Is Söder's prestige project in Nuremberg "evidence of one of the biggest tax wastes in Bavaria"?
Created: 05/13/2022, 12:01 p.m
By: Thomas Eldersch
The Bavarian Court of Auditors and the opposition are sharply critical of Söder's prestige project - the Museum of the Future in Nuremberg.
BR "quer" picks this up.
Nuremberg – Has Söder gone to the dark side of power?
Is his former prestige object – the Museum of the Future in Nuremberg – a bottomless financial hole?
The operator, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, is defending its branch office.
The opposition in the state parliament and even the Bavarian Supreme Court of Auditors (ORH) see it differently.
In the end, it's the taxpayer who pays for it anyway.
(By the way: Our Nuremberg newsletter regularly informs you about all the important stories from Middle Franconia and the Franconian metropolis. Register here.)
BR “across”: Museum of the Future in Nuremberg will probably cost more than 200 million euros by 2044
In the latest episode of the BR program "quer" the future was looked at.
In a very expensive future.
It was about the branch of the German Museum, the Museum of the Future in Nuremberg.
Opened with great fanfare by Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) in autumn 2021, it is currently causing a stir more because of its costs than because of its exhibits.
The good location, directly on the Pegnitz, also has its price, jokes the satire magazine.
The Future Museum in Nuremberg.
The best location directly on the Pegnitz also has its price.
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
To be more precise, it will probably cost the taxpayer around 200 million euros by 2044, the ORH has calculated.
And that's a conservative estimate, says the FDP's construction policy spokesman in the state parliament, Sebastian Körber, in the BR broadcast.
The rent alone amounts to 2.9 million euros annually - 100,000 euros more than specified in the state declaration of commitment.
A spokesman for the ORH speaks of a "landlord-friendly" contract with a Nuremberg entrepreneur.
The risks were unilaterally borne by the tenant, it is said.
BR "across": Opposition accuses CSU indirectly of special economy
On top of that.
The opposition accuses the CSU in the Causa Zukunftsmuseum Spetzlwirtschaft.
The owner of the property is Gerd Schmelzer.
It is believed that he landed the big fish Future Museum through party donations.
The opposition asked the CSU to take a position on this.
In an interview with the
Nürnberger Nachrichten
in January 2021, Schmelzer said: "I donate from time to time, but that has no connection with any construction projects."
FDP spokesman Sebastian Körber sharply criticizes the prestigious future museum project in the BR program "quer".
© Screenshot BR "across"
But the high rental costs don't stop there.
The ORH also criticized the fact that eight million euros were originally estimated for start-up financing in 2014.
In April 2021, these costs would already be 27 million euros.
The dpa also says: By the year 2044 - by then the Free State has undertaken to assume the costs for the museum - expenditures of well over 200 million are expected - especially since rental and ancillary rental costs could become more expensive.
Körber on this in "quer": "Proof of one of the biggest tax wastes in the real estate sector in Bavaria.
[…] You could easily have built a museum for the money.”
BR "quer": Nurembergers are reserved when it comes to the Museum of the Future
But what do the people who are primarily affected say?
The people of Nuremberg don't seem to be so convinced of their new figurehead.
"We now have a prestige object, an offshoot of Munich in the small, Franconian periphery, in the enclave," jokes a passer-by in the BR interview.
Another worries that the money could be missing somewhere else.
And the German Museum?
Project manager Andreas Gundelwein is convinced of the branch office.
“It is a house that is unique in the world and has been extremely well received.
It is a very big project – also for us.
And it is accordingly an expensive project – without question.” The satirical magazine follows suit.
"What are 200 million when the renovation of the Deutsches Museum in Munich will cost three quarters of a billion."
BR "across": Corona hailed the start of the future museum
However, the house in Nuremberg has only recently been as well received as the project manager of the Deutsches Museum swears.
Corona threw a spanner in the works for the Future Museum in its start-up phase.
In six months since the opening (as of April 11th) just 65,000 visitors have come to the house on the Pegnitz.
Hardly enough to finance the high rental costs.
The BR magazine "quer" sums it up like this: "A museum with an overpriced, landlord-friendly lease is perhaps simply part of the museum concept.
Because the Museum of the Future shows us that the future and part of the future are increasing rental costs astronomically.”
(tel with dpa)
All news and stories from Bavaria can now also be found on our brand new Facebook page Merkur Bayern.
