Preservation of monuments in the prussian province of Brandenburg and Berlin between 1866/70 and 1918

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Adrian von Buttlar
• Subject Area: Art History ; Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology
• Term: from 2012 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 231999486

The main result of the project will be the presentation of Denkmalpflege (preservation of monuments), protection of ancient buildings and restoration methodsof in the province of Brandenburg including the capital Berlin between 1866/70 and 1918. The study includes the research of building protections, artifical and stylistic restorations and historical completions / reconstructions. It does not only concentrate on single medieval monuments but includes townscape, as f. i. city places and church ensembles and the processes of their development. Following the historical relations and interactions between the monarch and ministry departements the research will analyse restoration policy and different methods of conservation and interventions, which were practiced by the prussian provincial governments and building administrations. Beyond the description of the work of the conservators of provinces and especially trained restoration architects it will be necessary to work out the contradictions between restoration theory and daily practice: There are strict efforts of conservation-practice in Brandenburg about 25 years before Dehio described them in his so called Kaiserrede in 1905 (First conserve, not restore!). These issues of contradictionary restoration politics can also be observed in the genesis of the capital of the Kaiserreich under Wilhelm II.. The arachne object data bank assembles plans, documents an other facts as a basis of a catalogue of the most important buildings and preservation and restoration examples. The content of the data bank and the catalogue will be the basis of the second volume of our planned publication, too. The whole work will serve as scientific basic research of the history of Denkmalpflege (preservation of monuments) in Prussia. The project will investigate the special role of the different actors and institutions for the preservation of ancient buildings and its significance for the construction of a prussian identity. We will analyze in which way a consciousness of cultural heritage in the former Brandenburg and Berlin (incl. former Ostbrandenburg/since 1945 part of Poland) emerged at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Wolfgang Neugebauer