Advertorial Article Parallax Article
Last week, the Board of Trustees of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie announced Guido Spars as the new founding director. Fun fact: The information came almost exactly one year later (plus one day) after the lawyer and SPD politician Florian Pronold hadofferedhis resignation following massive criticism – including from the planning profession. A timeline.
On November 14, 2019, State Secretary for Construction Anne Katrin Bohleannounced on behalf of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community (BMI)that the BMI’s search committee had selectedFlorian Pronold (SPD) as the founding director of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie .
The Federal Foundation Bauakademie, which was actually founded in 2019 and is based in Berlin, will be dedicated to building in the future: In the rebuilt building of the Berlin Bauakademie as a physical location. But also as an independent and forward-looking national and international meeting and communication platform for the presentation and discussion of building in all its facets. It is intended tooffer in all areas of construction – from architecture and civil engineering to urbanism and the construction industry – in crafts and industrialspace and occasions for dialog with the public and representative uses.
However, the appointed founding director Florian Pronold was obviously a controversial choice. Less than two weeks later, on November 27, 2019, numerous opponents hadformed a protest: An open letter reached Federal Minister Horst Seehofer, the members of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie as well as President Barbara Ettinger-Brinckmann and President Hans-Ullrich Kammeyer.
In the open letter, the authors and signatories questioned Pronold’s competence for the position. They spoke out against the selection process.
In their criticism, the authors of the letter referred to the job advertisement, which was“precisely and clearly formulated” – and demanded a range of skills from any candidates. Competencies that the authors did not see reflected in Florian Pronold’s CV.
The lawyer Florian Pronold, who at the time wasParliamentaryStateSecretaryat the Federal Ministryfor the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and before that ParliamentaryState Secretaryat the Federal Ministryfor the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), was a professional politician with no connection to the world of construction – and no experience in it.
The authors of the letter also criticized the fact that the recruitment consultancy entrusted with the selection process had excluded “much more competent people […] whose qualifications matched the job advertisement”.
The conclusion of the letter: “By filling the position of director with the verystatesecretarywho had previously led the process at the BMUB and not with a competent person, the opportunity toestablishthefuture Bauakademie as a relevant and internationally respected architecture center, as a lively place of architectural debate and building culture,has been missed.”
For this reason, the signatories of the letter – including Louisa Hutton, Christoph Ingenhoven and Werner Sobek – called on Federal Minister Horst Seehofer and State Secretary for Building Anne Katrin Bohle to annul the result and launch a new, more transparent application process.
However, the BMI continued to stand by its choice. As a result, two of the rejected applicants filed a lawsuit with the Berlin Labor Courtin December 2019 for an interim injunction – on the grounds that Pronold demonstrably did notmeet the required qualifications of the job advertisement.
The hearing took place on January 7, 2020: The Berlin district courtruled in favor of the plaintiff Philipp Oswalt and issued a temporary injunctionprohibitingthe Bauakademie from filling the position with Pronold. A trial on the merits would have to clarify whether Pronold‘ s selection was based on a flawed selection procedure.
The Bundesstiftung Bauakademie lodged an appeal against the ruling.
Two weeks later, towards the end of January 2020, the dispute over the appointment of Florian Pronold as founding director of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie escalated : Pronold, a lawyer, responded to the criticism of his person with injunctions against journalists who reported on the open letter.
From then on, it became quieter around Pronold’s person and his qualifications. Until March 10, when he finally announced on his website that he would not be able to take up his post as Director of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie until August 15 at the earliest. Due to the delay of three and a half months, he would no longer be able to take care of the development of the foundation on a voluntary basis before then. This would considerably impair the successful establishment of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie, although full and rapid capacity to act is necessary in the foundation phase. For this reason, he had asked the Board of Trustees to relieve him of his duties.
However, this was not the end of the matter: InMay 2020, the architecture magazine Baumeister received anofficial press release from the BMI stating that it had not yet accepted Pronold’sresignation . They first wanted to await the court’s decision in the proceedings between Philipp Oswalt and the Federal Foundation. So was Pronold’ s resignation purely symbolic? He had asked the Board of Trustees to release him – and thus handed over the decision.
Meanwhile, the court case went into the next round: on June 12, 2020, the judge did not rule that Pronold was not a suitable candidate for the post of founding director. But she did rule that this post isa public office – and that corresponding transparency criteria musttherefore be met when awarding it . It thus rejected the appointment of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie .
This was followed by a new call for applications for the position of Founding Director in December 2020 – with adjusted, weakened criteria and a search committee supplemented by a number of independent experts. The application deadline was January 6, 2021.
On March 11, one year and one day after Florian Pronold’s symbolic resignation, the BMI finally announced the newly elected founding director of the Federal Foundation Bauakademie last week: Prof. Dr. Ing.
Instead of a lawyer, the selection committee opted for an economist “with several years of experience in the management of larger institutions and organizational units. Prof. Dr. Spars stands for a distinct understanding of the various disciplines, professional associations and addressees of the Bauakademie as well as experience in working with political committees and interest groups“.
Spars worked for almost ten years as a research assistant at the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning at TU Berlin and has held a professorship in the field of economics of planningand building at BU Wuppertalsince completing his doctorate. His research topics deal with the interface between urban economics and the real estate industry as well as urban planning and architecture.
As founding director, Prof. Dr. Spars is responsible for the strategic management and development of a sustainable and substantive concept as well as the orientation and profiling in the regional, national and international professional society of the Bundesstiftung Bauakademie, but also in politics, society and the public. In doing so, he will rely on cooperation partnersand developausageand space program for the construction of the Academy building.
It remains to be seen whether the appointment of a new founding director will bring peace and quiet to the Federal Foundation Bauakademie. One thing is clear: a smooth start looks different.
