Foundation - Historical Buildings
"Preserve cultural heritage - so that the past has a future"
is the motto of the German Foundation for the Protection of Historical Buildings and Monuments, which was founded in 1985 under the patronage of the Federal President. As the largest private initiative committed to the protection of historical buildings and monuments across Germany it has two tasks: to preserve threatened cultural monuments and to increase public awareness in the protection of historical buildings and monuments, in order to win over as many people as possible to help.
To date the foundation has been able to carry out over 3,000 protection and restoration projects on properties with over 370 million Euros. It receives funds for this from the GlücksSpirale lottery revenue and meanwhile from over 170,000 sponsors. Despite this at the moment it can still only provide the hoped for aid for a small portion of the applications for support for monuments in trouble. The task of preserving churches and monasteries, castles, palaces, monuments, parks and private houses is huge. Many are at risk, their future is often uncertain.
As well as the project support programme the German Foundation for the Protection of Historical Buildings and Monuments also lobbies for various campaigns and initiatives to convince as many people as possible about the need to preserve valuable building structures. It campaigns for the rescue and preservation of our cultural heritage with exhibitions, lectures, school and youth projects, publications, further education centres, trips to monuments and with the magazine MONUMENTE.