At the end of this year, building work to create a magnificent new store will start at the Albertinum, which houses the sculptures and New Masters paintings of the Dresden State Art Collections.
Floating over the inner court of the Renaissance building, the Noah's ark-like construction will also be a defence against flooding. It was the concept behind the store that convinced the jury of the international architectural competition to unanimously choose the design of Berlin architect Volker Staab.
The new depot is badly needed since the floods in August 2002 hit the storage spaces of half of the State Art Collection's 11 museums, proving them to be unsafe. Another 23 museums in the region were also damaged by the floods, about 10 per cent of all museums in the federal state of Saxony.
Although the building work on the store has not yet started, a lot has been done for the affected museums during the past two and a half years. General restoration work is finished and Thomas Schuler, a retired museum director and a member of the Saxony Museums Association, stresses that all the financial help offered in Germany and
abroad reached the museums in need.
'Most of the money was made available through tax breaks and was therefore not immediately available,' Schuler says. 'Planning took time too, but in general we can say that all damage was and is cared for, and neither the state nor the independent museums lost out.'
In the summer of 2002 people all along the Elbe realised the river was
rising. Once the flood reached Prague, scientists began to predict when it was likely to hit the baroque city of Dresden. But the time available for mounting defences was cut short.
Record-breaking rainfalls in the middle and eastern Erz mountains, which are about 50km from Dresden, caused small rivers to swell to enormous torrents. As Michael John, the technical director of the State Art Collections, says: 'The water came through the back door.'
Three days before the Elbe flood had even reached Dresden, the town centre was already awash with the streams from the Erz mountains, and smaller towns and villages were nearly washed away.
One of the most badly hit institutions was the regional museum in the small Saxon town of Grimma. Its idyllic position at the banks of the river Mulde was its downfall. After the first flood warnings the director of the museum, Marita Pesenecker, and her colleagues cleared the basement.
Feeling uneasy she returned to the museum at 11pm and started to clear the exhibition space on the ground floor, working until the water was too high at 8am the following morning. 'No one was expecting a flood of this scale,' she says. 'The worst-case scenario I could imagine was a watermark of 3.2 feet inside the museum like in 1954. I tried to get everything off the ground but the water just would not stop.'
The objects that Pesenecker was not able to move in time eventually went under and the entire library with its 10,000 volumes was flooded as the water rose to 10 feet, stopping just inches from the ceiling. Trapped by the water, the director was forced to spend two nights in the upstairs rooms of the museum.
When the water dropped, help was at hand. Local pupils, residents and the staff of unaffected museums joined forces to rescue the library. The Saxony Museums Association rapidly set up the Museums Help Museums initiative, coordinated by Schuler, who also developed a website.
The museums stood by each other, giving practical help and sharing scientific know-how as well as facilities for storage and conservation.
Today the books are back in Grimma but still waiting for a permanent home. Two gothic wooden figures only came back from the conservation studio two months ago.
A vacant building opposite the museum is to be restored and its upstairs rooms used as library and storage space. 'We are never going to have a library or storage on the ground floor again,' says Pesenecker. 'And when we plan exhibitions now we always make sure they are easy to evacuate.
We need to be able to open security locks quickly and not waste valuable time, as was the case in 2002. And we have phone numbers at hand and modern security systems to prevent other disasters.'
In Dresden itself, rescue operations started on the spur of the moment. 'We had security plans for Elbe floodings in place,' says the technical director of the State Art Collections, Michael John. 'But nobody ever expected the flooding from the Erz mountains. It came totally unexpected and it came fast.'
Hundreds of works of art in the Zwinger building, which houses one of Europe's greatest collections of Old Masters paintings, had to be moved to higher floors in a remarkable operation undertaken largely in the dark.
Rescuers were wading through knee-high water, passing works of art to each other. Six Italian paintings that were too large to move were taken from their frames, wrapped around cylinders and tied to the basement ceiling.
Four days later, when the level of the Elbe peaked, breaking a 157-year-old record, the water level in the Zwinger's basement stood at 10 feet. The rescue operation for this collection alone, which includes Raphael's Sistine Madonna and paintings by Mantegna, Titian, Rubens and Canaletto, took seven hours.
