How a location can become a UNESCO World Heritage Site
Nadine Wojcik ad
June 2, 2017
June 4 is Germany's World Heritage Day. Here are some of the country's sites listed by UNESCO, and more on the process that led them to be selected among the prestigious World Heritage Sites.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany open their doors to visitors on the first Sunday in June. The country is home to 39 such designated places in total. DW presents 10 of the most spectacular buildings and sites.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Carsten Janssen
Aachen Cathedral
The western German city's magnificent cathedral dates to the Carolingian Renaissance and was Germany's first UNESCO World Heritage Site (1978). It was Charlemagne's Palatine Chapel and the church of coronation for six centuries of German kings. Today, it is one of the world's most significant pilgrimage sites for Christians. This year marks the 1,200th anniversary of Charlemagne's death.
Image: Andreas Herrmann
Muskau Park
This park stands for reconciliation among peoples. It was added to UNESCO's list jointly as part of both German and Polish cultural heritage. One third of the park is in Germany, while the majority is in Poland. The palace in Bad Muskau forms the center of the nature park, which Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau established in 1815.
Image: AP
Potsdam's palace
The Sanssouci Palace and its parks in Potsdam, near Berlin, are world famous. Frederick the Great commissioned the construction of terraced vineyards and a palace in Rococo style in 1745. He used the palace as a summer residence. The many parks and palaces in Potsdam and Berlin make up a vast area that counts as the largest World Heritage site in Germany.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Museum Island
Five museums on a small island in the Spree River are the home to art, research facilities and various collections - all in the heart of Berlin. Visitors can go on a journey through Western art from antiquity to modernity, presented in the halls of buildings that are themselves historic artifacts. They stand for the development of modern museum culture since the early 19th century.
Image: Fotolia
Mountain beauty
The town of Quedlinburg sits just north of the Harz mountain range, where it houses a whole ensemble of World Heritage relics: its old city with its timber-framed houses, its palace as well as the Quedlinburg Abbey and its collections. Quedlinburg was the site of Ottonian ruler Henry the Fowler's favorite palace. In the 10th century, it played host to courtly rituals and synods.
Image: Fotolia
Kassel's Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe
In the 18th century, nobles in Kassel set about creating this vast sloped landscape park - the largest of its kind in Europe at the time. Its central element remains a hulking statue of Hercules and various water works. Water cascades down from 238 meters at the highest point in the park into the valley. The flow of water relies solely on inclines - a masterful example of engineering.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Mining the past
It was once the largest black coal mine in the world. For 135 years, the Zeche Zollverein facility in Essen was used to excavate and process coal. Today, the site is a highly praised example of structural adaptation. The industrial monument and its associated museums offer visitors glimpses into a world of work from the past and provide information about the complexities of mining.
Image: Thomas Willemsen/Stiftung Zollverein
Wartburg Castle
The Wartburg Castle is a kind of archetype of the German medieval castle. Its residential quarters from the 12th century suggest the finery and luxury of the feudal epoch's rulers, while its festival hall is a jewel of late Romantic architecture. A certain monk also took refuge behind its walls: in a simple room within the castle, reformer Martin Luther translated the New Testament in 1521-22.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Margravial Opera House
This Baroque theater was commissioned by Margravine Wilhelmine von Brandenburg-Kulmbach-Bayreuth. She was a culture-oriented ruler, who also acted as a composer, actress and author of works for the stage. With this opera house, which was finished in 1750, she made Bayreuth a glittering host for musical culture. Today, it's the best-preserved theater of its period in Germany.
Image: picture alliance/dpa
Corvey Abbey
Corvey Abbey with its famous Carolingian Westwork and the medieval town remains known as the Civitas Corvey, is the most recently listed and therefore 39th World Heritage Site in Germany. The main building with its landmark matching towers is the oldest and only intact Westwork or West Front anywhere. It serves as an annex to the church to the west. In the 16th century the tower spires were added.
Image: Kulturkreis Höxter-Corvey
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Over 1,000 cultural and natural monuments are listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Being included on that list greatly adds to the prestige of a given location. As a result, more tourists come to visit and public funds increase.
Among the sites are churches, national parks, rock paintings, tombs, castles, historic city centers, ship lifts, archeological sites, tidelands and vineyards.
But how are those sites selected? Here's how it works.
1. Who decides?
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has 21 members from 21 countries. They are to represent all continents and cultural regions. New members are elected every four years, to allow representatives from all the 163 states that have signed agreements with UNESCO to be represented on a rotating basis.
Vietnam, Finland, Algeria, Peru and Germany are among the countries currently making up the committee.
2. Where do the committee members meet?
Their meeting point also changes. In 2015, the committee members met in Bonn; this year's session is held in Istanbul from July 10-20. The international committee usually meets for 10 days to discuss new candidates to be added to the heritage list, as well as the present conditions of the existing ones.
This year, the committee is to examine 156 detailed reports. They help determine which sites, especially those in poorer states, should obtain international financial support.
The latest addition to Germany's World Heritage Sites is Hamburg's SpeicherstadtImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Axel Heimken
3. What are the criteria?
Only locations having an outstanding, universal significance have a chance of being chosen. A cultural or natural location must be unique, historically authentic, and intact if it wants to qualify. Apart from such basic criteria, there is an additional catalogue of 10 criteria. A location should, for example, be a masterwork of human creativity, or a unique testimony of a cultural tradition.
4. How many World Heritage Sites are there in Germany?
There are now 40. The first monument to be named a World Heritage Site was the Cathedral of Aachen. Back in 1978, the dome was even among the very first Heritage Sites ever chosen. Other significant German cathedrals followed suit, among them those of Speyer and Cologne, as well as the cloisters of Lorsch, Corvey, Reichenau and Maulbronn.
Listed architectural sites also include the Bauhaus sites in Weimar and Dessau, the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates and Speicherstadt warehouse district in Hamburg.
Entire historic city centers are also protected, such as those of Bamberg, Bremen, Goslar, Lübeck, Quedlinburg, Regensburg, Stralsund and Wismar.
The list includes industrial sites, such as the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen, and more typically castles, such as those in Eisenach, Berlin and Potsdam.
Cultural institutions like the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth and archeological sites in Trier are also World Heritage Sites.
Six German sites are natural: the mudflats of the Wadden Sea, ancient beech forests in several federal states, the landscape park Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Kassel, the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz, the Muskauer Park and the Upper Middle Rhine Valley. You can find a summary of German UNESCO Heritage Sites and travel tips here.
5. Which sites are on the List of World Heritage in Danger?
The List of World Heritage in Danger includes all the sites that are particularly endangered, damaged or destroyed. There are currently 48 sites is on this list. They are endangered by wars, vandalism, terrorism, natural disasters, or urbanization. Among the sites that grabbed public attention this year were cultural monuments in Syria, as well as the former oasis city of Palmyra.
Due to this bridge in Dresden, the Elb Valley lost its status as a World Heritage SiteImage: picture-alliance/dpa
6. Can a site lose its heritage site status?
Yes, although, so far, this has happened only twice as, obviously, no state would voluntarily give up this status. In case of conflicts, or admonitions from UNESCO, a solution can usually be worked out. But that's not always the case.
In 2009, Germany lost a Heritage Site, the Elb Valley in Dresden, after a four-lane bridge, the Waldschlösschenbrücke, was built in spite of protests by UNESCO. According to the UN organization, the bridge destroys the unique view across the river valley. The move created negative publicity for Germany, as only one other country also lost a Heritage Site: In 2007, Oman lost that status after the protected area of a desert home to a rare antelope was drastically reduced in size.
