Knowledge of the World – Heritage of Mankind: The History of UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage

The research project "Heritage of Mankind: The History of UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage" investigated the origins of the UNESCO World Heritage program for the first time on the basis of historical sources. But the innovative character of the project goes far beyond the mere reconstruction of the past. There is a continuing debate in modern history on whether the 1970s and 1980s are turning points in history. They are viewed as the background to the present and they are often identified as the beginning of a global age and the end of the nation state. They are regarded as the starting point of a new ecological consciousness and are interpreted as the inception of new practices of cultural identification. This project extended these observations and incorporated them into its central questions. Taking the World Heritage program governance institution as a prism, it investigated the shifting structures, institutions and actors, perceptions and agency. In five sub-projects, it provided new insights into "transformations" of statehood, society and politics, culture and nature, time and space, past, present and future since the 1970s:
 

UNESCO World Cultural and Natural Heritage: Cosmopolitanization of Collective Memory (Dr. Andrea Rehling)

Galapagos: Epitomizing science and nature conservation for world heritage? The History of the Galapagos Islands as UNESCO World Heritage Site (Elke Ackermann)

European Heritage on a Global Stage: Aachen Cathedral, German Heritage Politics and the Beginnings of the UNESCO World Heritage List (Elsa Duval)

Challenging the Concept of UNESCO's World Heritage? The History of the Former Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau as World Cultural Heritage (Julia Röttjer)

Contested Heritage, Symbolic Recognition: the Old City of Jerusalem and the Beginning of UNESCO World Heritage, 1955-1981 (Benedetta Serapioni)
 

The work of the research group was supported by an international advisory board.

 

Events

19 January 2017 Public Lecture Aleida Assmann: The Concept of Cultural Heritage - Its History and its Challenges, Konferenzraum at 18.30, IEG Mainz. Please find the video of the lecture here:

19-20 January 2017 Heritage on a Global Scale? Uses of ‘Historical Authenticity’ beyond the Nation State: MasterClass with Aleida and Jan Assmann, supported by the Leibniz Research Alliance "Historical Authenticity", Konferenzraum, IEG Mainz

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8-9 July 2016 Workshop "Experts Shape the World: Environments, Economies and Cultures of Expertise", IEG Mainz













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17-18 November 2015 Symposium "The Many Faces of UNESCO (1945-2015). Maastricht/Mainz Exchange
on the history of natural and cultural heritage conservation", supported by the Maastricht Centre for Arts and Culture, Conservation and Heritage, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, History Department, University Maastricht










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1-5 August 2015 Workshop "Visiting Contested Cities: Urban Planning, Tourism and the Politics of Heritage" and Advisory Board Meeting, Jerusalem

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16-20 July 2014 Workshop "Auschwitz as World Heritage – UNESCO, Poland, and History Politics" and Advisory Board Meeting, Stanisław Pigoń Guesthouse of the Jagiellonian University Kraków

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19-21 December 2013 Workshop "Aachen Cathedral. World Heritage: Historians & Practitioners in Dialogue" and  Advisory Board Meeting, Bischöfliche Akademie Aachen










Program


Publications

Serapioni, Benedetta: Reflecting on Diplomacy of Culture: UNESCO’s First Mission to the Holy Land, 1957–1960, in: Jerusalem Quarterly 71 (2017), pp. 132-142.

Möller, Esther/ Rehling, Andrea: Protokollen auf der Spur –Neue Zugänge zu Kommunikation und Kultur in Organisationen, in: Menja Holtz/ Esther Möller/ Franziska Torma (Hg.): Spuren: Zur Materialität kultureller Begegnungen (=Saeculum. Jahrbuch für Universalgeschichte 66/2, 2016). Köln/ Wien/ Weimar 2017, pp. 245-268.

Rehling, Andrea: Kosmopolitische Geschichtsschreibung und die Kosmopolitik des UNESCO Weltkultur- und Naturerbes, in: Bernhard Gißibl/ Isabella Löhr (Hg.): Bessere Welten. Kosmopolitismus in den Geschichtswissenschaften. Frankfurt a. M. 2017, pp. 373-401.

Rehling, Andrea: Materielles Kultur- und Naturerbe als Objekt und Ressource kultureller Souveränitätsansprüche, in: Gregor Feindt/ Bernhard Gißibl/ Johannes Paulmann (Hg.): Kulturelle Souveränität. Politische Deutungs- und Handlungsmacht jenseits des Staates im 20. Jahrhundert. Göttingen 2017, pp. 257-284.

