Markus Söder is there as a witness, but it sounds as if the Prime Minister is holding the final report in the investigative committee for the Nuremberg Museum of the Future. “Everything happened according to the law, all allegations and suspicions have been refuted.” It’s “an awesome project”. His opening words don’t last a quarter of an hour, but of course that’s not the end of it, not everything is great. It will take almost five hours until the last question is asked.
It’s about space travel, about robots, about the offshoot of the German Museum in Söder’s hometown. Because the contract is “landlord-friendly” according to the Supreme Audit Office, 230,000 euros a month rent, 25 years term, it is paid by the Free State. About the role played by the donations from the landlord Gerd Schmelzer to the CSU. The opposition senses a scandal. “Nonsense,” says Söder (CSU).
He was “grateful” for the U-Committee. “Especially in the election year” there are “many conspiracy theories”. It is important that “all the facts come to the table”. This is where the fox of facts sits, in the ranks of the opposition are those who came up with crazy ideas. That is Söder’s message on Friday in the state parliament.
“I had the idea,” says Söder, who was finance and homeland minister when the project began. He saw an opportunity for a German Museum in Nuremberg as part of the North Bavaria Initiative, a funding program by the Free State. He admires it when MPs “commit themselves to their homeland”. The museum “deserves praise,” says Söder.
Minister Söder appears again and again in the files, in emails and notes that went back and forth within the ministries, the Deutsches Museum or in between. The correspondence between the officials and employees is always about the search for a location in Nuremberg. Despite everything, Söder says that the Ministry of Science was “leading” for the Free State, not his ministry. “There were no instructions,” and “the Deutsche Museum alone” and its director, Wolfgang Heckl, decided on the location and rental agreement.
The moment when the projector throws a message from his ministry at the time onto the wall is exemplary for Söder’s appearance. In the summer of 2016, Söders Haus provided information about the location in the city center, at the Augustinerhof. But there was no lease back then. Did Söder put the Free State on the negotiating defensive with the early determination that the museum almost inevitably became expensive? A “blank check”, says Sebastian Körber (FDP).
“I didn’t conduct any negotiations,” says Söder, but the Deutsches Museum. The museum “had the sovereignty at all times” to choose another location. “In the end, what Heckl wanted came out, not what Söder meant.” And the note from his ministry, which says as early as 2014 that he wants to have “something to look at/touch” by 2018? Verena Osgyan (Greens) wants to know more. The accusation resonates that Söder pushed the pace, no matter what the cost, because there was a state election in 2018.
Donate? He had “no knowledge” of that
“I can’t remember that,” says Söder about the note. He says that often. He “can’t imagine” that the museum plan back then “could have anything to do with the state elections”, just as little “like the committee” does today. A trick. Söder turns the allegations against his person into an accusation against the opposition. From his point of view, the Greens, SPD and FDP initiated the U-Committee in order to harm the CSU in the current election campaign.
The contributions? A company Schmelzers transferred 45,500 euros to the CSU in 2018, 45,000 euros flowed in 2019, and there were other donations of less than 10,000 euros. He had “no knowledge” of that, says Söder. Did he talk to Schmelzer about the Future Museum back then? “I can’t remember.” He “almost always only” talked to Schmelzer about “the dramatic situation at 1. FC Nürnberg”. Schmelzer also said in the U-Committee that Söder had not “acted” on him. The purpose of the donations was to support his wife Julia Lehner (CSU), Nuremberg’s cultural mayor.
Of course, Söder also speaks on Friday about the reports commissioned by the U-Committee, which talks about “plausible” conditions. A downtown location was important to bring walk-in customers to the museum, says Söder. To claim that the Augustinerhof is not in a central location is “just as absurd as saying that the Stachus is on the outskirts of Munich”. Söder also considers the rental period to be appropriate. “This is a museum, not a takeaway.”
After Söder’s appearance, FDP man Körber speaks of “big gaps in memory” with the prime minister. Also Volkmar Halbleib (SPD), who calls it a “claim” that Söder was not operationally involved in the museum project. “The files show the opposite.” Overall, says Green MP Osgyan, Söder’s appearance was “by no means a relief”.