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Major construction project: Advisory Board for Culture of Remembrance constituted

Major construction project: Advisory Board for Culture of Remembrance constituted

27. May ’25

On Thursday, May 22, 2025, the Advisory Board for the Culture of Remembrance for the construction project “Große Baumaßnahme Campusentwicklung Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (HMTM)“ was constituted. At the suggestion of our university, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts appointed the following advisory board members: Andrea Gebhard (President of the Federal Chamber of Architects), Reiner Nagel (Chairman of the Board of the Federal Foundation of Baukultur), Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Mathias Pfeil (General Conservator of the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments) and Prof. Dr. Mirjam Zadoff (Director of the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism).

The Advisory Board for the Culture of Remembrance has the task of advising and supporting HMTM in the planning process for the major construction project on issues relating to the culture of remembrance, monument preservation, architecture, landscape architecture and urban development.

from left to right: Andrea Gebhard (President of the Federal Chamber of Architects), Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Mathias Pfeil (General Conservator of the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments), Prof. Dr. Mirjam Zadoff (Director of the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism), Reiner Nagel (Chairman of the Board of the Federal Foundation of Baukultur)

State Minister Markus Blume (Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts):

»What is being created at HMTM combines past, present and future. With the campus development, we are strengthening the university as a place of excellent teaching, research and artistic production. At the same time, we are taking responsibility for the historical heritage of the site. The Advisory Board for the Culture of Remembrance contributes its professional expertise in order to harmonize forward-looking construction, monument preservation and historical memory. In this way, we are creating new innovative perspectives for the University of Music and Theatre Munich and the entire Kunstareal. Another strong impulse from the Munich Cultural Cascade.«

President Prof. Lydia Grün (HMTM):

»The establishment of the Advisory Board for the Culture of Remembrance is an important building block in the overall context of the »Große Baumaßnahme Campusentwicklung Hochschule für Musik und Theater München (HMTM)«. I am delighted that we have been able to recruit these four renowned advisory board members, who will actively and independently contribute their expertise to the process. Our common goal is to create a campus that is home to a modern and forward-looking university of music that continues to see itself as an open place of discourse and at the same time meets the challenges of being a living place of remembrance, a historical monument and a political memorial.«

About the »Große Baumaßnahme Campusentwicklung HMTM«

In October 2023, the Bavarian State Ministry of Science and the Arts, represented by State Minister Markus Blume, awarded the planning contract for the major construction project »Campusentwicklung HMTM«, thereby sending an important signal for the future of the Munich University of Music and Theatre. The HMTM campus development is intended to provide the university with a building infrastructure that matches its international reputation and will also make it competitive worldwide in the future. HMTM’s main building at Arcisstrasse 12 in particular has been in serious need of refurbishment for years. The aim of the major construction project is to develop the HMTM campus against the backdrop of its outstanding location between Königsplatz and Karolinenplatz in the heart of Munich’s »Kunstareal«, the special requirements of the entire property in the immediate vicinity of the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism and the Consulate-General of the State of Israel, and thus with the explicit task of responsibly designing a high-quality urban space.

The major construction project »Campus Development HMTM« comprises four components:

General refurbishment of the listed building (the HMTM main building) at Arcisstrasse 12
New building on the HMTM campus
Conversion and extension of a building in the ensemble of the former lottery administration on Karolinenplatz for the HMTM library
Development and realisation of an innovative interim quarter on Frankenthaler Straße in Munich-Giesing

Responsibility for an active culture of remembrance

The University of Music and Theatre Munich explicitly promotes and supports cultural remembrance work and sees it as part of its educational mission. Through networking and cooperation, discussion events, conferences and concerts, performances and productions, we make this remembrance work visible and create connections in society.

The research focus »Music and Dictatorship«, represented by Prof. Dr. Friedrich Geiger at the Institute of Musicology, provides a strong impetus for a critical examination of the historical, social and political dimensions of artistic activity. The long-term research project »Nazi Persecution and Music History« of the Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Hamburg, which is being carried out in cooperation with the University of Hamburg and the HMTM until the end of 2042, plays a central role in this.

The Ben-Haim-Forschungszentrum (Ben Haim Research Centre) at HMTM, headed by Dr. Tobias Reichard, combines musicological research with artistic practice and makes the music of Jewish and persecuted musicians tangible. Several research projects are being carried out in this context.