In the end, there was not much missing from the on-site visit in Valepp and the delegation from the Bavarian Cultural Heritage Foundation would have submitted a membership application to Tegernsee restaurateur Johannes Rabl and national goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Rabl would probably have signed it on the spot, and if necessary in Neuer’s name. The two have campaigned massively for trust at the on-site visit at the forester’s house – Rabl with constant assurances and Neuer already by virtue of his presence. The two may deserve that trust.
They have plans that sound good and they have the money to do it. But what happens if these plans don’t work out, i.e. if they don’t go into the black for the foreseeable future? That will then not only be the problem of the investors, but will fall back on the state forests. And therein lies the basic problem of the whole constellation: that money must be earned with the forester’s lodge, because the Free State itself does not want to take care of the monument up there.
Because the state forests are also structured as a company that is supposed to make profits. There is a lack of leisure and money for supposed hobbies such as the maintenance of a monument. Instead of first putting profits from forestry into the building themselves, the state forests searched in vain for a tenant for years and neglected the whole ensemble so much that no one was found.
For other owners – and such a building lease for 99 years is not much other than ownership – the whole thing suddenly seems attractive and, in the best case, even a worthwhile investment. Perhaps it is asking too much of the state forests to seize such opportunities themselves, but the Free State does not necessarily have to leave such monuments to its foresters if they cannot use them.
In the meantime, however, there is probably not enough time to tackle the matter in a fundamentally different way. At the on-site visit, the Cultural Heritage Foundation showed little inclination to compete with Rabl and Neuer. Then the leap of faith for you and your concept must soon turn into profits. It would only be hoped for the Forsthaus.