Overview
- The city presented official oil portraits of former mayors Petra Roth, Andreas von Schoeler and Volker Hauff by Johannes Heisig at a ceremony in the Kaisersaal.
- Roth’s portrait drew a brief, uneasy pause and muted applause, with several attendees saying the image did not reflect their view of her, and she did not explicitly endorse the likeness.
- The paintings will be stored at the Historisches Museum under the long-standing practice of hanging mayoral portraits in the Römer’s Wandelhalle only after the subjects’ deaths.
- Heisig criticized the rule that bars display during the sitters’ lifetimes, saying it prevents a public conversation about the artworks.
- Display logistics remain unresolved, with no current space in the Wandelhalle and uneven procedures, while the commission—initiated by von Schoeler with multiple sittings at Heisig’s Brandenburg studio—was funded by the Kulturamt.