Despite 45 new monuments, the list of monuments in MV has shrunk by 20 objects in the past year. Several buildings had to be demolished due to their poor condition. There is a lack of money for the preservation – also from the state, as the latest monument report shows.
Schwerin (dpa/mv) – Monument owners in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania can only count on very limited help from the state in securing and restoring the cultural heritage they protect. In the recently published monument report 2022, state curator Ramona Dornbusch points out that the demand for monument funding far exceeds the budget provided for it. 84 applications worth around 9.8 million euros were made in 2022 – and only 28 applications with a volume of around two million euros could have been approved. Two thirds of the sum (68 percent) was spent on emergency backups, i.e. for measures that are only intended to stop the decay.
For years, the state’s monument funding has fallen far short of what is needed. So far, however, the state government has not been able to decide to increase it. More than 31,000 monuments have been recorded in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. According to the report, there were 45 newly designated monuments last year, and 65 had to be removed from the list. “It was shown again that the numbers in the district-free and large district-affiliated cities remained constant or increased slightly, but in the districts more deletions from the lists of monuments had to be made.” Due to the poor condition of the building, a listed traditional hall house in Salem (Mecklenburg Lake District) was demolished, as was the Schützenhaus in Bützow (Rostock district).
Dornbusch expects a further increase in the demand for monument funding from the state. The strategy fund for the renovation of church buildings, which was set up at the instigation of the CDU and was fed from surpluses from the state budgets of previous years, ended on December 31, 2022. “In 2023 only measures will be completed, but no new subsidies will be granted,” says the report. “Thus, from 2024 onwards, an increase in applications for funding from the church sector can be expected.”
The cultural policy spokeswoman for the CDU parliamentary group, Katy Hoffmeister, called on the state government to launch a church renovation program that had to be properly funded. “With the strategy fund, many churches were saved from decay. The need is still great, especially small parishes often cannot raise the financial means to maintain their church,” said Hoffmeister.
Remplin Castle (Mecklenburg Lake District), the village church in Altenkirchen (West Pomerania-Rügen) and a shed extension including two historic outhouses of the former Glashütte train station (Rostock district) received donations from the state’s monument promotion last year. Dornbusch writes that the sanitary wing of the property in Glashütte is particularly noteworthy. According to the current state of knowledge, something like this has not been handed down again in MV.
