Cultural monuments/Protection of historical monuments

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    Head of Department
    Georg Wolf
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    • Collinistraße 1
      68161 Mannheim
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    • +49 621 293-7414

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  • More information

    The historical roots of the state preservation of monuments in Baden-Württemberg date back to the 17th century.
    At the end of the 18th century people’s interest in ancient monuments grew.
    In 1853 August von Bayer was the first conservator of the state preservation of monuments in the Grand Duchy of Baden. Five years later, Konrad D. Hassler was employed in Württemberg as the first state conservator. That was the foundation of today’s state preservation of monuments.

    More information at
    www.denkmalpflege-bw.de

The task is to preserve historical monuments for future generations

Up to the present day, it is a principle of conservation work to preserve monuments as evidence of past times and cultures. They do not only convey history but they are part of history and enable us to “touch history”. Therefore, it is the task of the preservation of monuments to protect these documents as originally as possible in their existing substance and to pass them on to future generations as “genuine” cultural heritage.

Other tasks are the preservation of monuments in their original substance and utilisation. The objective is not to transform the monuments into museums. They should rather be preserved and used in their surroundings, if possible.

The preservation of historical monuments requires the understanding of broad sectors of the population. Therefore, an important task is to convey professional decisions and their backgrounds also to the monument owners and the public.

The protection of historical monuments rests on the sovereignty of the federal states – each federal state has its own Preservation of Historical Monuments Act.

The Preservation of Historical Monuments Act (DSchG) of Baden-Württemberg sets out the conditions which must be met for an object to be a cultural monument (§ 2 DSchG):

Cultural monuments are things, aggregates of things and parts of things in the preservation of which there is a broad public interest for scientific, artistic or local history reasons.