Designer Furniture Blowout: Job Center Boss Sacked After Budget Soars from €99,000 to €906,000
13.06.2026 - 00:23:07 | boerse-global.de
Bremen’s Job Center has ousted its managing director with immediate effect after a single room meant for creative work turned into a million-euro black hole. Thorsten Spinn was dismissed on Friday by the institution’s governing board, which includes both the city of Bremen and the Federal Employment Agency, following revelations that a 98-square-metre "creative space" in the Utbremer Strasse office ended up costing €906,000 — more than nine times the original budget of €99,000.
The board, citing a lasting loss of trust, appointed Spinn’s deputy Wiebke Müller as interim chief. In an earlier phase of the project, management had told the board the cost would be around €600,000. The actual figure only came to light later, and the board said it had not been informed of the ballooning expenses.
A second project also overshot
The scandal does not stop at one room. A women’s project called “Frida” — short for Frauen in der Arbeitswelt (women in the working world) — received board approval for just under €100,000. The final bill came to about €293,000. Together, the two initiatives, implemented between 2022 and 2024, cost the taxpayer roughly €1.2 million.
Labour Senator Claudia Schilling (SPD) justified Spinn’s removal by citing sustainably damaged trust. The opposition was quick to pile on: representatives of the CDU and FDP accused the former management of reckless waste of public money and demanded a full political review. The Bremen unemployed persons’ association described the spending as cynical, given the Job Center’s core mission of helping people find work.
A troubled backdrop
Thursday’s dismissal did not come out of nowhere. In 2024 the Job Center had already run into a budget crisis: its integration budget for qualifications was nearly exhausted, forcing it to dip into the 2025 allocation. At the start of 2026, benefit recipients faced payment delays. Separately, the centre made headlines earlier this year when it dismissed an employee without notice after he claimed on a television documentary that many recipients’ data was incorrect. The board stressed that Spinn’s departure is unrelated to that personnel matter and stems solely from the financial irregularities around the creative space.
