Increase in costs at the Museum der Moderne: frivolous right from the start

No one is surprised by the rising construction costs for the still undeveloped Berlin Museum of Modern Art, which will cost around 450 million euros instead of 200 million - and yet, or perhaps because of that, the excitement is so great: you feel reminded of Berlin Airport, even more to the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie. Also a cultural building designed by the Swiss star architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron. Perhaps all have forgiven too quickly that this architecturally new Hamburg landmark cost instead of originally claimed 77 million euros then 866 million euros.

Despite scandalous delays and an even more scandalous rate of inflation, the Konzerthaus has been considered a success since its opening in January 2017, or even more as a triumph. His architects really feared for their good reputation in between. In the end, however, they were all the more brilliant winners. Herzog and de Meuron are considered magicians who can turn cities into real cities.

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Of course, they have done their best in Berlin too, but for the better, they will not change this city anyway. They are also supposed to build there, a museum for the art of the 20th century, colloquially the Museum der Moderne. In October 2016, they won the competition. They have designed the "archetype" of a house, only in larger ones. The Bundestag had previously approved 200 million euros in advance - all those responsible gave the impression, and for years, the rich for a first-class museum.

When the SPIEGEL Jacques Herzog asked in February 2019 whether the costs did not rise to 450 or more millions of euros, he said that he could not talk about them because: "That was the biggest mistake in Hamburg, that sums were already mentioned there, when there was not even a project, just an idea. "

The problem is only in Berlin have been called sums - just the promised by the Bundestag 200 million euros. Then there were requests for change, rescheduling, the usual, the expected - and suddenly 200 million euros were not enough. That, too, was to be expected, but for a long time nobody spoke.

A proof of thriftiness?

It is not even a question of what such a museum costs or costs - but about an insolence, with the first glued here the final sale price and at the checkout then the original price is required: On Thursday, the Budget Committee of the Bundestag in a cleansing session 364 , Approved 2 million euros, thus assuming additional costs of more than 160 million euros, and perhaps that would be acceptable.

But now they all give the impression that this serves as proof of thriftiness, because the initiator of the project, CDU politician and Minister of State for Culture Monika Grütters, would have liked to have had more. She herself was quoted as saying that this sum was a real "pain threshold" for her. And she just did not mean that it was a painfully high sum, but a painfully low, at any rate, they had therefore promoted a "strict cost management". Ouch.

Apparently, according to the politicians responsible for the budget, the project has long since reached the point where nothing can be reversed. The fear may be this: If you let the state project now still burst, that would be a disgrace for the state. The real embarrassment is accepted.

The project was not serious from the beginning: the Kulturforum on Potsdamer Platz with its various furnishings is as attractive as a supermarket loading zone, and here, too, the new building can not do much. Experts demanded that they first come up with a concept that would save the entire site and therefore, by the way, switch to another, initially planned plot. But it should be absolutely this, the area between New National Gallery and Philharmonic. Incidentally, it was not the same on the whole scope to have it, it had yet to be entered into a rather disadvantageous property exchange with a Hamburg entrepreneur.

Jens Kalaene / DPA

Early on, there was criticism of the designs of the architects, they were ridiculed as a "barn" and beer tent "

The client, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, and the ambitious initiator Grütters wanted to head through the sound barrier - they want to usher in a new era for Berlin. Maybe Grütters wants to set a sign in his own right. Allegedly, the Berliners speak of the "Grüttoleum", a significant silly name, even he almost a reason to bury the project.

It would have been more obvious, but less prestigious, to first devote oneself to the museums and other cultural institutions that one already possesses - and neglects. Almost everyone has big problems. There is a lack of content concepts, of means to keep the operation even reasonably running.

A few years ago, SPIEGEL certified that Berlin was the world's most boring museum metropolis, and little has changed. Maybe one should have mentioned at that time that it is still the most arrogant. The museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation form a large apparatus, from which one draws an enormous complacency that will increase with the Museum der Moderne.

There was much more discussion, more trouble. Allegedly, the museum was a must, according to Grütters, to keep important private collections in the city that would otherwise leave. That sounded like blackmail - the taxpayers who were strangely charged. Most recently, Grütters, allegedly past the museum people, made a deal with Gerhard Richter. The famous painter gives pictures to Berlin, she guaranteed their first-class presentation.

The focus of the current discussion, however, is the cost increase - this can only be said once more and emphasize that it is not surprising. As early as the summer of 2013, Pierre de Meuron pleaded for absolute openness in terms of costs in a SPIEGEL conversation. His colleague Meinhard von Gerkan, architect of Berlin's BER airport, was convinced that in the beginning, big lies were often a lie. And Christoph Ingenhoven, who designed the new Stuttgart train station, asked the question whether it had to run this way. The answer to that seems so easy.