Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek successfully defends “Grüner Bunker” in Hamburg St. Pauli
June, 2023 - Germany
It’s a landscape architectural pioneer project right in the center of Hamburg – 4,700 trees and other woods are currently being planted on five new floors of the St. Pauli Bunker to create a public garden at a height of 58 meters. With its spectacular greening, the former Flak Tower IV is considered a role model for the necessary climate adaption of international megacities.
This worldwide attention awakens covetousness: someone who is not an architect claims copyrights on the architect's plan of the greening concept and takes action for alleged deviations in its realization. At the Hamburg Regional Court (Landgericht Hamburg), he filed for preliminary injunctions aimed at prohibition against Matzen Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG as the developer and others. He based this on an alleged copyright and an alleged urgency of the matter.
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek successfully defended the defendants against these motions with lawyers Dr. Georg Jacobs, LL.M. (Boston University) and Marc Dümenil. The Hamburg Regional Court dismissed the motions for preliminary injunctions as without merit by court orders of June 16, 2023 (cases 310 O 232/23 and 233/23). The court orders of the Hamburg Regional Court were issued upon summarily review in preliminary injunction proceedings. The claimant is entitled to appeal.
The lighthouse project and new Hamburg landmark will be completed in the coming months and combines ecological, cultural and historical aspects, including panoramic views of the Elbphilharmonie concert hall, the famous Michel church, and the harbor. In addition to the free public city garden, there will be spaces for local district culture, exhibition areas, urban gardening spaces, accommodation for scholarship holders and artists, a modern three-field hall for school sports and cultural events, and a hotel. Last but not least: For the first time, one of Germany’s largest World War II bunkers will be given a memorial and information site.
Counsel to Matzen Immobilien GmbH & Co. KG as developer
Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek:
Dr. Georg Jacobs, LL.M. (lead),
Marc Dümenil (both copyright-law), both Düsseldorf
