The conversion of the former “Weber in der Wies” property on the Eck near Gmund into a luxury property is causing a lot of conversation. While the Tegernsee Valley Protection Association (SGT) has long been talking about “a scandal”, Christian Boiger, district architect and chief monument protector in the district, is now taking a stand.
Gmund – Are critics just “much ado about nothing” when they look worriedly at the huge construction site on the corner near Gmund? The former “Weber in der Wies” farm, which dates back to the 16th or 17th century and its residential part is still a listed building, is currently being converted using a lot of concrete by the Kitzbühel-based Prime Properties Group into a luxury property with 1,266 square meters of living space. The property is to find a new, wealthy owner under the name, which has now been changed from “Bauernhof-Gut” to “Farm-Estate Tegernsee”.
For the Tegernsee Valley Protection Association (SGT), the process is “a scandal”. In its current newsletter, the SGT focuses on the construction site and asks critical questions. On the one hand, it is incomprehensible why the construction project is privileged. The scope of the measure is also criticized. According to SGT, the replacement for the former commercial part is “higher, longer and, above all, deeper in size, which far exceeds the standards of a typical local, historic home”. There is also criticism that all new components are made of concrete and an annex is being built on the north side. On top of that, a narrow path that used to lead to the old farm has now been expanded.
Concerned, the SGT asks itself the next question: “When will the next investor with strong capital find the next old, historic farmhouse in the Tegernsee Valley profitably and will consequently insist on the same privilege?” SGT boss Angela Brogsitter-Finck announces that she is not ruling out legal action on behalf of the board. “The selling out of our homeland, our building culture, our valuable landscape cannot continue to be tolerated, even if people try to make it clear to us that this is the only way old monuments can be 'saved'.”
The SGT has now made it clear that it is also demanding an inspection visit from the building inspectorate from the Miesbach district office. This construction inspection has now taken place, as Sabine Kirchmair, spokeswoman for the district office, confirmed when asked.
In other districts, such farms would fall into disrepair.
Christian Boiger, district architect
Christian Boiger, district architect and chief monument protector in the district, also spoke to the Tegernseer Zeitung about the ongoing construction project, which was first approved in outline in 2020 before further documents were submitted. In principle, Boiger states that the residential wing, which is a listed building, will remain untouched. “But if you consider the conglomerate of additions and extensions that were available in the most impossible places, then the current construction project can only be welcomed,” emphasizes Boiger. “It undoes the alienation.” By the “conglomerate,” Christian Boiger means the additions and additions from the 1950s to the 1990s on the west and northeast sides, among others by the portrait painter Paul Mathias Padua (1903-1981), who is here once had his studio. According to Boiger, you can be happy that someone is interested in the old farms. “In other counties they would just fall into disrepair.”
As far as the approval is concerned, this was carried out in repeated consultations and with the approval of the Gmund local council. “The fact that the excavation pit looks very dramatic,” says Boiger, is due to the adjacent steep slope. The current cultivation is “tolerable”. However, the exact dimensions of the former part of the economy are not known. “In total, the new buildings are no larger than what used to stand here, including additions and ancillary buildings.” As an authority in a constitutional state, the district office can only approve according to the law, says Boiger, “and fortunately not according to sympathy or arbitrariness.”
Boiger said he really appreciates a watchful eye, but in this case no unexpected things would happen, as the construction inspection also showed. As far as the design is concerned, on which the district office has exerted intensive influence, it is a new interpretation of what used to be typical of a farm, “such as a cat bower or a stable gate”.
All critics would have liked to have been able to contact him earlier, says Boiger, who thinks that “much ado about nothing” is now being made.
Critics are likely to see this area of tension differently between “selling out our homeland, building culture and landscape” (SGT) and maximizing profits for investors.
gr