Magdeburg/Wörlitz (dpa/sa) - The directorship of the Dessau-Wörlitz Cultural Foundation is to be advertised internationally again in the near future. This was decided by the board of trustees of the foundation. Until the reappointment, the director of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, the state archaeologist Harald Meller, will temporarily head the foundation, as the chairman of the board of trustees, Saxony-Anhalt's state minister and culture minister, Rainer Robra (CDU), announced on Wednesday.
The background is a long legal dispute over the post of director. The ex-boss, Brigitte Mang, went to court against the planned replacement with a competitor protection lawsuit. The regional labor court prohibited the cultural foundation from filling the position with the applicant selected by the board of trustees.
The Cultural Foundation preserves the heritage of the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz. It is part of the Unesco World Heritage. The position of director of the foundation, which has around 100 permanent employees and 80 seasonal workers, has not been filled for months. In the previous application process, the Board of Trustees decided in favor of a candidate from Italy. Mang, who had been in charge since 2017, was also in the finals.
