Munich (dpa / lby) – Even if the new music hall in Munich is not built, it will still cost the taxpayer many millions of euros, according to the Munich New Concert Hall Foundation. “The planning is already being fine-tuned and has so far caused costs of around 27 million euros,” said the board of directors in a letter to the foundation’s board of trustees on Friday.
In addition, according to the information, there are still many millions of leaseholds that the Free State of Bavaria has to pay. “The long-term lease can only be terminated by the Free State of Bavaria after 88 years,” the letter says. “Since 2016, the Free State of Bavaria has been paying around 600,000 euros a year to the leaseholder. The indexed payment obligations of the Free State of Bavaria for the entire contractually agreed term thus amount to around 60 million euros.”
In the letter, the foundation’s board of directors sharply criticized Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU), who questioned the long-planned concert hall and ordered a “pause for thought”. “We find the prime minister’s actions extremely disconcerting,” says the letter signed by CEO Georg Randlkofer and his deputy Hans Robert Röthel.
They also emphasize that the last cost estimate for the construction from 2021 was 580 million euros – and not the billion that was rumored recently. “We don’t want to and won’t accept these erratic political opinion swings and their buckling in the face of headwinds,” writes the board. “We call for imagination, foresight, ambition, courage, backbone and the will to assert yourself.”
