Tinder sponge was found in Ötzi's pockets, and the hunter-gatherer, marketed as “Iceman” in Bolzano, would probably be amazed to find out that it is not used to light a fire today.

A Munich luxury shoemaker uses the material to make sneakers.

In Stuttgart, the Institute for Building Construction researches mycelium constructions for the production of fast growing organic building materials.

And this spring, a Parisian luxury brand presented a handbag made of mushroom leather.

Hannes Hintermeier

Feuilleton correspondent for Bavaria and Austria.

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These and more mushroom applications can be seen in the Biotopia Lab, a four hundred square meter appetizer in the basement of the Botanical State Collection, with which the Bavarian Natural History Museum, called Biotopia, wants to give a foretaste of its future design.

On a distant opening day.

As a distraction, watch silkworms at work.

Can you learn patience from them?

Their noises are amplified with microphones, the caterpillars rustle with a monotonous crackle.

As if time stood still.

It was supposed to start two years ago

His most prominent exhibit is the brown bear Bruno, which was shot in 2006 - the aging Museum Mensch und Natur in the northern part of Nymphenburg Palace is still doing well in terms of visitor numbers, and it will remain open in the coming year. Because Biotopia remains in the realm of Utopia as long as the state parliament takes its time to approve the building project. A process that has been going on for ten years since the first considerations. Construction was originally supposed to start in 2019, at that time the talk was of 95 million euros, today it is estimated at 200 million euros. Too much in the current Corona terminal? The costs of planning, not building the founding team with its twenty-eight employees - can also be expensive.

For the new museum, the building by Albin Steininger, erected in the 1960s and which most recently housed the Institute for Genetics and Microbiology of the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU), is to be demolished. Since he moved to Martinsried, the building has been falling into disrepair, the current temporary use as a warehouse is a ghostly temporary solution. Stuffed bears stand in chemistry laboratories, a groomed domestic pig stands on a pallet in front of the toilets, which have been closed for a long time. Asbestos lurks in the ceilings and mold in the walls. So much decay in such a prime location? You don't want to believe that the piece is set in Munich.

Local CSU politicians have already attempted to build the Free State's project elsewhere in Munich - with little response. Some conservationists and the Association of German Art Historians insist on the argument that the planned new building would encroach too heavily on the existing structure of Nymphenburg Palace, even if the architect Volker Staab, who is well-known as a museum builder, has meanwhile revised his design. "Volker Staab's planning has developed significantly," says Biotopia founding director Michael John Gorman in his simple office in the Botanical Institute.

Gorman is Irish, at the age of seventeen he went to Germany to study music and later switched to physics at Oxford. In Dublin he founded the widely acclaimed Science Gallery at Trinity College. A year has passed there from the foundation to the opening, says the friendly bearded bear with the watchful eyes - a helpless question mark in his eyes, why is that not the case in Munich? He's been planning the future here for five years now, more than fifty files are full, but the museum is a long time coming. Although officially almost everyone is for it. The Prime Minister, the Minister of Science, a support group chaired by ornithologist Auguste von Bayern. The district committee was also involved early on. "The contact with the locals was very important to me," said Gorman. A "lighthouse" is to be built,a house like none existent yet. Does the Free State have other priorities, or is it because it has had a bad run as a client - see the running away costs for the concert hall in Munich's Werksviertel? Is the minister too weak, is the founding director applying too little pressure? It is said that he is very well connected in urban society. In the spring it was said that the state parliament would decide before the summer break. Nothing happened. Then it was said that a decision should be made in autumn whether the state parliament wants to take the 200 million in hand. In autumn what year?does the founding director put too little pressure? It is said that he is very well connected in urban society. In the spring it was said that the state parliament would decide before the summer break. Nothing happened. Then it was said that a decision should be made in autumn whether the state parliament wants to take the 200 million in hand. In autumn what year?does the founding director put too little pressure? It is said that he is very well connected in urban society. In the spring it was said that the state parliament would decide before the summer break. Nothing happened. Then it was said that a decision should be made in autumn whether the state parliament wants to take the 200 million in hand. In autumn what year?