Crooked park benches, a failed ticket app, a controversial podcast and construction projects worth billions: The Taxpayers' Association has included more Hamburg cases in its black book than ever before and accuses politicians and authorities of a lack of cost control.
The association lists a total of eleven Hamburg examples in its Black Book 2026/27. Ten cases appear in the printed edition, plus an online case about the city's planned entry into the Elbtower. According to the Taxpayers' Association, the cases show the same patterns again and again: escalating costs, a lack of performance audits and a lack of transparency.
"Eleven Hamburg cases are not a coincidence or a slip-up. They show a structural problem: In Hamburg, too often decisions are first made and construction is made and then it is checked whether a project is economical and sensible," says Sascha Mummenhoff, state chairman of the Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Taxpayers' Association.
One of the largest cases is the city cleaning center's Center for Resources and Energy (ZRE). Originally calculated at 234 million euros, the project could cost up to 780 million euros according to current estimates. The so-called Oberhafen Tunnel between HafenCity and Oberhafen also ends up in the Black Book. According to the taxpayers' association, the costs for the 88-meter-long structure rose from 15.3 to 27.9 million euros. The installation of an escalator alone cost almost a million euros. There was no classic cost-benefit analysis before the decision to build.
The taxpayers' association also criticizes the ticket app “hvv Any”, which has now been discontinued. It could automatically calculate how many public transport journeys were made in a day and calculate the cheapest ticket. An offer for tourists and infrequent travelers. But with the introduction of the Deutschlandticket, single ticket journeys fell drastically overall. After almost ten years of development and costs of 6.78 million euros, the project was discontinued. Most recently, the application only accounted for around one percent of online ticket sales.
“The costs of the ZRE are exploding, the benefits of the Oberhafentunnel were not examined in a timely manner and the economic basis for 'hvv Any' was practically gone before the project could establish itself on the market,” criticizes Mummenhoff. "This is not bad luck. This is the result of poor planning, delayed reactions and inadequate control."
In the chapter “Expensive image maintenance”, the taxpayers’ association runs the podcast “Hamburg, watt nu?” of the Hamburg energy works. Almost 150,000 euros have now been spent on production and advertising. The costs and scope were not initially disclosed and only became known after a complaint from the mayor.
The more bizarre cases include several bank projects. The association criticizes ten new benches in just 360 meters on Mansteinstrasse in Hoheluft-West. In Bergedorf, newly installed park benches had to be criticized because some of them were installed too close to the street and at an angle and now have to be repaired at the city's expense.
The Hamburg senior ticket also makes it into the black book. People aged 67 and over have been receiving a subsidy for the Deutschlandticket since May. The taxpayers' association criticizes the fact that the funding is granted regardless of income and assets and is therefore based on the watering can principle.
The case of the underground toilet facility at Gerhart-Hauptmann-Platz is also being taken up again. After a renovation costing a total of around 2.6 million euros, the toilet was closed again after a few months of operation and finally filled. Also mentioned is the years of guarding the Hamburg apartment of former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, which, according to the association, required tens of thousands of police hours each year.
As an additional online case, the Taxpayers' Association cites the city's planned entrance to the Elbtower. Hamburg is negotiating the acquisition of space for the planned natural history museum. According to current plans, the purchase price could be up to 595 million euros. The association criticizes the fact that what was originally a privately financed project is now becoming a project involving significant amounts of public money.
Mummenhoff points out that the eleven cases only show a section. “It would have been easy to double the number of cases in Hamburg,” he says. The current edition shows particularly clear examples, not the complete list of problematic projects.
Finally, the head of the association calls for more careful use of public funds: "Whether it's 14,800 euros or 780 million euros: tax money is still tax money. Those responsible have to decide on every project as carefully as if they had to pay the bill themselves in the end."