'We had a team of about 100 people,' recalls John. 'Employees from the Ministry of Science and the Fine Arts as well as the police force came to help and we also called the Federal Armed Forces in.
The young guys did a very good job in saving sculptures, which weigh up to 150kg.' The State Art Collections moved about 4,000 paintings and 20,000 pieces from the sculpture collection to higher grounds. Remarkably, there was no irreversible damage done to any museum object, but much of the museum's equipment was ruined.
The State Art Collections made a virtue of necessity when faced with the ruined vaults: paintings and sculptures, which crowded rooms and corridors, went on tour. Four exhibitions were swiftly arranged, drawing attention to the treasures saved form the water, one in Hamburg, two in Berlin and one at the Royal Academy, London, entitled Masterpieces from Dresden.
Since the flood, John has worked a lot on disaster prevention and given numerous talks. His advice ranges from the purchase of equipment, such as gloves and helmets, to structural measures, all based on the considerations of all catastrophes imaginable and the worst possible scenarios.
A lot can be learned from previous disasters and the people involved in the 2002 floods are happy to share their experience. Thomas Schuler, for example, was quick to make his knowledge of measures to support museums available to the International Council of Museums for its disaster relief website following the tsunami.
Although some disasters are far too big to comprehend, preparation is vital for the safekeeping of cultural heritage and art. mj
The recently published spring 2005 issue of Museum Practice has a special report on emergency planning
Disaster strikes German library
The 2nd of September last year was a black day in the history of world heritage: the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, heart of the Weimar classical period with its unique ensemble of library, architecture and artworks, was seriously damaged by the largest library fire in Germany since world war two.
The library was established in 1691 and housed rare works focusing on German literature between 1750 and 1850, a period in which German literary legends Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller lived in Weimar.
The roof and the top storey of the building were destroyed by the blaze, damaging the heart of the library, a Unesco World Heritage site. About 50,000 rare books were lost and another 62,000 volumes damaged by water and fire.
'The literary memory of Germany has suffered severe damage - a piece of the world's cultural heritage has been lost forever,' said the culture minister Christine Weiss shortly after the disaster. Among the losses is the Duchess's significant music collection, dating from the 18th and 19th century.
Thirty five oil paintings, ducal portraits from the 16th to the 18th century, which adorned the rococo hall, also fell victim to the flames. They are irreplaceable and include a 1760 portrait of Countess Anna Amalia by Johann Friedrich Loeber.
Another 100 paintings and 80 sculptures were also damaged, but there is hope that they can be restored. The cost of the restoration of the books alone is estimated to run up to 20m Euro and will take several years.
Although the losses are substantial, many rare works were saved. An emergency plan was in place, and according to the director of the library, Michael Knoche, 'everybody knew their place, knew how to save themselves and then the books'.
Firefighters, library staff and members of the public formed a human chain, carrying out some 6,000 valuables before the building became too unstable to continue. Among the rescued works were the travel papers of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and a 1534 Bible owned by Martin Luther.
The blaze spread because a smouldering fire behind the panelling of the truss went unnoticed. By the time the fire alarms were set off it was too late. It is difficult to tell whether a modern alarm system could have made any difference. The fire detectors in place were old, although they were regularly maintained.
The detectors were meant to be replaced during the planned restoration by the end of 2007. 'We had a fire detection rather than fire-extinguishing system in place,' says Knoche. 'It would have been very difficult to put one into this old and overcrowded building. Experts never encourage it.'
Five months on and the construction of an additional library and two underground repositories has been finished despite the fire. Building work started in 2001 to reunite the vast collection, which was stored all over town because of a lack of space.
But the race to provide the rare works with a safe home within the new buildings and eventually in a modern-equipped and renovated historic building was lost. Only five weeks after the fire broke out all books and artworks would have been moved to allow the renovation of the 300 year-old library.
But time cannot be turned back and the focus is now on the restoration of the books and the historic library. It is hoped this will be finished in 2007, the 200th anniversary of the death of Duchess Anna Amalia.
