As part of the planned upgrading of Wolfratshausen’s old town, Marienplatz is also to change its face. This was decided by the city council after a thorough discussion: it opted for the fourth of four possible conversion variants, which envisages moving the fountain a few meters towards the street and straightening the floor area behind it, which is still slightly stepped. With this solution, the two healthy plane trees that are a gift from the sister city of Barbezieux can be preserved.
The alternatives would have been: leaving everything as it is (variant 1), moving the fountain to the east and leaving the trees (variant 2) and finally variant 3, according to which the fountain was moved to the east and the greening changed would have been. In this case, the plane trees would have had to be felled.
In order to get the opinion of the Wolfratshauser, a public information session was held in the Loisachhalle in October 2021, at which the ARGEmahl gebhard konzepte & BPR Schäpertöns Consult office presented the traffic planning between the “Am Bach” path and the music school, including three possible concepts for the Design of the Marienplatz. A city council decision on the design options was postponed at the time in order to give citizens the opportunity to form an opinion.
At that time, variant four had only been brought up for discussion by the group of participants in the information event. According to the initiator, it would have the advantage that there would be more space for events at this central location and the area would give a more relaxed impression. As a result, the fountain will be moved to the east, i.e. towards the street, while protecting the plane trees. Overall, however, there was no clearly recognizable opinion in the citizen survey, but in an online survey a majority voted for variant one, i.e. maintaining the status quo.
Helmut Forster (Wolfratshauser List) spoke out against a redesign of the city center.
(Photo: Harry Wolfsbauer)
The decision-making process in the city council was not easy. As a representative of the Wolfratshauser list, Helmut Forster advocated leaving everything as it is. He argued that the fountain is also under ensemble protection and that there is enough space for larger events elsewhere, for example by the maypole. Under these circumstances, Forster considered the estimated investment of 80,000 to 100,000 euros for moving the well to be nonsensical. And finally, the plane trees are a gift from the sister city, they shouldn’t just be cut down. Forster’s appeal: “We should have the courage to stand by what we have.” His parliamentary colleague Richard Kugler agreed with him. He feared that the calculated construction costs might not be sufficient in view of the deep foundations of the well.
For Fritz Schnalker (SPD), variant four for the conversion at Marienplatz has many advantages.
(Photo: Hartmut Pöstges)
Fritz Buckler (SPD) also wished for “more courage”, albeit for a redesign. You only have one chance to change the cramped situation “at this place in the heart of Wolfratshausen”. As an example of a successful inner city, buckler cited the cities of Bad Tölz and Murnau. There are fountains even in the middle of the street. From Schnalcker’s point of view, the high construction costs are “profitable” because the redesigned center would attract more day tourists to the city. He also identified advantages from a traffic point of view: “When drivers drive towards the visible fountain, they automatically slow down.”
With a view to preserving the plane trees, Annette Heinloth and Hans Schmidt (Greens) also advocated variant four. Nothing in the world remains unchanged, and the location of the fountain is not “set in stone”, explained Ulrike Krischke (citizens’ association). She was bothered by the fact that the fountain “disappears too much under the plane trees” in its current location. With a majority of 15 to five votes, the city council finally voted for variant four, i.e. for relocating the fountain.