Читать книгу Monument Future - Siegfried Siegesmund - Страница 6

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FOREWORD

Anyone who works at the German Parliament, whether they are an elected representative or a member of the administration staff, comes into contact every day with one of the most striking stone witnesses to German history: the Reichstag Building.

What takes place within the building itself is already worth a look – this is after all where policy is conceived and implemented for a population of 83 million. It is rare, however, for a European parliamentary building to reflect the destiny and fate of the nation it was designed to serve in a more vivid, dramatic and unsparing way than the Reichstag Building in Berlin does.

The Hohenzollern had no love for the building, shortly after the Nazis seized power it was set ablaze, and when the Red Army ultimately seized it on 1 May 1945 after many days of battle, it was left in ruins. Soviet soldiers left victors’ graffiti on the walls of the building and while these inscriptions were initially covered up during the years of division in Germany, when the building was restored following the fall of the Wall, they were made visible once more.

All of this is history set in stone.

The city of Berlin is awash with these stone witnesses to history: the Olympic Stadium, the main building of the Messe, the Brandenburg Gate, the New Guardhouse, the newly constructed Berlin City Palace, the towers at Frankfurter Tor – to name but a few. Successful and less successful attempts at restoration can be found everywhere, in the east of the city as much as in the west. They all reflect a piece of urban history, a piece of German history. They are object lessons and stone-hewn witnesses to success and failure, to acts of heroism and barbarity. It is the responsibility of the state to preserve such buildings in order to make the history of Germany tangible for future generations too.

And that is why it is a particular honour for me to welcome you to a congress such as “Monument Future, Decay and Conservation of Stone”, a meeting of academics, conservators, architects and engineers, here in Göttingen.

Researching the implications of climate change alone on the condition and life expectancy of all buildings, whether they are privately owned or public property, is a task for generations. Even a layperson can recognise that environmental influences increasingly affect not just the patina of the stone. Many things that would have survived for a long time to come if the air were clearer are already crumbling.

There is no doubt that new methods of digitalisation enable a much more exact means of monitoring changes in stone structures. It is fascinating to observe how interdisciplinary paths and solutions develop during a congress such as this, viewing the stone of a building almost as an object undergoing transformation, the changes to which we can influence.

6Your work is historic preservation in the best sense of the term. Too much has been destroyed in this country, even in the aftermath of war in numerous cases and without necessity, many say without any sense of reason and understanding. That is why we need to preserve what remains for us. Your congress makes an important contribution towards achieving this.

For those who are dedicated to preserving these stone witnesses to history are dedicated to the future of those who have learned from history and who wish to continue to learn from it.

Thomas Oppermann Vice-President of the German Bundestag