The new centre serves as a coordination point for cultural heritage research, teaching and outreach and strives for local, regional and international cooperation. All members of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar but also external partners can participate as members. The centre is jointly founded by 16 professorships from all four faculties of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and builds on existing cooperations – for example in the Research Training Group »Identity and Heritage«, in the DFG priority programme »Construction as Cultural Heritage«, or in the project alliance »Vogtland Pioneers«. In the approach the centre takes, the academic interest in objects, structures and traditions from the past that are actively accepted as heritage is not nostalgically motivated,but rather future-oriented.

»I am pleased that Professor Hans-Rudolf Meier, Chair for the Preservation of Historical Monuments and Architectural History, has taken the initiative together with the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, initiated an interdisciplinary centre that is open to all. Important research projects have already been acquired in the preparatory phase. I am sure that the International Heritage Centre will provide a support structure with which we will be able to conduct and advance cultural heritage research at the highest level,« says University President Professor Winfried Speitkamp about the upcoming foundation.

The founding act of the International Heritage Centre will take place on Friday, 15 October 2021, at 1 pm in the Audimax of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. The first general meeting is open to all interested parties and serves as an opportunity to elect the board of directors and welcome the Israeli architect and Mercator Visiting Professor Dr Zvi Efrat to Weimar. Afterwards, the international symposium »The Intellectual, Memory and the City: Maurice Halbwachs as reflected in the 21st Century« will begin at 5 pm, taking a critical look at the urban culture of memory and focusing on the work of the French sociologist and philosopher Maurice Halbwachs (1877-1945), who died in Buchenwald. Halbwachs laid the foundation of modern theories of heritage and memory with his concept of collective memory.

For the coming year, the members of the International Heritage Centre are preparing a programme of excursions, workshops and events that will promote academic exchange and give greater publicity to the diverse cultural heritage projects at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

Foundation of the International Heritage Centre
Friday, 15 October 2021, 1 pm
Audimax of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (Steubenstraße 6a)

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Dr Jenny Price, Academic Manager of the International Heritage Centre at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, by telephone on +49 (0) 3643 58 3529 or by e-mail at heritage@uni-weimar.de.