Hiroshima Conference

Christoph

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Hiroshima Conference

Christoph Machat

The World Heritage List – German Conflicts related to Buffer Zones and nomination

areas of wide extention: Cologne Cathedral and Dresden Elbe Valley

The Cologne Cathedral

WHL Position 292, 1996

“Begun in 1248, the construction of this Gothic masterpiece took place in several stages and

was not completed until 1880. Over seven centuries, the same faith and a spirit of absolute

fidelity to the original plans inspired successive builders. Apart from its exceptional intrinsic

value and the artistic masterpieces it contains, Cologne Cathedral testifies to the enduring

strength of European Christianity.”

The chief architect of the cathedral administration prepared the nomination file for the

Cologne Cathedral without involving the municipality conservation office or the

Governmental Office for Monuments Protection of the Rhineland. As no buffer zone had been

defined, after inclusion on the WHL in 1996 the World Heritage Committee recommended

(and requested) a buffer zone.

The municipality administrator in charge of the implementation of the “Law for the Protection

and Conservation of the Historic Monuments in Nordrhein-Westfalen” (March 11, 1980),

known as the “Cologne city conservator”, never worked on a buffer zone for the cathedral.

The city conservator argued that “the cathedral is protecting itself...” The background behind

this decision is as follows:

-

in 1979 the Cologne city council adopted several “preservation areas” on the

Cologne territory cf. with the “Federal Building Act”:

-

the Protection Law, in force June, 1

st

1980 contains in § 2, art. 3 the declaration of

“protection (or conservation) areas” (Denkmalbereiche) for larger territorial units

including ensembles of monuments or historically developed areas like historic

city core areas, surroundings of important monuments (landmarks etc), including

the protection of urban patterns, historically important view axes, etc.

-

since 1980, the Cologne city conservator never used the protection areas as a

protection tool, arguing that the city council would never accept “new”

preservation areas beyond those from 1979, even if today the city administration

has about 8800 listed historical monuments...

Nevertheless since 1996 the prestigious “Society for Monuments Conservation and Landscape

Protection of the Rhineland”, founded in 1906 in cooperation with the Governmental Office,

has made several attempts at defining a buffer zone for the cathedral, a proposal already being

prepared by the University of Applied Sciences of Cologne in 1999 – including the area

opposite the cathedral on the right shore of the Rhine, the historic quarter of Deutz (and also

the historical view axes towards the Brühl (WHL) and Bensberg castles). Deutz was founded

by the Romans around 300 AD upon the orders of Constantin the Great as a military fortress

against the Germanic tribes and was later connected with the “Colonia” by the first masonry

bridge over the Rhine