Gift Horse

Klaus-Michael Kühne, currently the second-richest German with a fortune of $38.9 billion, is a proud Hanseatic citizen and an opera fan. Because Kühne dislikes the opera house in Hamburg's city center (also used by the Hamburg Ballett), he wants to donate a new building to the city. The entrepreneur went public with these plans as early as 2022, but politicians gave him the cold shoulder: The favored real estate investor, René Benko, appeared to be an unreliable partner, the current opera house was supposedly perfectly adequate. Furthermore, Senator for Culture Carsten Brosda (SPD) criticized the excessive influence of one individual on urban development and culture. The topic seemed to be off the table until last February suddenly, things got settled—Hamburg will build a new opera house, ...