Salty letter to SWM boss and Munich mayor criticizes demolition of old Uppenborn power plant

Created: 03.12.2022, 18:00

By: Armin Forster

Demolition began this week - and work is progressing apace, as seen in Friday's picture.

© Josef Fuchs

The Wanger protest was in vain: the old Uppenborn power plant has been demolished.

Those responsible at SWM have now also received criticism from their own city.

Wang

– The demolition excavator may have created irrevocable facts, but the old Uppenborn power plant near Wang is history.

However, the resentment about the sudden obliteration of the historic building remains.

It's not just those directly affected on the ground who are bewildered.

In the state capital, too, those responsible now have to put up with clear criticism.

Review: On Friday last week, private individuals and the Wang community leadership around Mayor Markus Stöber sounded the alarm.

Excavators and containers are positioned in front of the former Uppenborn hydroelectric power station.

The neighbors Johann and Franz Züger had already gotten involved in the purchase and maintenance of the building.

The part-time organic farmers already live in what used to be the power station workers’ house.

But the owners – Stadtwerke München – never responded to their written purchase offer for the rest of the site.

Vain hoping for a change of heart

The brothers and mayor Stöber, who, in consultation with prospective buyers, would like to set up a museum for hydroelectric power and historical electricity generation in the building, manage to get the excavator operator to grant a time extension until Monday.

But there is no change of heart over the weekend – and the demolition work starts on Monday morning.

The old Uppenborn hydroelectric power station near Wang was still standing last week.

© Archive: nb

Klaus Bäumler was also startled by the demolition plans via the online article in our newspaper.

As a representative of the "Munich Forum - Discussion Forum for Development Issues" in the Isar Alliance and in the Alliance Walchensee Dialogue, the preservation of historically significant infrastructure such as the old Uppenborn power plant is very important to him.

And so on Monday he wrote a letter to SWM boss Florian Bieberbach and to Munich's mayor Dieter Reiter, the chairman of the supervisory board of the municipal utility.

(By the way: everything from the region is now also available in our regular Freising newsletter.)

Bäumler begins his letter with an incredulous question: "Are you informed about this process and is the demolition of the historic building [...] with your consent?" .

The author of the lines is well informed and explains with references to sources why the system is of particular importance in his eyes.

"With the first 50,000 volt three-phase transmission in Germany, the electricity generated in the Uppenborn power plant was transmitted to Munich via a 53-kilometer high-voltage line." Klaus Bäumler refers to the example of the substation on Munich's Gysslingstrasse in the English Garden, which was built in 1930/31 and later closed thereon,

Enforced in a "rigorous manner".

"It is incomprehensible in what rigorous manner the SWM enforce the demolition of the oldest hydroelectric power plant on the Isar.

The idea of ​​the municipality of Wang to set up a museum on the use of hydropower on the Isar in the historic hydroelectric power station is absolutely worthy of support." This also corresponds "exactly to the objective of the Bavarian Monument Protection Act".

In the area of ​​Munich's Gasteig HP8 with the Isarphilharmonie, such a change of use on the Stadtwerke site was "exemplary and exemplary", says Bäumler.

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The news of the ongoing demolition caused him great regret.

Klaus Bäumler, as he says in an interview with the Freisinger Tagblatt, is nonetheless interested in making "solidarity with the committed personalities" public.

You can find more current news from the district of Freising at Merkur.de/Freising.