Overview
- Opponents say they will hand 10,000 signatures to the Senate and SPD/Green lawmakers ahead of the Hamburg Bürgerschaft vote on the Baakenhöft opera plan.
- A group led by historian Jürgen Zimmerer calls for a moratorium and an Enquete Commission, arguing the city has skipped a proper needs assessment and feasibility study with civil-society input.
- Critics describe Baakenhafen as an authentic perpetrator site tied to the 1904–08 genocide of the Herero and Nama and warn that a new opera could overwrite necessary remembrance.
- VVN-BdA chair Cornelia Kerth criticizes that donor Klaus-Michael Kühne has not addressed allegations about his company’s Nazi-era history.
- Under a February agreement, Kühne would provide up to €330 million, the city would cover €147.5 million in site-specific costs such as foundations and flood protection, and Bjarke Ingels Group recently presented the winning design.