Next petition for the Hans-Albers-Villa - Tutzinger want public access

Created: 01/15/2022, 17:05

By: Tobias Gmach

The next petition for the Hans-Albers-Villa comes from Lucie Vorlickova (right) and Stefanie Knittl.

On ten pages, the women from Tutzing criticize, among other things, that the lake property with villa and boathouse will not be open all year round according to the TU concept, but only on special occasions.

Public access: TUM submitted information Associations should contribute to the financing © Dagmar Rutt

The Hans Albers Villa should only be open to the public a few days a year when the Technical University of Munich has moved into it. That's why two women from Tutzing wrote a petition to the state parliament. From their point of view, the plans of the Free State and the university are pure window dressing.

Garatshausen - The Hans-Albers-Rundweg in Garatshausen is not a circular route at all - but a dead end. The path leads, less than 100 meters away, to two benches and an information board. On it: the history of the Hans Albers Villa (until 1978), which is visible behind a fence. For the passionate walker, the alleged circular route is pure window dressing. For the Tutzingers Lucie Vorlickova and Stefanie Knittl, this also applies to the usage plans of the Technical University of Munich (TUM), whose "Young Academy" is to move into the former villa of the star actor at the request of the Free State (we reported).

Vorlickova is a former auditor and tax advisor, Knittl consultant for monuments and renovation in the Tutzinger municipal council. The women submitted a ten-page petition to the state parliament. The first goal in the wording: "We ask the Bavarian state parliament to ensure that the eastern part of the property from Hans-Albers-Weg (i.e. the lake property) is made freely accessible to the public by the Free State at normal daily opening hours".

That should have happened a long time ago.

In 1971, the Free State bought the villa and grounds from Albers' partner Hansi Burg.

At the time, he justified the exemption from real estate transfer tax by saying that the acquisition was “for public recreational purposes”.

That's what it says in the purchase contract that Starnberger Merkur has received.

But nothing of the sort has happened for 50 years - although the cultural association Garatshausen and the association Respect & Remember Europe (R&R) have been campaigning for years with petitions and collections of signatures for the public accessibility of the property.

Albers Villa Petition: 27,000 square meter area should be open to the public

The next advance comes from two Tutzingers. At a time when changes are actually in the offing on the two-part, 27,000-square-meter site. First and foremost, TUM elite students should use the house and property for projects, the concept speaks of "particularly talented and committed students". It offers "a unique opportunity to raise the academy to an expanded level of effectiveness through a newly designed creativity and educational program".

The TUM only submitted the item “Possible access for the general public to the object” in a supplementary part after being requested by the Bavarian Ministry of Science. It also deals with the history of the property, Albers and Burg, the involvement of the R&R cultural association, the artist group "KulturArt am See" and the cultural mediation "KunstRäume am See". TUM had already mentioned the two Tutzing academies as partners in the first part.

According to the concept, the lake property with villa and historic park – for the petitioners the actual Albers property – should only be open a few days a year, for example on Open Monument Day, as part of the “Science meets Arts” series of events, possibly for smaller ones Concerts or when the Junge Akademie presents its projects once a year. The supplementary part also says: The TU Munich will offer the cooperating clubs the opportunity to hold a summer party in the villa park on their own every year. A new "Hans-Albers-Hansi-Burg-Park" is to be created on the 16,000 square meter meadow next door, previously leased from the Free State - where horses graze and finally sheep graze. There, cultural paths are intended to tell the story of the house and its residents. Accessible to everyone all year round.

In their petition, Vorlickova and Knittl call for the meadow to be permanently preserved and included in the FFH area Natura 2000 Starnberger See.

The lake property with Albers villa and boathouse may be renovated, accessible daily and used for cultural events - such as the rose island under the direction of the Bavarian Palaces and Lakes Administration.

The women from Tutzing advocate exhibitions, music and film evenings with talks, for example on local history or the actor Albers - "also in cooperation with a wide variety of organizers, but not a previously limited number of small clubs".

Stefanie Knittl: "No tax money should be wasted on a park that nobody wants on this meadow."

In contrast to the villa renovation (“earmarked funds” from the university foundation, “exclusively private funds”), the TUM leaves open where the money for the new “Hans-Albers-Hansi-Burg-Park” will come from. "For this purpose, talks will have to be held with the municipality and the clubs involved," it says. TUM will participate “to the extent that is feasible for them”. Stefanie Knittl comments critically: "No tax money should be wasted on a park that nobody wants on this meadow".

Lucie Vorlickova describes the following two sentences in the supplementary part of the concept as cheeky: "Mr. Sontheim stated in a conversation and also in writing that the creation of the park mentioned is unreservedly supported by the community. The Garatshausen cultural association made a corresponding statement in a conversation.” The unqualified endorsement of the community is actually a bold statement – ​​given that there has not yet been a meeting, let alone a resolution, of the Feldafinger municipal council on the TUM plans. Mayor Bernhard Sontheim only wants to comment on this to Starnberger Merkur once TUM has presented its concept to the municipal council. And what dr. Andreas Kapphan, chairman of the Garatshausen cultural association, says about the plans does not sound like unreserved approval:“We are delighted that this has happened at all. But that's not enough. We will continue to fight for the opening.” Kapphan announced further talks with Sontheim and Prof. Arnulf Melzer, the TUM President's authorized representative for fundraising.

Vorlickova and Knittl emphasize that the cultural association is now involved in the project as a participant.

This is precisely why a new petition from the outside is so important.

The TUM concept is accompanied by letters from the local cultural actors, in which they express their willingness to cooperate.

The R&R association, which would like to set up a German-Jewish place of remembrance on the property, criticized the plans in an open letter to TUM President Prof. Thomas Hofmann.

State misrepresented the intended use of a property

For the women in Tutzing, the whole thing is a farce: they consider the state requirement reported by the Ministry of Science for the TUM to be “constructed”. Therefore, the second goal of the petition is that the corresponding resolutions of the state parliament are not implemented. As can be seen from the concept, TUM was actively requested by the ministry to report the need.

Apart from the current events, the former tax consultant Vorlickova looks far into the past in the petition - into the purchase contract with the passage "Purchase for public recreational purposes".

Her comment to the Free State: "If a company or a private person were to intentionally provide false information about the intended use of a property in order to avoid the real estate transfer tax, this would probably be considered a criminal offence: namely tax evasion."

The complete petition can be read online at www.albersfueralle.de.