"Failed once again": Criticism of the monument protection authority - demolition of the Hohenleitner house stirs up spirits

Created: 08/04/2022, 07:00

By: Tanja Brinkmann

Monument, yes or no?: This question should now be clarified by examining the former department store.

© Kornatz

The former Hohenleitner department store on Fürstenstrasse/Alleestrasse is to be demolished – after more than 280 years.

On the other hand, a Weilheim architect has now submitted a petition.

And the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments is alarmed: an examination of the property should show whether it is worth protecting.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

– Everyone who drives to Marienplatz via Burgstrasse knows it.

It was remembered by many who saw it.

Now that his days are numbered, outrage is spreading.

The Hohenleitner house on Fürstenstrasse/Alleestrasse in the Garmisch district stirs up spirits.

Heiko Folkerts is also appalled that the building, which was erected in 1735/36 and expanded again and again over the years, is to be demolished.

A clear case for the architect from Weilheim: "The State Office for the Preservation of Monuments has failed again." That's why he submitted a petition to the Bavarian state parliament at the beginning of this week - "to save one of the most important monuments that shape the townscape at the entrance to Garmisch-Partenkirchen". .

For him a "central symbol of the emergence of the famous Werdenfelser Markt".

After a number of negative experiences, which he recently had with the authorities in Kochel, his demand is: "The destruction of the unique Alpine cultural landscape of the 'Blue Land', apparently supported by the State Office for Monument Preservation, must be stopped immediately."

But worth protecting?: State Office for the Preservation of Monuments starts testing

He initially got Josef Ostler on board as a supporter.

The chairman of the association for history, art and cultural history in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen district, which is also a direct neighbor of the former Hohenleitner department store, emphatically distances himself from Folkert's choice of words and his attacks on the state office.

That's why he doesn't participate in the petition.

The allegations made by the architect are "unfounded," emphasizes Juliane Grimm-von Wedemeyer, spokeswoman for the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments.

The task of the authority is - among other things - the preservation and recording of monuments.

Against this background, they also take on the Hohenleitner house.

"Whether it is a monument or not can only be said after a corresponding examination." This will now happen promptly.

"We have already made the inventory plans of the property available to the state office," confirms city hall spokeswoman Silvia Kaufer-Schropp.

Grimm-von Wedemeyer puts the procedure in concrete terms.

In addition, her colleagues asked the municipal administration, which also decides with the lower monument protection authority on permits under monument law,

Haus Hohenleitner was heavily overbuilt in the 1950s

With that, Ostler has achieved what he wanted: "I was concerned with checking whether the house was worth protecting." Now that this has happened, he has little hope of Folkert's petition.

In the meantime he also knows that the preservationists have very well dealt with the property before.

"Because this was heavily redesigned in the 1950s, no one has noticed it as a possible monument and has therefore not been examined," explains Grimm-von Wedemeyer.

It is not yet clear when the said petition will be on the agenda in the state parliament.

"The timing is very different," says the press office of the Maximilianeum in Munich.

Building committee rejects exemption from the number of floor areas

The history of the house is interesting.

Mayor Elisabeth Koch (CSU) also confirms this.

However, she cannot understand why the critics are only now speaking up.

After all, the list of monuments can be viewed by anyone at any time.

"The 'missing' mention of the property at Fürstenstrasse 20 should therefore not come as a surprise to anyone," adds Kaufer-Schropp.

"As far as we know, no local historian has suggested an inspection by the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments in the past." In addition, everyone, especially the public bodies involved in the process, was involved in the process for preparing the development plan for this area, which was initiated in 2014 and completed in 2017 could have voiced their objections and suggestions.

Nothing like that happened.

Instead, the house was sold.

The new owners, Black Swan Properties GmbH based in Seefeld (Starnberg district), do not consider it suitable for renovation and now want to build two residential buildings with an underground car park and a small commercial unit on the approximately 1800 square meter property.

"We have no problem with this project per se," says Koch.

However, what the building committee rejected in a non-public meeting was the exemption from the specified number of floors by around 80 square meters of living space.

In return, according to the client's offer, the municipality would have had a say in the letting for ten years.

"That wasn't enough for us," the mayor clarified.