Andrea Funck, Professor and Head of the Conservation and Restoration course at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, called on ministries and authorities in a public letter at the beginning of October 2023 to pay restorers employed under collective agreements better. Because: The low pay of this professional group means that young people in Germany are becoming less and less interested in studying restoration science
Andrea Funck, Professor and Head of the Conservation and Restoration course at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, called on ministries and authorities in a public letter at the beginning of October 2023 to pay restorers employed under collective agreements better. Because: The low pay of this professional group means that young people in Germany are becoming less and less interested in studying restoration science
In a public letter dated 9 October 2023, Professor Dr. Andrea Funck, head of the Conservation and Restoration course at the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, called on ministries and authorities to pay restorers employed under collective agreements better. The low pay scales in the public sector and the completely outdated pay scales from the 1968 BAT in the federal states are making studying conservation/restoration less and less attractive for young people. And this ultimately has negative consequences for the protection of cultural heritage.
Andrea Funck is Vice Rector for the Promotion of Young Talent and Research in Stuttgart. Her “Appeal for better pay: future viability of cultural heritage preservation and the next generation of conservators” was signed by 19 professors from all German universities who teach restoration and conservation. The appeal is another important building block in negotiating appropriate salaries and fees for conservators. In the view of the signatories, the future viability of restoration and thus the preservation of cultural assets, especially at state institutions in Germany, is endangered for two reasons: Firstly, the current classification policy of the federal states according to TV-L and secondly, the decreasing number of training institutions and opportunities for prospective restorers. In the last few years alone, three university locations in Germany have closed completely, as well as a specialization at the Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (metal restoration).
Both developments, which reinforce each other, are already leading to a noticeable decline in qualified specialists and unfilled positions, particularly in state institutions in Germany. The letter of 9 October was preceded by a letter with similar wording, which was sent by the then Director of the Württemberg State Museum, Prof. Dr. Astrid Pellengahr, and Prof. Dr. Andrea Funck, Head of the Conservation and Restoration of Archaeological, Ethnological and Artistic Objects course and Vice-Rector for Research and Promotion of Young Talent, on 21 June 2022 to the then State Secretary in the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts.06.2022 to the then State Secretary in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts, Petra Olschowski, Minister of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg since the end of September 2022.
Conservators in Germany are predominantly employed in museums, heritage offices and archives, most of which are funded by the federal states. However, the completely outdated pay scale from the BAT of 1968 still applies to this occupational group in the federal states. For decades, restorers have therefore generally been classified in the upper service (EG 8, 9 or 10) regardless of their diploma or master’s degree, which has been available since the 1970s, although the profession has developed fundamentally over the last 50 years from a predominantly manual activity to a scientifically based task. Such a classification is therefore no longer appropriate to the actual qualifications of conservators today and also has a detrimental effect on their hierarchical position in the institutions. This imbalance has been recognized in recent years for restorers employed in federal and local government institutions and has been adjusted under collective bargaining law, but not for those employed by the federal states.
Zu den Unterzeichnenden des aktuellen Appells zählen u.a. Prof. Dr. Tilly Laaser, Professorin für Konservierung und Restaurierung von Gemälden im Studiengang Konservierung und Restaurierung von Kunst und Kulturgut, CICS – Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences der TH Köln, Prof. Dr. Steffen Laue, Studiengang Konservierung und Restaurierung, Naturwissenschaften, Fachhochschule Potsdam, Prof. Roland Lenz, Head of Conservation and Restoration of Wall Painting, Architectural Surfaces and Stone Polychromy, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design, Prof. Dr. Wibke Neugebauer, Head of Conservation and Restoration of Paintings and Painted Sculptures, Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design and Prof. Dr. Jeannine Meinhardt, Conservation and Restoration of Stone, Potsdam University of Applied Sciences.
