Perhaps it is the name that immediately triggers state-supporting associations. Or the fact that the institution’s patron is the current Federal President. “But the impression is completely wrong,” says Axel Hofstadt. Because the “German Foundation for Monument Protection” (DSD) is the largest private initiative for the preservation of monuments in Germany, it is funded almost exclusively with the help of private donors and sponsors; the only institutional supporter is Glücksspire.
Founded in 1985 based on the model of the National Trust in Great Britain, the DSD has been campaigning for the preservation of threatened architectural monuments for years, supported by full-time and honorary members. Axel Hofstadt is among the vast majority of the latter.
The Munich architect, also Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Munich Monument Foundation, which is part of the DSD, has headed the Munich and Upper Bavaria local board of trustees since 2018. There are 86 of them all over Germany, ten in Bavaria alone. In Munich, the Board of Trustees has eight members, and throughout Germany more than 500 honorary members are committed to raising public awareness of the importance of monument protection, arousing enthusiasm for cultural heritage and acquiring donations for the foundation.
“We organize exhibitions, lectures, guided tours, sometimes even concerts,” says Hofstadt. At the beginning of December, for example, the board of trustees started a series of events under the motto “Protecting monuments – a gift to the future” in the Suresnes-Schlössl of the Catholic Academy in Schwabing.
Lectures and colloquia are planned, all on the subject of monument protection, of course, and all for the benefit of the foundation, which incidentally also invented the popular Open Monument Day. Since 1993 it has been organizing it on the second Sunday in September, and in this way has now provided a platform for 172,600 monuments.
Collector Hermione von Parish’s study is the heart of the Von Parish Costume Library. The foundation helped to reconstruct the stenciled frieze.
(Photo: Munich City Museum/Florian Holzherr)
From time to time, Hofstadt also delivers an approved application for funding. At the beginning of December he handed over 90,000 euros to Sister Maria Benedicta Tschugg in the Reutberg monastery (Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district), to be used for the renovation of the church, especially the roof structure. A prerequisite for any funding is a certified monument status. “We are only a contact after the official protection,” says Hofstadt. If a monument owner is interested in funding, the volunteers also conduct initial discussions on the spot, which are then followed by an assessment by an expert.
A voluntary, independent commission of monument conservators from all over Germany decides on the application itself. If the result is positive, Hofstadt or one of his colleagues will travel across the country again to deliver the good news. “After all, the subsidy is like a gift, it doesn’t have to be paid for or paid back,” says the architect. And on the respective building, a banner with the energetic Balthasar, one of the three holy kings, refers to the noble gift of the DSD.
The foundation, which has a branch in Berlin in addition to its headquarters in Bonn, only supports private monuments; the state has to take care of its own buildings. Normally, the DSD supports around 600 projects per year, supported by donations from more than 200,000 sponsors. But 2021 was not a normal year, but a flood year. Therefore, the foundation provided emergency aid to 961 monuments and spent almost 25 million euros. “It works very unbureaucratically,” says Hofstadt.
Thanks to the excellent website of the DSD the various projects, sorted by federal states and years, can be easily viewed on a map (www.denkmalschutz.de/denkmale-erhalten/uebersicht-aller-foerderprojekte.html). Recently, for example, the foundation sponsored the Von Parish costume library in Munich, a villa not far from Nymphenburg Palace, with 20,000 euros, which only reopened this year after years of renovation. Since 1936 it has housed a huge, formerly private collection on the history of fashion and costumes.
The organ center Altes Schloss Valley was also funded by the DSD.
(Photo: OK Munich)
This was supported with 335,000 euros spread over three years Munich Benedictine monastery of St. Bonifazbut also the restoration of the Ruffini block, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Erding, the fine Culture and organ center Altes Schloss Valley or – an object that Hofstadt particularly likes – that former shoemaker’s house in Kochelwhich is to be transformed into a museum with a cultural workshop.
The special thing about the small property: Since 1647, people have been cobblers continuously until the last cobbler died childless in 2010, ending the family tradition. Four years later, the community bought the house and its inventory; since then, an association has been working on completely renovating and reviving the listed building.
The restoration started in autumn 2018, and a café has already opened in the old walls. The future museum is still being worked on. “A wonderful example of Bavarian living and working culture,” says Hofstadt.
Axel Hofstadt hands over a support check in the amount of 30,000 euros for monument protection measures on a farmhouse in Miesbach.
(Photo: OK Munich)
In his view, monument protection serves above all to preserve one’s homeland. After all, a sense of home is not only rooted in the landscape, language or customs, but is often also associated with buildings. “Anyone who remembers their childhood also thinks of buildings,” says Hofstadt. “Monuments are memories.” Although the DSD uses the term monument broadly, this becomes clear when leafing through the foundation’s brochures, for example through the magazine that appears every two months monumentsquickly becomes clear: lighthouse, locomotive, trees, sailing ship, organs – all of this can be listed as a monument and be eligible for funding.
Youth builders’ huts impart ancient techniques
Hofstadt is convinced that interest in monument protection is growing. “After all, everyone is talking about sustainability,” he says. “Where is there a more sustainable building than a monument?” As an architect, he is of the opinion that high-quality renovations of old buildings save resources, since significantly fewer building materials were used and less energy was required overall than for a completely new building. “Of course, it doesn’t always work, sometimes you have to tear it down.” But that is precisely why it is important to treat monuments differently. For this reason alone, he considers the wide range of further training courses offered by the DSD to be immensely important. It ranges from visits to school classes to a memorial academy that offers seminars for in-service training.
In the Schacky Park in Dießen, the enclosure, pond fountain and lamps of the Monopteros were protected and restored.
(Photo: Wilrooij/Wikimedia)
Hofstadt is a big fan of the Jugendbauhütten, a very special facility of the foundation. It offers young people the opportunity to learn traditional handicraft techniques and to put them to practical use. The first hut was founded in Quedlinburg in 1999. The role models were the medieval construction huts, in which people lived and worked together. There are now 16 of them; So far, 5,000 young people have taken the opportunity to complete a voluntary social year in monument preservation.
Last year, Hofstadt was there when participants from the building hut worked on the renovation of the Monopteros in Dießen’s Schacky Park. A great experience, he says. “That’s not the only reason why I would like to set up a youth workshop in Munich.” Let’s see if it works.