Ms. Hartwig, you are one of the few heads of the new coalition who are continuing. What do you want to build on?
My focus is particularly on coping with the Corona crisis and its dramatic, not yet fully foreseeable consequences for Frankfurt culture. In addition, I developed three new major concepts during my first term in office. One of these concerns the three-pillar concept for the zoo, with the further development of the zoo area, with the children’s and youth theater and with the Frankfurt Conservation Center. We also got the rusty process of the Bockenheim culture campus rolling again. We have made significant progress in this regard. The biggest project of all that I have inherited, however, encompasses the future of urban theaters. I am satisfied and also a little proud to have come so far on this extremely complex subject. We now have a political consensus that the stages belong in the city center. That has not been the case in the past few years. I am happy about that, also that our former coalition partner CDU is now considering going along this path.
They have often been accused of taking too long to come to a decision from the cultural department. What do you reply?
Political processes – especially when they concern important, forward-looking issues – can be protracted. That is in the nature of democracy: you have to organize a majority for every step, discuss it with people, pick them up and take them with you. Incidentally, we often hear that a decision is being made too quickly.
There are extremely many construction sites in culture. Maybe we’ll start with the real construction sites. You recently presented possible locations for a new municipal theater building.
This report works off an order of the city council from the last electoral term. Various properties have been checked to see whether the municipal theaters can be displayed there. All variants have advantages and disadvantages. The culture mile is particularly attractive, because then the ramparts would not be interrupted and greenery could even be gained. And we would have the advantage that we could save the opera interim, which would be particularly complex and expensive. The property issue is next. A model needs to be developed and negotiated that makes sustainable sense for both the owner and the city, and also whether the timing is right. This mandate has not yet been given to the magistrate. I see this as the next step.
Now you have a politically different coalition that particularly values the independent scene. Are the municipal theaters per se in question?
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