the Baden State President Leo Wohleb. A substantial renovation of the interior of the building was carried out between 1985 and 1986 on the occasion of the Freiburg State Garden Show, after the building had been extended in 1955/56. At this time there was debate, that was to last for several decades, as to whether a renovation or construction of a new station building was required and there was much criticism in the press of the existing building. According to Badischer Zeitung newspaper the building was a disgrace to the commercial and touristic city of Freiburg and was appropriate for "a provincial 'nest' rather than a city with 160,000 people". In the following years designs were produced, which provided for a multi-level pedestrian platform over the tracks connecting to the city centre. In addition to the mainline station, underground tram and bus stations were planned. Also, the Technisches Rathaus ("technical town hall"), which was later realised in Fehrenbachallee would be built above the tracks, along with 7- to 15-storey high-rise buildings with cinemas, department stores, cultural and convention centres and parking garages. A plan put forward in 1965 by the chief architect of the Freiburg city council, Hans Geiges called for the sale and leasing of all the land and air space. Deutsche Bundesbahn agreed in 1969 to the project as it would get more space for tracks for the upgrade of the Rhine Valley line. However, the DM 40 million Bahnhofsplatte (station plate) project failed in October 1970 because the city could not find investors. During the debate over the construction of a new culture and congress centre, the architect Manfred Saß designed a new railway station with an integrated convention centre. This provided for a structural plate located 4.5 m above the tracks and would have accommodated the construction of a hall that was up to 12 metres high. The cost in 1978 was estimated at DM 86 million. In the same year, the resignation of the Minister President of Baden-Württemberg, Hans Filbinger, who had long lived in Freiburg, reduced the prospects of national funding for the project. Since Deutsche Bundesbahn did not want to finance any major projects as a result of increasing competition from air transport, it asked for the suspension of negotiations in 1980. The operation at the station went on and Deutsche Bundesbahn had resumed operations of both high-speed railcars and the Rheingold. The