Mandatory auction: Südbahnhotel buys Manker's own props

The items from “Alma – A Show Biz to the End” and “The Last Days of Mankind” were to be sold for €16,000, and the Südbahnhotel was awarded the contract for €8,000.

A week ago, insolvency proceedings were opened against Paulus Manker's Alma Theaterproduktion GmbH – and now a forced auction of the props has taken place, as the Südbahnhotel announced on Friday. The 80 cubic metre props were bought at auction by the hotel itself, winning the auction (estimated at 16,000 euros) for 8,000 euros.

Manker and his production company staged the plays “Alma – A Show Biz to the End” and “The Last Days of Mankind” at the Südbahnhotel am Semmering. However, the contractual partners have been at odds for a long time – including legal disputes and the forced eviction of props from the Südbahnhotel in January this year. Manker is said to have transferred the income from ticket sales not to a joint account as agreed, but to the account of Manker's GmbH. In total, there is an income of around one million euros, of which more than 500,000 euros are said to have been transferred to Manker's accounts. Manker spoke of “revenge proceeds” and a much smaller amount.

As a result, the Südbahnhotel is now aiming to hold a charity auction for the #we_do! call and advice centre, which campaigns against abuse of power. The accusations against Manker were made as part of an NDR documentary entitled “Against the Silence” that aired this year. Several of those affected described Manker’s rude and sometimes physically aggressive behaviour towards his representatives. He dismissed the accusations as “taken out of thin air”. (APA)