in their centers. Benko liked to speculate with his investors on properties in prime locations. There are now gaps in the heart of the cities. Passers-by walk along the scaffolded facades of historical architecture or along construction fences, behind which the areas of demolished buildings lie fallow.
The Galeria shopping temples are also part of the Sigma Group’s network of companies, which is difficult to understand even for insolvency administrators. Many former Karstadt and Herti department stores had to close down in droves and degenerated into lost places in the pedestrian zones. The insolvencies of the Sigma companies are accelerating the desolation of German city centers.
In the photo series we take a tour of just a few selected ruins of the Benko castles in the air in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin.
Also take a look at the photo series about the luxury hotel in Benko’s “Golden Quarter” in Vienna: “Bathe in gold bars”
https://www.stern.de/reise/service/ratgeber-hotels/park-hyatt-vienna–wiens-neues-luxushotel-6713242.html