A stage victory for Munich’s Olympic Park: The Conference of Culture Ministers decided to update the German tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage sites at a special meeting on Monday. The Munich Olympic site has now been included. As expected, Bavaria’s art minister Markus Blume was one of the champions of the cause. “The Olympic Park is a symbol of cosmopolitanism, Bavaria’s contribution to world architecture and, to this day, a popular sports and leisure facility in the heart of Munich,” he says.
“Here, a piece of contemporary history builds an iconic bridge to the present, here is the most beautiful and famous Olympic stadium in the world,” the Munich native adds with local patriotism: “I would be happy if this would provide a tailwind for a renewed application for the Olympics .” And in keeping with the team spirit, he also thanks the city and its politicians “for their extensive commitment to the application process.”
In addition to the Munich Olympic site, the following were added to the tentative list: the “Zehlendorf Forest Settlement – Expansion of the World Heritage Site ‘Settlements of Berlin Modernism'” (Berlin), the “Findsite of the Schöninger Spears – Man and Hunting 300,000 Years Ago” (Lower Saxony), the “Pretziener Wehr” (Saxony-Anhalt), the “European large arch bridges of the 19th century” (North Rhine-Westphalia in cooperation with France, Italy and Portugal), the “Celtic power centers of the older Iron Age northwest of the Alps” (Baden-Württemberg and Hesse in cooperation with France), the “TV Tower Stuttgart, archetype and symbol of modern mass communication” (Baden-Württemberg) and the natural heritage application “Green Belt”.
As part of this natural heritage application, Bavaria is once again included on the list – alongside Thuringia, Brandenburg, Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt. But there is also less good news: the second Bavarian application, “Nuremberg Palace of Justice with Hall 600 and a historic cell prison – site of the main war crimes trial and birthplace of international criminal law”, was not taken into account. However, at the suggestion of the advisory board, this is a nomination for the UNESCO program due to the impressive audio, photo and film documents that document the events in the Nuremberg Palace of Justice Memory of the World checked.
The new suggestion list is valid from February 1, 2024. In the tentative or proposal lists, the contracting states to UNESCO list the proposals for cultural or natural heritage sites that are intended for application procedures to UNESCO. Each application must be on the national tentative list for at least one year before submitting the application.