Renovation of the Komische Oper probably for 440 million euros

Created: 09/30/2022, 1:38 p.m

View of a side facade of the Komische Oper.

© Jens Kalaene/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Archive image

Berlin is facing a next construction project.

The Komische Oper is to be renovated, rebuilt and expanded.

A draft has already been found - now a new cost estimate is available.

Berlin - The construction measures at the Komische Oper in Berlin could be significantly more expensive than planned.

According to the Senate Building Administration, the cost estimate for the construction project is 437.4 million euros.

Four years ago, around 227 million euros were estimated.

The Senate administration gave various reasons for this in a statement.

116.1 million euros alone can be attributed to increased construction costs.

Around 42.6 million euros for the unforeseen and risks have been taken into account preventively.

94 million euros would result from the "specification in the planning process" in dealing with the energy requirements as well as from the building site and the existing building.

The Komische Oper is one of three major opera houses in the capital.

The house was long managed by Barrie Kosky.

The building is close to Unter den Linden boulevard and Gendarmenmarkt.

The opera house is to be renovated, rebuilt and supplemented by a new building.

The architecture firm kadawittfeldarchitektur won a competition two years ago.

The Senate Administration announced on Thursday that the estimates for renovation, conversion and expansion were based on the winning design.

The “BZ” had reported on the impending additional costs, and “Berliner Morgenpost” and rbb also reported.

The Komische Oper is scheduled to leave its building in July 2023 and temporarily move to the Schiller Theater.

Almost 35 million euros are estimated in order to ensure the performance of the opera during the construction phase.

Senate Building Director Petra Kahlfeldt did not give a specific timetable for the construction project.

Reliable information on the chronological course could be provided at the earliest when the construction planning documents were submitted.

Especially with regard to the building fabric, which can only be inspected after moving out, as well as the building ground, “an increased level of difficulty” can be expected.

According to the FDP MP Stefan Förster, the plans should be reconsidered.

"The doubling of the costs to 437 million euros is a catastrophe with an announcement," he said on Friday as spokesman for building policy for his parliamentary group in the House of Representatives.

“The planning should now be stopped and a checkout should be made first.

Then a decision must be made as to whether Berlin wants to afford a new construction project in these times, which will ultimately become a bottomless pit.”

It has long been known that the building will be renovated.

According to the Komische Oper, the need for renovation was already identified at the end of the 1990s.

"Since 2018 at the latest, when the ceiling of the auditorium had to be provisionally secured with a net because of falling pieces of stucco, the need for renovation can no longer be denied," says the opera's website.

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The Komische Oper - "built in 1947 on the ruins of the destroyed Berlin" - has been one of the cultural centers of the city for three quarters of a century and a source of inspiration for the international development of music theater, said Susanne Moser and Philip Bröking as artistic director duo.

They also see the renovation as an opportunity.

"An opera house for the 21st century is being built here, which is open to the entire city society."

The CDU MP Christian Goiny criticized in the "BZ" that it was incomprehensible why the Senate did not reflect the cost increase in the investment plan.

“By doing so, he harms the project.

The Komische Oper didn't deserve that." A spokesman for the Senate Building Administration said that this would be included in the financial planning once the verified documents were available.

The internal review is expected to last until the end of the year.

Then it will be a matter of making the appropriate provisions in the 2024/25 budget.

He also rejected criticism from FDP politician Förster that the building authorities had not informed parliament.

The FDP was informed like everyone else during the construction tour of the main committee on Wednesday.

dpa