Open Monument Day 2022 – a look back

Open Monument Day 2022: Whether fortifications, ships or churches, industrial plants, castles or windmills, residential buildings, gardens or archaeological sites – Germany’s monuments are just as varied as its regions. And that is exactly what makes the Open Monument Day – Germany’s largest cultural event – so varied, lively and fascinating every year. Take a look over the shoulders of restorers, craftsmen and architects as they go about their work and find out what committed citizens have done to save our cultural heritage

Many monuments are not or only partially accessible to the public. Since 1993, this has changed every year on Open Monument Day, which is coordinated by the German Foundation for Monument Protection. More than 7,500 monuments are open to the public, and there are lectures, exhibitions, bicycle excursions and guided tours in buildings that are otherwise often closed to the public.

The free program, which is attended by millions of visitors, always takes place on the second Sunday in September. The nationwide opening event was held in Leipzig this year. The motto: “KulturSpur. A case for monument protection – Open Monument Day 2022”. It focused on the question of what knowledge and evidence can be gained by examining the original monument substance? What traces has human activity left behind over the centuries and through many layers of time? And what conclusions can monument conservation draw from this? In order to be able to examine traces on monuments, experts are needed to secure them, analyze evidence and uncover crimes, be they monument conservators, citizens’ initiatives, restorers, architects, archaeologists or historians.

Walls, floors, stairs, cellars and ceilings, as well as listed gardens and parks, are full of clues that need to be read. Monuments must therefore be preserved in their original substance and examined in a variety of ways using methods such as thermo-luminescence, stratigraphy or photogrammetry. Anyone looking for concrete examples in their area could find inspiration in a new app this time. In Leipzig, nine exhibition sites offered the opportunity to look over the shoulders of monument conservators as they worked, a Grundton D concert took place in the special setting of the historic city baths and knowledge about monuments was imparted on the subject of sustainability, flanked by numerous perspectives on this year’s motto. In previous years, the focus was on color on monuments, wood as a material, romantic monuments of the 19th century or “uncomfortable monuments beyond the good and beautiful”.

The event’s target audience includes all age groups, from schoolchildren, trainees and students to middle-aged people and senior citizens. At the same time, the Open Monument Day is a celebration of voluntary work: without the involvement of numerous associations, initiatives and many individual volunteers, it would not be able to take place. If a city would like to be recognized as a cultural highlight of particular importance, it can apply to host the nationwide opening ceremony on the website of the German Foundation for Monument Protection. The city authority responsible for implementing the Open Monument Day, such as the cultural office, the building authority or the monument protection authority, can also apply on behalf of the city. In addition to a strong external perception of the city as a city of culture, the advantages of the host role include an award ceremony, the possibility of top-class stage events for the opening ceremony or the visit of well-known political and cultural figures.

The program for cell phones and on the go

Visiting the former Pestalozzi School in Bonn on Open Monument Day 2022

The Werkstatt Baukultur Bonn network has been planning the program for the city of Bonn on behalf of the Lower Monument Authority since 2012. The Bonn program ranged from Roman times to outstanding post-war monuments in Bad Godesberg. Here, too, interested parties were able to explore the question of what insights and evidence can be gained by examining the original monument substance. And what conclusions does monument preservation draw from this? For example, from the history of the former Pestalozzi School, into whose premises the Bonn City Archive will move after the renovation.

Hidden elements came to light

The former vocational school was completed in 1913. In the 1970s, the administration building was demolished in favor of road construction. The school was initially continued as a special school. The building has been a listed building since 2007. Asbestos fibers have since been found in the plaster, which is why it was removed, revealing hidden elements such as bricked-up oculus windows in the classrooms. Cologne restorers have analyzed and protected all of the historical surfaces and furnishings, such as the wooden folding partitions and coloured frames on the walls, ahead of the upcoming refurbishment in line with heritage requirements. The original lecture hall is to be converted into a public library once the city archive has moved in. The old building will be joined by a new depot, which will create storage capacity for several decades.

Find out more about the listed Pestalozzi School from 1919 in Bonn in the video on Open Monument Day 2022:

Under monument protection: UNESCO World Heritage Quedlinburg

Located on the north-eastern edge of the Harz Mountains, the over 1000-year-old town of Quedlinburg, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is an exemplary place between past and future, with Romanesque buildings, 2069 half-timbered houses and villas from the Wilhelminian and Art Nouveau periods. This time, 45 monuments opened their doors in the city center, including public and private renovation projects. Haus am Münzenberg 5 was included for the first time. The residential building built into the ruins of the former monastery church of St. Marien on the Münzenberg was purchased in 2017 by the Ernst Ritter Foundation, a trustee of the German Foundation for Monument Protection (DSD), and stands on part of the Ottonian vaults of the west building of the church.

The vaults have already been repaired and are part of the Münzenberg Museum. Remains of the former monastery church have also been preserved inside the residential building up to the attic, such as large parts of the brickwork and the former access to the nuns’ gallery. The building has been renovated since 2019 with the help of a mobile team from the Quedlinburg Youth Building Lodge and under the direction of an architectural firm from Quedlinburg with experience in listed buildings. This fall, the new class of the Jugendbauhütte will take care of the interior work. So far, excavation work has revealed a narrow relief from the time the church was in use, the remains of head niche graves and foundations, which have expanded our knowledge of the appearance of the medieval monastery complex.

Discover Quedlinburg digitally on Open Monument Day 2022:

View of the International Newspaper Museum in Aachen on Open Monument Day 2022

In Aachen, the building that now houses the city’s International Newspaper Museum has undergone an unusual number of different uses over the centuries, some of which are still visible, such as the s-shaped iron parts on the masonry or the roof beams from the 17th century. Built around 1500 by merging, converting and extending several houses, the “Great House of Aachen” was one of the few that was built entirely in stone and therefore survived the city fire of 1656. It was used as a town house, city weigh house, police headquarters, prison, customs post, air raid shelter and residential building for teachers at the Kaiser-Karl-Gymnasium. Even before the Second World War, it served as a museum building, at that time for the City History Museum. The City of Aachen’s newspaper museum has been housed here since 1931. Renovation work in 2009 brought new details of the building’s history to light. The roof truss of the rear part of the building could be dated to the time after the devastating city fire and a floor from the time the building was built was discovered in the cellar – all historical scars, additions and further developments which, after a long slumber, still reveal unknown things about the building and its inhabitants.

Discover the International Newspaper Museum in Aachen on Open Monument Day 2022 in the video: