Extended until 2029

“Dirty” Hering remains director of Schönbrunn Zoo

Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck

(Bild: Reinhard Holl)

Nameless animals, pump gun lust and his obscure aquarium house project didn't count: Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck was extended for a further five years as Schönbrunn Zoo Director. Hering-Hagenbeck was able to skillfully avoid questions from the Ministry of Economics about the aquarium.

Vienna can prepare itself for further peculiarities from Schönbrunn Zoo until at least December 31, 2029: Stephan Hering-Hagenbeck is the "best-ranked candidate" of all those who applied for the next five-year term of office, according to a commission of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, despite his weapons offenses, despite the new aquarium being built by his own former business partner and despite the fact that he issued a bizarre ban on animal names right at the beginning of his term of office.

Not a single viable alternative?
Four men - including Hering-Hagenbeck - and two women were shortlisted for the management of Schönbrunn Zoo after the call for applications on April 13, including candidates from abroad. According to the commission, the deciding factor was that only Hering-Hagenbeck had experience of managing a Category A zoo, while the other candidates had only managed smaller zoos or had previously only worked in a scientific capacity. However, Hering-Hagenbeck's predecessor Dagmar Schratter and zoo legend Helmut Pechlaner would also have fallen into this category.

One of Hering-Hagenbeck's first official acts at Schönbrunn three years ago was to make his predecessor's ready-made aquarium project impossible by having a "facility for Asian mountain animals" built in the place reserved for it.

(Bild: Tomschi Peter)

Hering-Hagenbeck's reappointment to the Ministry of Economic Affairs does not appear to have been a matter of the heart: The already ongoing appointment process was frozen at the beginning of the summer and the hearings that had already been scheduled were stopped because questions about Hering-Hagenbeck's new aquarium building had also piled up in the ministry. According to reports, a law firm was commissioned to investigate whether everything was above board with the project.

Fishy new building

Immediately after its launch in Schönbrunn in 2020, Hering-Hagenbeck halted the planned project for the new aquarium house, which was to have been another flagship for the zoo. Instead, the zoo is now getting a new building on the site of the previous aquarium house: smaller than the previous aquarium, with reptiles placed in front of the door, and at the same time more expensive than the relegated prestigious project - but built by his ex-companion from his German homeland.

An investigation with a catch
The lawyers commissioned to investigate the project were ultimately unable to prove any wrongdoing on the part of Hering-Hagenbeck. The flaw was that the investigation was based purely on Hering-Hagenbeck's own statements, the zoo's own files and documents from the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The lawyers could therefore only have found a case against the zoo director if he had officially recorded any irregularities himself.

All the questions about the project, which cost tens of millions, therefore remain unanswered - for example, why Hering-Hagenbeck's ex-company partner was suddenly the "best bidder" instead of Austrian architects at the last moment of the 2022 retendering process, and where exactly the traces of Hering-Hagenbeck's network of companies that connected him to the "best bidder" are lost: he first passed on his functions there to his daughter. Once the aquarium project was on track, the company was suddenly liquidated. Hering-Hagenbeck knows the answers to these questions. He will be in Vienna for a while longer. Perhaps he will have to answer them after all.