A commission from the city of Nuremberg has spoken out in favor of returning to the traditional Richard-Wagner-Platz in another location after the opera house interim. Only the city council representative of the so-called Politbande voted on Friday not only to accommodate the alternative venue on the former Nazi party rally grounds, but also to move the State Theater from the center to the south of the city. After numerous alternative locations were recently debated, a city council majority is emerging for the NS congress hall that has remained in the Torso. Lord Mayor Marcus König (CSU) wants to confront a “place of unculture” with culture.
The Opera House Commission only makes recommendations. The city council plenum will have to finally decide where the opera will move to during its renovation. She will have to leave her house in 2025, primarily for fire safety reasons. Mayor of Culture Julia Lehner (CSU) said at the meeting that the people of Nuremberg have identified with the multi-branch house in the middle of the city for generations. For this reason alone, the administration is in favor of returning there after the interim. There is no idea what else could be done with the historic building – other than opera, theater and ballet. A historical “stroke of luck” is the place, agreed construction consultant Daniel Ulrich. He turned against already operating with restructuring sums. Most recently there was talk of up to 800 million euros. As long as nothing has been planned, such speculations have no basis.
Details of the alternative site are unclear
“Not to be represented” would be a final move out of the center, pleaded the representatives of the CSU, if only because of the synergies with the theater. The SPD pointed out that new buildings do not necessarily have to be cheaper. The Greens admitted a controversial debate within their own ranks. A renovation threatens to be “sinfully expensive”, but they are still voting for it to remain. Only the representative of the political gang spoke out in favor of gutting the opera house, which opened in 1905, and using it permanently for a different purpose. It is allegedly known that city councilors from other factions also harbored sympathy for it – but did not dare to say this.
OB König wants to turn Richard-Wagner-Platz into a “place to be” after the opera has withdrawn there. But time is running out, a decision about moving should be made as soon as possible. Otherwise in 2025 the lights would “go out” in the opera house. Mayor Lehner again promoted the NS congress hall as an interim venue. The CSU and the Greens had already spoken out in favor of this location. SPD spokesman Ulrich Blaschke stepped on the brakes. You have to take the necessary time to make such a decision. It must be clear how such a venue can continue to be used after the interim. It also had to be clarified how remembrance work on the Nazi site could be combined with use as an interim venue. At this point in time, they are not advocating any pre-determination specifically for the inner courtyard of the Nazi congress hall – other locations on the former Nazi grounds would also be conceivable.
In the end, a specific suggestion about the location of the interim was deliberately not made. The commission recommended that the city council involve the citizens in the decision, if possible, to make a decision in 2021 – and to “rule out no option”.