Cost explosion at the Hanover Historical Museum: 81 million euros!

Cost explosion at the Hanover Historical Museum: 81 million euros!

The Historical Museum in Hanover is facing a huge challenge: the costs for the planned renovation have risen from the original 31 million euros to a whopping 81 million euros. This speaks of a cost increase of over 160 percent, which has caused the city administration and the council factions to become extremely excited. Loud Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung A special meeting is currently being held to discuss whether consent should be granted for the expensive renovation.

Due to legal requirements, demolition of the listed museum would be out of the question. Daniel Gardemin, the leader of the Green Party, is pushing for rapid renovation to prevent vacancies. He also warns of annual construction cost increases of five percent, which could increase the financial burden even further.

City administration in conflict

The situation is tense. The SPD council parliamentary group spokeswoman Belgin Zaman sees the structural problems in the town hall as a major reason for the massive cost explosion. Nevertheless, she agrees with Gardemin that the historical museum must be preserved. Felix Semper from the CDU, however, announces that he sees no room for maneuver in the city's budget. He calls for a review of the need for facade renovation and fire protection measures.

Wilfried Engelke from the FDP supports the planned core renovation, but criticizes the city's building management. He even suggests a public-private partnership for implementation, which, however, could jeopardize the federal funding of 13.5 million euros that has already been promised.

The challenges of renovation

The Historical Museum, a building from the 1960s, houses important architectural elements, including the tower of the medieval city fortifications and a quarry stone wall from the 17th century. The aim of the renovation is to maintain the architectural unity and integrate energy-efficient standards. The extensive work - planned since 2022 - includes dismantling the building into individual parts, including the impressive natural stone facade, which will be reassembled using reconstructed structural elements, as described on the DHL Architekten website.

However, the devil is in the details, because when renovating listed properties, the costs can quickly get out of control. Buyers often underestimate the expenses - the renovation costs for old buildings are often significantly higher than originally planned, which is also indicated by das-baudenkmal.de.

Public subsidies and tax breaks

Such projects usually benefit from public funding and tax breaks. The KfW promotes energy-saving renovations with cheap loans, and tax breaks can also provide interesting help. This allows landlords to write off the renovation costs over several years, which ultimately alleviates the financing problem somewhat.

It remains to be seen whether the renovation of the Historical Museum can actually be realized in the planned form. What is certain is that the city of Hanover and its citizens must keep a close eye on developments in order not to lose the city's cultural treasure trove.