Cultural Heritage in the Face of Climate Change – How Can We Preserve Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Historic Buildings for the Future?
Cultural Heritage in the Face of Climate Change – How Can We Preserve Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania’s Historic Buildings for the Future?
What would Mecklenburg-Vorpommern be without its historic old towns, churches, castles, and manor houses—without its parks and gardens? They define our homeland, tell stories, and make our cultural landscape unique. But how secure is this heritage? And what happens when storms, heavy rains, heat, and drought increasingly take their toll on it?
Disasters such as the fire at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the collapse of the Historical Archives in Cologne, or the devastating floods in the Ahr Valley demonstrate just how vulnerable our cultural heritage is. But it is not always spectacular events that endanger historical landmarks. Often, it is gradual changes: moisture seeps into the masonry, long periods of drought damage historic gardens and parks, and storms take their toll on roofs and valuable tree populations.
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern also faces these challenges. Climate change is altering the conditions under which our architectural heritage has been created and preserved over the centuries.
Using vivid examples from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, this lecture illustrates the dangers facing historic buildings, gardens, and parks—and how we can address them. This is not just a matter of disaster preparedness, but also of proactive prevention, smart adaptation measures, and the question of how to preserve historic structures without losing their unique character.
After all, anyone who wants to preserve our cultural heritage for the future must prepare today for the changes of tomorrow.
Speaker: Dr. Ramona Dornbusch heads the State Office for Culture and Historic Preservation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She studied civil engineering and cultural heritage protection and earned her doctorate on the topic “Landscape as Cultural Heritage,” focusing on the historical significance of cultural landscapes.
