18,400 euros per metre of fence: Bellevue becomes a billion-euro project

For the refurbishment of Bellevue Palace and the whole site, 860 million euros are budgeted, including risk and price reserves.^[3][4] On top come 205 million euros for the temporary accommodation in Moabit, into which the federal president moved in the summer of 2026.^[3][8] Together that is 1.065 billion euros. And for the fence around the site including video surveillance the taxpayers’ association names 23.9 million euros, on the arithmetic around 18,400 euros per metre.^[6]

Important first: this is not an ordinary building-site fence, and the figures are not a closed final account. That is precisely why a close look is worth it.

What the billion covers

Sources: Office of the Federal President^[2][3] and the federal government’s answer^[4]; temporary accommodation: Berliner Zeitung^[8] and the federal government^[4]. The last row is the addition of two separate budgets. According to the federal office for building and regional planning, furniture and interior fittings are budgeted separately and come on top.^[6]

Three qualifications follow from this. First, the refurbishment of the palace itself costs 146 million euros according to the plan, not a billion; the billion arises from the whole site, the reserves and the temporary building. Second, the 259 million euros of reserves are planned risks and price increases, not money already spent; they correspond to around 43 per cent of the construction and planning costs. Third, the temporary accommodation is not a throwaway stopgap: after the federal president returns it is to serve other federal authorities permanently. Until then the Office of the Federal President pays rent, provisionally 16.8 million euros a year, and 9.2 million from the sixth year.^[4][5]

How the costs have grown

The robust statement about the increase in costs is therefore this: between 2021 and 2023 the temporary accommodation rose from 137 to 205 million euros, by almost 50 per cent.^[7][8] The statement that “the refurbishment of the palace rose from 137 million to over a billion”, by contrast, would be wrong, because it mixes two projects and different scopes of cost. We found no published earlier overall estimate for the refurbishment of the site against which today’s 860 million could honestly be compared.

The fence in detail

What is actually being renewed is confirmed by the Office of the Federal President: the permanent fence along the whole 1,300-metre outer boundary of the site of around ten hectares, and the video surveillance along that boundary. The analogue video technology, around 30 years old, is being digitised.^[1][2] The federal government assigns fence, video surveillance and bollards to external works, which come to 162 million euros in total.^[4]

No official publication shows a separate price of 23.9 million euros. The figure comes from the black book.^[6] In response to the criticism the Office of the Federal President merely referred to its website.^[10] A pure price for materials or installation cannot be derived from it, and a breakdown between fence, cameras and further works is not public.

Where the criticism bites

The temporary accommodation alone became 68 million euros more expensive. These additional costs on their own come to almost three times the fence package.^[6][8] Whether a new building was needed at all was doubted early on: in 2021 Berliner Zeitung pointed to 121,000 square metres of empty federally owned office space.^[13]

The guardhouse and plant room together cost 173 million euros, more than the refurbishment of the historic palace at 146 million.^[2][3] The project thus goes far beyond refurbishing a palace.

The risk and price buffer of 259 million euros is larger than the entire budget of the temporary new building.^[3][8] Such a buffer is not automatically uneconomic, but it is an order of magnitude that calls for public scrutiny.

The price of around 18,400 euros per metre is a vivid point of criticism. Without a specification of the works and a robust comparison, though, it does not on its own prove that the contract is overpriced.

What belongs to a fair assessment

The Office of the Federal President names concrete reasons for the refurbishment: a roof leaking in places, corrosion in the floor slabs, outdated building services, considerable fire safety defects above all in the administration building, and windows that do not meet security requirements. A conference area in the palace and an additional office floor in the administration building were dropped.^[1][2][4]

The comparison with the refurbishment of 2004 and 2005 carries only so far: back then it was mainly the north wing that was partly refurbished, in 20 months, and Charlottenburg Palace served only for individual events, not as a substitute official residence.^[4][11] In the summer of 2026 federal president Steinmeier said the palace was not the cost driver; a ZDF fact check assessed that as partly accurate.^[12]

The need for refurbishment is thus established. Whether all the measures and prices are economically appropriate is another question.

What the federal government has to disclose

For a robust assessment of the fence, the federal office for building and regional planning or the Office of the Federal President would have to answer at least six questions. How much falls to the fence, how much to the video surveillance? Are demolition, foundations, earthworks, cable routes, power supply and the restoration of the ground included? What particular protection requirements does the installation have to meet? Are planning costs and reserves contained in the 23.9 million? Is this an estimate, a contract awarded or works that have been invoiced? And which cheaper variants were examined and why were they rejected?

These are questions for examination, not claims about what is in this budget. The documents published so far do not answer them for the fence.

A security fence may cost more than a garden fence. But at around 18,400 euros per metre the federal government has to explain which works justify that amount.

A need for refurbishment is no blank cheque for any invoice. If Bellevue together with the temporary new building becomes a billion-euro project, and the fence with cameras alone is to cost 18,400 euros per metre on the arithmetic, then the federal government has to explain publicly which works justify these sums and which cheaper alternatives were examined. Pointing to higher security requirements does not on its own replace a comprehensible calculation.

Andreas W. HerbCEO MBG Group, Paderborn