"the workers have taken black beams from the roof", anni gagel remembers. The scaffolding for the German Basket Museum stood on her property for around eight months. Because anni and horst gagel, as immediate neighbors, had some inconveniences during the renovation phase, mayor helmut fischer (CSU) invited the couple to the celebration hour on the occasion of the completion of the work in the museum.
Damaged roofing
in addition to local councillors, municipal employees, district curator of cultural heritage gunter dippold, district administrator christian meibner (CSU) and government president wilhelm wenning, the architect responsible for the renovation, andreas klerner, also came to the opening ceremony. A defective roofing system allowed water to penetrate the building for years without it being noticed. When the damage was finally discovered, the community was aware that it would cost a lot of money to repair the damage.
However, the building still held many surprises. "If you look behind the facade of an older building, more and more comes to light every day", explained fischer. Not only was there extensive damage to the roof, but also to the entire roof structure, including the beams underneath, as well as parts of the plaster facade.
As part of the renovation work, all 150 windows on the outside of the building were repainted. The estimated costs were initially 502.561 euro. At the moment, the congregation of 470.000 euros in total costs. Grants came from the upper Franconia foundation (120.000 euros), the bavarian state foundation (51.800 euros), the state office for the preservation of historical monuments (7500 euros) and the district of lichtenfels (7250 euros). Mayor fischer also thanked architect andreas klerner "who had everything under control in a fair and competent manner".
"…What we have achieved!"
Government president wilhelm wenning had already attended the inauguration of the annex to the german basket museum and had come to michelau this time as well.
"the german basket museum is the biggest but also the most lively museum of its kind", wenning paid tribute to the institution. Lively, because the basket makers are also involved and show the visitors their craft.
district administrator christian meibner thanked the responsible persons who had taken on this great task. He spoke of a good signal and said that the people of michelau could march to the basket market in lichtenfels with their chests swelled with pride and say: "look what we have achieved!!"
Anni and horst gagel had specially removed a piece of their palisade so that the workers could walk around the building more easily and did not have to take long detours. Sometimes they have
watched from their balconies.