You could see it as another curiosity in a long history full of oddities: This remote mini airport in the Rhineland-Palatinate town of Hunsrück, which has cheekily marketed itself as "Frankfurt-Hahn" for decades, has now been acquired by a Frankfurter.

But the process is no laughing matter.

Because with this deal, the state of Hesse should finally be able to write off its 17.5 percent stake in the bankrupt airport, for which it once spent 20 million euros.

Now 20 million euros may seem small compared to the billions that the state government otherwise handles in its budget.

And it is also significantly less than the loss that has accumulated for the state of Rhineland-Palatinate over the years.

But "Peanuts" aren't either.

It was not unlikely that the acquisition of the Hahn shares would turn out to be a bad investment in 2002, when the then Prime Minister Roland Koch (CDU) arranged the purchase.

Hahn was supposed to relieve and expand Frankfurt Airport, and at the time the politician raved about a “European airport system”.

In Hahn's favour, planes are allowed to take off and land there at night.

But how are masses of passengers and goods supposed to reach a terminal that is in the middle of the Hunsrück, 100 kilometers from any major city and doesn't even have a train station?

So the losses increased from year to year without the prospects really improving.

But the federal states stuck to the bad investment for another 15 years.

Now the state of Hesse can only be blamed to a limited extent when the majority shareholder, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, found a first private prospective buyer in 2016, who then turned out to be a fraudster.

The fact that Hesse continued to hold on to its percentages, while the neighboring state finally got rid of its shares in the HNA group at the second attempt, still requires explanation.

Rhineland-Palatinate can be quite relaxed about the current change of ownership, while the Hessian state government must now continue to clarify the consequences of the insolvency for itself and the taxpayers.