Hamburg will not raise its offer for the half-finished Elbtower by a single cent beyond 595 million euros, Finance Senator Andreas Dressel announced, and to prove the point he has ordered the entire finance ministry to move into the building immediately, one department per floor, starting with the treasury on level nine.
The ministry's staff now commute by construction hoist to open-plan offices separated from the wind by blue tarpaulin. Dressel has said the arrangement is permanent until the city recoups its investment through what he calls «internal rent», a figure calculated each morning by a clerk with a clipboard who walks the stairwell counting occupied desks.
Other agencies have asked to join. The building authority has requested the forty-first floor for a planning office with no walls, arguing that its officials work better when they can see the river. The fire brigade has refused to certify any of it but has offered to station a ladder truck on the roof as a permanent feature.
By next week, Dressel says, the Elbtower will hold more city employees than the town hall, and the cranes will be retasked to lift filing cabinets. «We are not paying more,» he said. «We are simply moving in.»