Floating over the inner court of the Renaissance building, the Noah's ark-like construction will also be a defence against flooding. It was the concept behind the store that convinced the jury of the international architectural competition to unanimously choose the design of Berlin architect Volker Staab.
The new depot is badly needed since the floods in August 2002 hit the storage spaces of half of the State Art Collection's 11 museums, proving them to be unsafe. Another 23 museums in the region were also damaged by the floods, about 10 per cent of all museums in the federal state of Saxony.
Although the building work on the store has not yet started, a lot has been done for the affected museums during the past two and a half years. General restoration work is finished and Thomas Schuler, a retired museum director and a member of the Saxony Museums Association, stresses that all the financial help offered in Germany and
abroad reached the museums in need.
'Most of the money was made available through tax breaks and was therefore not immediately available,' Schuler says. 'Planning took time too, but in general we can say that all damage was and is cared for, and neither the state nor the independent museums lost out.'
In the summer of 2002 people all along the Elbe realised the river was
rising. Once the flood reached Prague, scientists began to predict when it was likely to hit the baroque city of Dresden. But the time available for mounting defences was cut short.
Record-breaking rainfalls in the middle and eastern Erz mountains, which are about 50km from Dresden, caused small rivers to swell to enormous torrents. As Michael John, the technical director of the State Art Collections, says: 'The water came through the back door.'
Three days before the Elbe flood had even reached Dresden, the town centre was already awash with the streams from the Erz mountains, and smaller towns and villages were nearly washed away.
One of the most badly hit institutions was the regional museum in the small Saxon town of Grimma. Its idyllic position at the banks of the river Mulde was its downfall. After the first flood warnings the director of the museum, Marita Pesenecker, and her colleagues cleared the basement.
Feeling uneasy she returned to the museum at 11pm and started to clear the exhibition space on the ground floor, working until the water was too high at 8am the following morning. 'No one was expecting a flood of this scale,' she says. 'The worst-case scenario I could imagine was a watermark of 3.2 feet inside the museum like in 1954. I tried to get everything off the ground but the water just would not stop.'
The objects that Pesenecker was not able to move in time eventually went under and the entire library with its 10,000 volumes was flooded as the water rose to 10 feet, stopping just inches from the ceiling. Trapped by the water, the director was forced to spend two nights in the upstairs rooms of the museum.
When the water dropped, help was at hand. Local pupils, residents and the staff of unaffected museums joined forces to rescue the library. The Saxony Museums Association rapidly set up the Museums Help Museums initiative, coordinated by Schuler, who also developed a website.
The museums stood by each other, giving practical help and sharing scientific know-how as well as facilities for storage and conservation.
Today the books are back in Grimma but still waiting for a permanent home. Two gothic wooden figures only came back from the conservation studio two months ago.
A vacant building opposite the museum is to be restored and its upstairs rooms used as library and storage space. 'We are never going to have a library or storage on the ground floor again,' says Pesenecker. 'And when we plan exhibitions now we always make sure they are easy to evacuate.
We need to be able to open security locks quickly and not waste valuable time, as was the case in 2002. And we have phone numbers at hand and modern security systems to prevent other disasters.'
In Dresden itself, rescue operations started on the spur of the moment. 'We had security plans for Elbe floodings in place,' says the technical director of the State Art Collections, Michael John. 'But nobody ever expected the flooding from the Erz mountains. It came totally unexpected and it came fast.'
Hundreds of works of art in the Zwinger building, which houses one of Europe's greatest collections of Old Masters paintings, had to be moved to higher floors in a remarkable operation undertaken largely in the dark.
Rescuers were wading through knee-high water, passing works of art to each other. Six Italian paintings that were too large to move were taken from their frames, wrapped around cylinders and tied to the basement ceiling.
Four days later, when the level of the Elbe peaked, breaking a 157-year-old record, the water level in the Zwinger's basement stood at 10 feet. The rescue operation for this collection alone, which includes Raphael's Sistine Madonna and paintings by Mantegna, Titian, Rubens and Canaletto, took seven hours.
