For security reasons: the city museum remains largely closed

Bad news from the Weilheim City Museum: The permanent exhibition on the upper floors is no longer open to visitors.

The reasons for this are problems with fire protection and the electrical system - as well as missing documents.

Weilheim

- The quartet that asked for a press conference next to the museum on Marienplatz on Thursday was visibly broken. Because it was bad and also a bit tricky news that museum director Tobias Güthner, Weilheim's cultural advisor Ragnhild Thieler, city architect Andrea Roppel-Sommer and the responsible building authority employee Katrin Fischer had to bring: Even after the forced Corona break, the city museum remains largely closed. The historically and artistically significant permanent exhibition on the upper floors may no longer be opened to visitors - for security reasons.

The fact that these reasons came up so suddenly and unexpectedly has a slightly embarrassing background: There is no official change in use, according to which the upper floors of the listed building, built in its current form in 1788, may be used as a museum. They have been one of these since 1966 (after the town hall, classrooms, the savings bank and a post office were housed there over the centuries). However, in the course of the preparations for the planned renovation, it now emerged that the necessary application for a change of use from the 1960s - from an administration building to a museum - was only available for the ground floor. Extensive research, including the State Archives in Munich, has not uncovered anything for the upper floors.

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And that now has far-reaching consequences.

In order to be able to continue using the upper floors for the public, a building permit would have to be issued retrospectively, as city master builder Roppel-Sommer explained.

But this would require considerable fire protection measures including the creation of a second escape route.

In addition, a check of the electrical system in the building brought further bad news: “The existing installations cannot guarantee safe operation of the museum on the upper floors,” says museum director Güthner.

Because all these problems cannot be solved by minor repairs, it was decided to close the permanent exhibition completely until further notice.

Remedy can be "only a fundamental renovation and new planning of the building"

Remedy, the quartet agreed at the press meeting, can "only provide a fundamental renovation and redesign of the building" - which the city council has already decided in principle, but has been postponed due to lack of money.

At the budget deliberations in 2021, however, the council gave the green light for the further planning steps.

That means: After the architectural competition of 2019/20, the winning office will draw up a detailed plan for the renovation including a cost calculation this year.

This should be in the spring of 2022 and a concrete process in construction phases will be determined.

At the same time, according to Roppel, the city will soon announce a competition for the interior museum design.

In the town hall, subsidies of 60 to 70 percent are expected for the overall measures.

Selected objects are to be shown on the ground floor

The closure of the permanent exhibition is now "a heavy blow" for the museum, says Güthner. So that the sometimes top-class exhibits on the history of the city and art are not forgotten, he wants to occasionally show selected objects from the upper rooms on the ground floor, where further exhibitions are possible and planned - next from 3 July the already postponed artist's books show of the Art Forum Weilheim. In addition, the city museum will expand its range of films on the Internet and, if possible, make museum educational offers in schools. Individual presentations in other rooms on site as well as loans to museums in the area are also conceivable.

Cultural advisor Thieler, who fights strongly for the museum renovation in the town hall and city council, looks hopefully ahead after the first shock about the partial closure.

Despite the difficult budget situation, it is now possible to "get something solid off the ground" - which is also urgently needed: "It cannot be that we can no longer open this museum with its treasures."

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