Röttjer, Julia: Gefährdetes Sibirien? Kulturerbe Irkutsk und Naturerbe Baikalsee im Diskurs von Wandel, Niedergang, Schutz und Aufschwung, in: Benjamin Conrad/ Lisa Bicknell (Hg.): Stadtgeschichten. Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte osteuropäischer Städte von Prag bis Baku. Bielefeld 2016, pp. 87-117.

Rehling, Andrea/ Paulmann, Johannes: Historische Authentizität jenseits von "Original" und "Fälschung". Ästhetische Wahrnehmung - gespeicherte Erfahrung - gegenwärtige Performanz, in: Martin Sabrow/ Achim Saupe (Hg.): Historische Authentizität. Göttingen 2016, pp. 91-125.

Ackermann, Elke: Galápagos Islands / Islas Galápagos, in: On site, in time. Negotiating differences in Europe, ed. for the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) by Joachim Berger, Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann, Mainz 2016. URL: http://en.ieg-differences.eu/on-site-in-time/elke-ackermann-galapagos-islands , URN: urn:nbn:de:0159-20161103141.

Duval, Elsa: Aix-la-chapelle / Aachen, in: On site, in time. Negotiating differences in Europe, ed. for the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) by Joachim Berger, Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann, Mainz 2016. URL: http://en.ieg-differences.eu/on-site-in-time/elsa-duval-aix-la-chapelle, URN: urn:nbn:de:0159-2016110304.

Rehling, Andrea: Dubrovnik, in: On site, in time. Negotiating differences in Europe, ed. for the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) by Joachim Berger, Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann, Mainz 2016. URL: http://en.ieg-differences.eu/on-site-in-time/andrea-rehling-dubrovnik, URN: urn:nbn:de:0159-20161103101.

Röttjer, Julia: Auschwitz / Oświęcim, in: On site, in time. Negotiating differences in Europe, ed. for the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) by Joachim Berger, Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann, Mainz 2016. URL: http://en.ieg-differences.eu/on-site-in-time//julia-roettjer-auschwitz, URN: urn:nbn:de:0159-2016110350.

Serapioni, Benedetta/ Thulin, Mirjam: Jerusalem / Jeruschalajim, al-Quds, in: On site, in time. Negotiating differences in Europe, ed. for the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) by Joachim Berger, Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann, Mainz 2016. URL: http://en.ieg-differences.eu/on-site-in-time/mirjam-thulin-benedetta-serapioni-jerusalem, URN: urn:nbn:de:0159-20161103198.

Röttjer, Julia: Safeguarding "Negative Historical Values" for the Future?: Appropriating the Past in the UNESCO Cultural World Heritage Site Auschwitz-Birkenau, in: Ab Imperio (2015), 4, pp. 130-165.

Ackermann, Elke: Evolution for world heritage: The Galapagos Islands National Park, in: Arcacia 2014/14: http://www.environmentandsociety.org/arcadia/evolution-world-heritage-galapagos-islands-national-park.

Löhr, Isabella Löhr/ Rehling, Andrea (Hg.): Global Commons im 20. Jahrhundert. Entwürfe für eine globale Welt (= Jahrbuch für Europäische Geschichte/ European History Yearbook, Bd. 15). München 2014.

Rehling, Andrea: Concepts of Time and UNESCO World Heritage, in: Debating Time Blog. Care for the Future: Thinking Forward through the Past (September 2014): http://careforthefuture.exeter.ac.uk/2014/09/concepts-of-time-and-unesco-world-heritage/

Rehling, Andrea: Brüder international: Jugoslawiens Welterbe als Gedächtnis der blockfreien Bewegung, in: Tanja Zimmermann (Hg.): "Brüderlichkeit" und "Bruderzwist": Mediale Inszenierungen des Aufbaus und des Niedergangs politischer Gemeinschaften in Ost- und Südosteuropa. Göttingen 2014, S. 277-299.

Rehling, Andrea: Universalismen und Partikularismen im Widerstreit. Zur Genese des UNESCO-Welterbes, in: Zeithistorische Forschungen Jg. 8 (2011), H. 3, S. 414-436.