'We had a team of about 100 people,' recalls John. 'Employees from the Ministry of Science and the Fine Arts as well as the police force came to help and we also called the Federal Armed Forces in.
The young guys did a very good job in saving sculptures, which weigh up to 150kg.' The State Art Collections moved about 4,000 paintings and 20,000 pieces from the sculpture collection to higher grounds. Remarkably, there was no irreversible damage done to any museum object, but much of the museum's equipment was ruined.
The State Art Collections made a virtue of necessity when faced with the ruined vaults: paintings and sculptures, which crowded rooms and corridors, went on tour. Four exhibitions were swiftly arranged, drawing attention to the treasures saved form the water, one in Hamburg, two in Berlin and one at the Royal Academy, London, entitled Masterpieces from Dresden.
Since the flood, John has worked a lot on disaster prevention and given numerous talks. His advice ranges from the purchase of equipment, such as gloves and helmets, to structural measures, all based on the considerations of all catastrophes imaginable and the worst possible scenarios.
A lot can be learned from previous disasters and the people involved in the 2002 floods are happy to share their experience. Thomas Schuler, for example, was quick to make his knowledge of measures to support museums available to the International Council of Museums for its disaster relief website following the tsunami.
Although some disasters are far too big to comprehend, preparation is vital for the safekeeping of cultural heritage and art. mj
The recently published spring 2005 issue of Museum Practice has a special report on emergency planning
Disaster strikes German library
The 2nd of September last year was a black day in the history of world heritage: the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, heart of the Weimar classical period with its unique ensemble of library, architecture and artworks, was seriously damaged by the largest library fire in Germany since world war two.
The library was established in 1691 and housed rare works focusing on German literature between 1750 and 1850, a period in which German literary legends Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller lived in Weimar.
The roof and the top storey of the building were destroyed by the blaze, damaging the heart of the library, a Unesco World Heritage site. About 50,000 rare books were lost and another 62,000 volumes damaged by water and fire.
'The literary memory of Germany has suffered severe damage - a piece of the world's cultural heritage has been lost forever,' said the culture minister Christine Weiss shortly after the disaster. Among the losses is the Duchess's significant music collection, dating from the 18th and 19th century.
Thirty five oil paintings, ducal portraits from the 16th to the 18th century, which adorned the rococo hall, also fell victim to the flames. They are irreplaceable and include a 1760 portrait of Countess Anna Amalia by Johann Friedrich Loeber.
Another 100 paintings and 80 sculptures were also damaged, but there is hope that they can be restored. The cost of the restoration of the books alone is estimated to run up to 20m Euro and will take several years.
Although the losses are substantial, many rare works were saved. An emergency plan was in place, and according to the director of the library, Michael Knoche, 'everybody knew their place, knew how to save themselves and then the books'.
Firefighters, library staff and members of the public formed a human chain, carrying out some 6,000 valuables before the building became too unstable to continue. Among the rescued works were the travel papers of naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt and a 1534 Bible owned by Martin Luther.
The blaze spread because a smouldering fire behind the panelling of the truss went unnoticed. By the time the fire alarms were set off it was too late. It is difficult to tell whether a modern alarm system could have made any difference. The fire detectors in place were old, although they were regularly maintained.
The detectors were meant to be replaced during the planned restoration by the end of 2007. 'We had a fire detection rather than fire-extinguishing system in place,' says Knoche. 'It would have been very difficult to put one into this old and overcrowded building. Experts never encourage it.'
Five months on and the construction of an additional library and two underground repositories has been finished despite the fire. Building work started in 2001 to reunite the vast collection, which was stored all over town because of a lack of space.
But the race to provide the rare works with a safe home within the new buildings and eventually in a modern-equipped and renovated historic building was lost. Only five weeks after the fire broke out all books and artworks would have been moved to allow the renovation of the 300 year-old library.
But time cannot be turned back and the focus is now on the restoration of the books and the historic library. It is hoped this will be finished in 2007, the 200th anniversary of the death of Duchess Anna Amalia.
