12 CONTEXT 182 : DECEMBER 2024 With its multi-layered and sometimes conflicted history, Coventry proved a highly appropriate setting for this conference about heritage and democracy. For an English delegate, the event was a valuable opportunity to see heritage management through the lens of a different culture and set of concerns. The event was the annual conference of the German-based AKTLD (Arbeitskreis Theorie und Lehre der Denkmalpflege, Working Group for Theory and Education in Heritage Conservation). It brought together speakers from Germany with UK contributors and case studies from other countries, including Kazakhstan, Turkey, South Korea and Iran. The diverse contributions can only be covered selectively here. Opening the conference, Sabine Coady Schäbitz of Coventry University set the scene with a powerful defence of the value of the intangible heritage of democracy, which she and speakers to come saw as being challenged throughout Europe. Michael Grass from Erfurt (formerly resident in Coventry) used as one of his case studies an episode from the 1960s TV drama The Avengers, in which a representation of Coventry’s Precinct stood in for a dystopian underground city. For Grass, heritage values were inherently political and therefore a public concern. The relationship between heritage and democracy is complex. Temirlan Nurpeissov of Munich saw public defence of Sovietera architecture in Kazakhstan, despite some very dark aspects of the history of the country in the Soviet era, as a stimulus to democratic engagement. For veteran Birmingham architect and campaigner, Joe Holyoak, the picture was less positive. The local democratic process had resulted in the impending loss of Smallbrook Ringway, one the few local examples of integration of a new highway with a liveable street. Heritage is a carrier of identity. Once again, the relationship is multi-faceted and sometimes problematic. Mark Woods and Mike Gardom explained the delicate balance required in interpreting Caernarvon Castle: presenting King Edward I as the builder of the castle along with an acknowledgement of his very negative image for many Welsh people. In a contribution from Berlinbased Nammyoung Hong, the heritage threshold was as recent as 1980, when the Gwangjiu Uprising had begun the foundation of the modern state of South Korea. Buildings associated with the events of that time, and subsequently altered, had been restored to their 1980 appearance. There were also German examples, of course. The Hambacher Schloss in Pfalz was the subject of a paper by Georg Maybaum of Hildesheim. A patriotic rally at the castle in 1832 had been a landmark in the movement for German unification and saw the first use of the black, red and gold colours of the German flag. The tradition of a march up the steep hill to the castle continues today, and is exploited both for commercial reasons and by nationalists. The uneasy Heritage and Democracy conference: St Mary’s Guildhall, Coventry, 3–6 October 2024 A delicate balance Hambacher Schloss: an uneasy relationship between heritage and potentially anti-democratic forces (Photo: Friedrich Haag, Wikimedia)
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