„Sharing Heritage – Die Teilhabe am kulturellen Erbe als Bürger- und Menschenrecht“ – Zur DGUF-Tagung 10.-13. Mai 2018 in München

Abstract

The paper reports in summary on the DGUF annual conference 2018. In the EU year of “Sharing heritage”, the talks and conference participants examined the obstacles to and the context of the demand for citizens to be comprehensively involved in their cultural heritage. Honouring “Sharing Heritage” in the long term was – according to the shared view which resulted – not possible without conflicts and conflict management, it required professional archaeology to have an attentive, respectful attitude towards citizens which was characterised by low-threshold communication. Archaeologists were frequently still working according to old procedures and patterns of thought, and top-down projects did not amount to “sharing”. At the same time, the conventional view of potential conflicts between the community of experts/state-sector monument conservators on the one hand and “citizens” on the other was much too simplistic, because conflicting use relating to cultural heritage could exist among non-specialists as well, for example, and had to be endured and resolved. Taking care of our cultural heritage was therefore an eminently political issue.