Wörtherseebühne

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The Wörtherseebühne was a floating stage on the Wörthersee in the urban area of Klagenfurt . It was built largely from wood in 1999 and offered space for 2000 spectators before it was partially dismantled. Since its establishment, it has caused losses in the millions and political disputes and is considered an example of inefficient investments in political prestige projects by Hypo Alpe Adria .

The floating stage was completely demolished in September 2015.

description

The Wörtherseebühne was located on Metnitzstrand in the immediate vicinity of the Klagenfurt lido . Both the 40 meter wide and 20 meter deep stage and the spectator stands were completely built into the Wörthersee. The construction was divided into two floating platforms for spectators and actors. These rested on metal pontoons in the spectator area and on aluminum-coated styrofoam floats in the actor area. The platforms were connected to each other and these in turn to the bank by steel truss bridges .

In 2009, the entire wooden substructure, consisting of the support system made of larch wood planks and 1,500 m² of layered flooring, had to be replaced because the wood had become rotten. The wear and tear is completely normal after ten years, according to the operator of the stage.

Disputes about financing

The venue was installed in 1999 as the third large open-air stage in Austria at the instigation of the then Governor Jörg Haider . In the first few years the floating stage was played by the Klagenfurt City Theater under the direction of Dietmar Pflegerl . Haider made sure that the stage hit the headlines for the first time in 2001 when he announced the privatization of the stage and introduced Elmar Ottenthal, the artistic director of the Berlin Theater des Westens, as the new artistic director. For the previously responsible Klagenfurt City Theater under the director Dietmar Pflegerl, who was engaged by Haider, these announcements came as a complete surprise. After another dispute with Haider about high production costs for the performances, the city theater finally withdrew from the floating stage before the 2004 season.

At the end of 2003, Renato Zanella was hired for three years. Initially, he was supposed to be responsible for the further development of the program and, from 2005, he was also to act as director. He should establish Klagenfurt as a festival city, but also failed. In February 2005, the Carinthian state parliament set up a committee of inquiry into what was going on around the floating stage. In its final report, the lack of a concept for the technical equipment of the stage and the use of "third-rate tour productions" was criticized. The committee of inquiry charged Jörg Haider with joint responsibility for the "tragedy with a foreseeable outcome" and put the costs for the 2004 season at € 5 million.

The stage retained the reputation of a millionaire grave, which had already arisen in 2001 . The Tagesspiegel assigned her the role of one of Haider's loss-making prestige projects , which had long been financed by Hypo Alpe Adria . Its takeover by BayernLB in 2007 led to losses of billions and in 2009 to an emergency nationalization procedure by the Republic of Austria.

In 2012 and 2013, the popular TV show “ Starnacht am Wörthersee” was recorded on the Wörthersee stage.

The regional councilor responsible for culture, Wolfgang Waldner , announced before the state elections in Carinthia in 2013 that he wanted to close the floating stage due to the non-financeable operating costs of € 600,000 per year, which are offset by income of € 40,000 per year. In August 2013, the floating stage committee of the Carinthian state government announced that there would be no state funding for the infrastructural support of the floating stage, which is now owned by the Carinthian trade fairs .

Re-use and partial dismantling

The Carinthian provincial government had canceled the lake stage contract, after which the stage was put up for sale at the end of 2013. On February 3, 2014, the Seebühnen Committee decided that none of the four purchase offers would be accepted due to the lack of fulfillment of the advertised conditions. On April 1, 2014, the city senate decided (with FPK and ÖVP against the 3 votes of the members of the SPÖ and the Greens) that the stage should be bought by the fair and leased to Wörtherseeschifffahrt .

On May 7, 2014, the city of Klagenfurt took over ownership of the floating stage from the fair. The intended dismantling of the lake-side platform, for which a demolition notice was available, was not allowed - at least at the location at the time - not to take place during the current bathing season. After the dismantling of the stage equipment on the star night at Wörthersee 2014, the partial dismantling of the lake-side stage platform began in July 2014. The reduced floating stage should only have space for almost a thousand spectators instead of 2200 people.

Final demolition

In March 2015, the newly elected mayor Maria-Luise Mathiaschitz announced that the floating stage, which has now been partially dismantled, is now to be completely demolished, otherwise the running costs alone would amount to € 40,000 per year. A recycling company dismantled the stage on behalf of the owner, the city of Klagenfurt, in September 2015; from the recycling of the scrap metal , € 65,000 was earned.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report of the investigative committee of the Carinthian state parliament regarding the review of the financial expenditures of the state of Carinthia at the lake stage ( memento of the original from October 18, 2013 in the Internet archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.3 MB), p. 2  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / spittal.gruene.at
  2. ↑ The billion- dollar grave Hypo: A drama in five acts , Die Presse, March 31, 2014
  3. ↑ http://www.tine.at/index.php/2011/02/15/seebuhne-klagenfurt/
  4. ↑ Wörtherseebühne needs to be renovated , ORF Kärnten, June 3, 2009
  5. ↑ Wörtherseebühne is rotten , OE24.at, June 4, 2009
  6. ↑ a b c Culture Klagenfurt Wörtherseebühne: The Haider Connection , Tagesspiegel, June 1, 2001, by Kai Müller
  7. ↑ Wörthersee stage: State of Carinthia withdraws , Die Presse, January 28, 2010
  8. ^ Zanella becomes director of the Wörtherseebühne , Der Standard, November 4, 2003
  9. ^ Wörtherseebühne: Investigations against Zanella , Der Standard, May 11, 2006
  10. ↑ 10.2 .: Committee of inquiry into the Wörtherseebühne opened , Der Standard, February 14, 2005
  11. ↑ FORMAT: Vernichtendendes opinion on Haider Wörtherseebühne U-Committee , format 28 September 2006
  12. ↑ Wörtherseebühne: "Tragedy with a foreseeable outcome" , Der Standard, October 3, 2006
  13. ↑ a b Banking scandal Hypo Alpe Adria Freunderlwirtschaft in the Carinthian style 7 January 2010, Tagesspiegel, by Joachim Riedl
  14. ↑ Waldner wants to close Klagenfurt's floating stage , Die Presse, February 22, 2013
  15. ^ Seebühne: Land definitely rises from report in ORF Carinthia - online from August 6, 2013
  16. ↑ Seebühne: No buyer accepted , orf.at of February 3, 2014, accessed on February 9, 2014
  17. ^ City buys lake stage and leases it on , ORF.at from April 1, 2014
  18. ^ Seebühne: notice of demolition is available , ORF.at dated May 8, 2014
  19. ^ Seebühne: Starnacht follows dismantling , ORF.at of July 11, 2014
  20. ↑ Seebühne is now being scrapped , ORF Kärnten, May 29, 2015, accessed on September 21, 2015
  21. ↑ Wörtherseebühne ist “Geschichte” , orf.at, September 21, 2015, accessed on September 21, 2015

Coordinates: 46 ° 37 ′ 16 ″  N , 14 ° 15 ′ 12.3 ″  E