Altenburg's Lindenau Museum: New delays - reopening in 2028 in danger!

Altenburg's Lindenau Museum: New delays - reopening in 2028 in danger!

In Altenburger Land, the Lindenau Museum remains the most important and expensive construction site in the region. Construction work, which has been on hold since the beginning of 2023, is expected to be suspended until at least autumn 2023. This emerges from recent reports that provide detailed information on the challenges of the museum project.

Construction work on the Lindenau Museum is characterized by considerable delays. After the Bundestag approved 48 million euros for the renovation and expansion of the museum in 2018, the building was vacated in 2020. The interim solution in the Altenburg City Center was set up, while construction work only began in autumn 2022, almost three years after the evacuation. This delay led to a nationwide outcry as the first draft did not meet expectations and subsequent changes resulted in additional costs. The estimated total costs have risen to 55 million euros, but without any increase in funding from the federal and state governments.

Financial uncertainty and new challenges

The museum director Roland Krischke faces a financial challenge. Despite his efforts to find alternative sources of money, these have so far been unsuccessful. There are currently no guaranteed federal funds for 2025 and 2026, which is delaying the provision of further funding from the Thuringian state budget. The work so far has been financed by the state's debt service aid amounting to 10 million euros, but this has now been exhausted.

District Administrator Uwe Melzer is calling for the funds to be made available more quickly, as the reopening of the museum could theoretically be postponed until 2028. The lack of clarity about the future use of the stables exacerbates the already tense situation. Melzer emphasizes the need to secure and use existing capacities.

Planned exhibitions in the interim

Despite the structural challenges, both the Lindenau and the Castle Museums are striving to offer small exhibitions from 2025 to keep art and culture alive in the region. An exhibition on Ursula Jobst is planned in the Kunstgasse in the interim of the Lindenau Museum. The castle museum will open a new exhibition about the Altenburg Magdalenenstift on June 24th.

In addition, the Lindenau Museum plans to integrate its structures more closely with the castle museum. A competition for the new building of the “Neue Remise” was initiated in order to find a suitable solution for the depots and restoration workshops. There are even considerations of using the old playing card factory as a depot, although this still needs to be clarified in the feasibility study.

The problems surrounding financing and the progress of the construction work remain turbulent. It is still hoped that the next funding can be secured soon in order to prevent construction from stopping and to successfully lead the Lindenau Museum into its new era.

Like the lvz.de and the MDR report, the reopening of the Lindenau Museum remains a central concern for the region's cultural scene, even if it is only realistic at the end of 2027 or beginning of 2028.