Climate Change
Members
Constanze Fuhrmann (spokesperson):heads the "Environment and Cultural Heritage" department at the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), where she promotes innovative projects on climate change and sustainability in cultural heritage, among other things. She previously worked for many years in research management at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, including in the field of digitalisation at Fraunhofer IGD and for the Sustainability Network, Cultural Heritage Research Alliance at the Fraunhofer office in Brussels. Trained as a conservator and with a master's degree in art history, history and cultural studies from the Technical University and Humboldt University of Berlin and an MSc. in Sustainable Heritage from University College London, she has been working on the topic of climate change for over 15 years.
Marie Baudis (spokesperson):
is a Master's student of Art History at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. As an intern at ICOMOS Germany, she supported the first workshop of the ICOMOS IPCC DBU project on "Cultural Heritage and Climate Change" in 2021 and then continued to accompany and contribute to the project as an ICOMOS member in the following years. In addition to her studies, she was also a student volunteer at the LWL-Denkmalpflege, Landschafts- und Baukultur in Westfalen from 2019 to 2023. Most recently, she submitted her master's thesis on the significance of climate change for monument preservation, using the example of heavy rainfall events in western Germany in 2021 and is an employee at LWL-Denkmalpflege, Landschafts- und Baukultur in Westfalen in the Urban Planning and Landscape Culture Department.
Paul Bellendorf:
studied materials science and subsequently heritage conservation and gained his doctorate in the field of restoration science. After working at the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research (ISC) and the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU), he has held the professorship for restoration science at the Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg since 2018. The professorship is part of the Kompetenzzentrum für Denkmalwissenschaften und Denkmaltechnologien (KDWT) and deals with the effects of climate change on art and cultural heritage, among other things. In 2023, the University of Bamberg was involved in organising the ICOMOS workshop "Adaptation Strategies for Monuments in a Changing Climate".
Hermann Klos:
Chairman of the board of the umbrella organisation “Restauratoren im Handwerk” and second chairman of the Federal Association of Certified Restorers in the Trade. As part of his activities at Holzmanufaktur Rottweil, Holzmanufaktur SWISS AG and Baukulturgut technology, Hermann Klos has worked exclusively on projects relating to the practical conservation of historic buildings for 35 years and is primarily involved in the assessment and project planning of construction work in the conservation of historic buildings, supplemented by lectures, talks and presentations on issues relevant to historic buildings as well as regular publications.
Alexandra Kruse:
studied agricultural sciences, nature conservation and geology at the university in Kiel and completed her doctorate in the field of cultural landscape research and nature conservation as a DBU scholarship holder. She has been self-employed since 1999, specialising in UNESCO World Heritage, regional development and European cultural heritage labelling. In 2006 she founded the network "European Culture expressed in Agricultural Landscapes (EUCALAND)", since 2012 "Institute for European Agricultural Landscape Research (EUCALAND) e.V.". The organisation initiates international projects in the above-mentioned fields with the primary aim of empowering citizens and local actors and promoting participation. As an ICOMOS member, she is an honorary monitor for the World Heritage Site Haithabu-Danewerk Archaeological Border Complex.
Yannick Ley:
studied architecture at RWTH Aachen University and is doing his doctorate there as a research assistant at the Chair of Architectural History on the conversion of ancient buildings in Rome. After the flood disaster in 2021, the Ahr Valley native initiated the teaching research project Futur[AHR|, which aimed to open up culturally and historically sustainable future prospects for the hard-hit Ahr Valley. The focus was on the exemplary character of historic village structures, which show building activities of many centuries in harmony with nature and stand in contrast to building activities of the late 20th century. As an ICOMOS member, he is committed to safeguarding architectural heritage by integrating the results of architectural history research into sustainability strategies.
Mechtild Rössler:
studied at the University of Freiburg and obtained her doctorate in geography at the University of Hamburg (Germany) in 1989. She joined the French CNRS (1998/90, Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, Paris, France) and was a visiting scientist at the University of California in Berkeley (USA, 1990/91). From 1991, she worked for 30 years in various UNESCO programmes in both the cultural and scientific sectors, as well as Deputy Director (2013-15) and Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (2015-2021). She is a researcher in the fields of geography, planning, institutional history and cultural heritage, and a specialist in cultural landscapes, nature-culture linkages and climate change. She coordinated the work on the update of the Policy Document on Climate Change Mitigation for World Heritage, was the designated UNESCO representative to the Warsaw International Mechanism on Loss and Damage and prepared with an intersectoral team the UNESCO-ICOMOS-IPCC meeting on Culture, Heritage and Climate Change in December 2021. After her retirement from UNESCO at the end of 2021, she returned to the academic world and joined the French CNRS as Chercheur Associé (CNRS-UMR 8504 Géographie-Cités), teaching and conducting research. She has published 14 books and more than 120 articles, including "Many Voices, One Vision: The Early Years of the World Heritage Convention" (Routledge 2016, with Prof Christina Cameron).
Kerstin Stamm:
studied architecture and art history at the Free University of Berlin and Stockholm University and spent a year as a research intern at the International Centre for the Study of Monuments and Sites (ICCROM) in Rome. Her research focuses on the international history and theory of heritage conservation, the cultural value and political function of monuments, the climate crisis and monument conflicts. Research, publications and lectureships at the University of Bonn, TU Dortmund, University of the Federal Armed Forces, among others. Member of the Association for Critical Heritage Studies (ACHS) and the working group Theory and Teaching of Heritage Conservation (AKTLD) as well as ICOMOS. She works as a consultant for monument promotion at the German Foundation for Monument Protection and is doing her doctorate at the University of Bonn on European cultural heritage and European identity. As a member of the ICOMOS working group on climate change, she is particularly interested in political work to develop strategies for monument preservation in the climate crisis and to communicate them in a socially relevant way.
Dörte Wetzler:
studied art history, modern German literature and art education in Frankfurt a. M.
2013 Doctorate at the Free University of Berlin
2014-2016 Thuringian Palaces and Gardens Foundation, traineeship
2016-2018 Thuringian State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology, Area Officer for Practical Monument Preservation and Inventory
Since 2019 Weimar, Lower Monument Protection Authority, Deputy Head
Member of ICOMOS since 2023
