Overview
- City cultural authorities imposed a stop to construction after confirming the protected elevator was removed from the Flüggerhaus without permission.
- The Denkmalschutzamt is assessing damage under Hamburg’s monument law, which allows fines and an order to rebuild the monument at the responsible party’s expense, and it is preparing an administrative offense case.
- Current owner Harm Müller-Spreer says key parts were already missing and suggests they might be with restorator Patric Wagner, while Wagner rejects that and says he returned all components.
- Heritage officials counter Müller-Spreer’s account by saying the lift still had its frame and cabins during a summer 2025 walkthrough, a point they say witnesses can confirm.
- The elevator, considered likely the oldest preserved paternoster, was rediscovered in 2018 and extensively restored with thousands of hours of work; a paternoster is a looping lift of open cabins that is now rare in Germany.