for German museums damaged by floods |
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Information Service of Saxon Museums Association |
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You are also invited to visit our detailed German
site. |
final report 2003 |
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see our special page Antonsthal: Museum of
Silver Mining
("Silberwaesche") Contact: Phone: +49 / 371 / 488-4500 (english, french, italian) Account No.: 7676000 Hotline: +49 /345 / 29 97 222 Cultural Foundation of
Federal
States Account No.: 730 8000 00 Phone: +49 / 30 / 893635-0 |
The Museums and Galleries Association of the Czech Republic has launched a public fund-raising campaign to help Czech museums damaged by the flood. The gathered finances will be distributed by the Association's Senate (upon recommendation of an expert working group) directly to the museums in need. The bank account number is 27-7705500277/0100, at Komercni banka in Prague (designation of payment: constant symbol 0558, variable symbol 9999). For the Jewish Museum in Prague For Jewish Heritage and
Monuments in Prague National Technical Museum in
Prague: Terezin: other foundations: |
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Damage assessment - Relief funds - Continuous support |
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General
Immediate assistance
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Most of the over 300 museums in Saxony are members of the Saxon Museums Association (founded 1990). Among our members as well as in our executive board a spirit of collegial cooperation had develloped well. When it became evident, that most of our museums had not been affected by floods, we decided to organize very quickly mutual help. We established the project "Partnership after floods - museums are helping museums" Museums in Saxony have a long tradition and good reputation. Museums of Dresden or Leipzig are are among the best in Germany, but also mining and industrial heritage sites are well known. Therefore many colleagues in Germany and abroad were very concerned about Saxon museums threatened by floods. Our website informed them on damages as well as on our calls for help and donations. As Dresden was severely flooded, the chairman of our association (Friedrich Reichert, Dresden City Museum), the big State Museums and Collections in Dreden and the Ministry of Science and Art had to protect themselves and were cut off from communication by flood. So three museums in Chemnitz (fomerly Karl-Marx-Stadt) took the initiative. Soon it became evident, that crisis management could not be done properly in a broad teamwork; so a member of the executive board, Dr. Thomas Schuler (Schloßbergmuseum Chemnitz) was authorized to organize partnerships and to co-ordinate flood help. |
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no English text available; see German text synopsis of partners
(in
German language) |
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Spreading Information |
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Our German website publishes reports from different museums:
Press release of Saxon Museums Association (in German language)
Our special website on floods became - unexpectedly for us - a key factor in communcating after the floods as well as in organizing help. The Saxon Museums Association started this service already on august 17th; since september 7th an English version is available. Every evening these pages were updated. Like all other actions during these dramatic days, our web service was not planned and we had no pattern that could be copied. There was no time to cooperate with web professionals; an emergency site has to be produced immediately and with simple means. In trying to cope with an unexpected catastrophe we just had to react and to find out day by day what is needed most. According to the changing needs we quickly developed this site and added many new elements. When tried to re-establish communication, e-mails were
helpful
for several reasons: Libraries and bookshops in flooded towns cannot be used. So if museum professionals need information, web sites are the best available. Especially if you have to cope with a problem you never before had to deal with, you are glad to get very detailed advice. Some associations of archives and libraries permanently offer on their sites special pages on "first aid" for books, paper documents and photos as well as checklists for emergency situations and rescue operations; other instituts quickly supplied the most needed information including addresses of specialists and firms. As time is a very important factor, when you try to rescue soaked books or files in a hot summer, this service was extremly helpful. Our website offers a link list to these professional services. Our site informed on partnerships beween museums. So every museum wanting to help could see which museum is still without a partner. (Fortunately it soon went the other way round: We had far more museums ready to help than museums in need.) We also compiled and published a catalogue of damages, so everybody could see, what kind of help is needed at the different museums. Watching horror pictures on TV, museum professionals all over germany were very worried about their colleagues in Saxony. Therefore a listing of affected and not affected museums was one of the first sections in our site. In the beginning this list was dominated by question marks, but they disappeared day by day. Later on we decided to present the most damaged museums. Unfortunately the offical Website "Museums in Saxony" with its "Guide to Saxon Museums" as well as the website of Dresden State Art Collections were not available in the first weeks, because their Dresden based server (Ministry of Art and Science) was out of service. As substitute we collected basic information on the 20 most damaged museums. Because many people, museums and associations in Germany asked, how they could help with direct donations, we added donation accounts of all damaged museums. As we noticed, that tourism in Saxony is heavily declining, we collected and published the date of reopening of our museums. Federal Republic and some national cultural foundations developed schemes for financial support. As this became a quite complicated and constantly changing matter, we supplied precise information on this vital issue for the affected museums. When we had solved our main information problems in Saxony, we
turned
our view across the border and compiled infomation on museums in Sachsen-Anhalt,
Brandenburg and the Czech Republic. |
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Damage assessment |
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Regional and federal authorities were eager to get quickly first estimates of damage. To provide these figures in time was difficult enough for big museums and cities, but nearly impossible for small museums and for towns and villages - especially because in those communuties not only museums, but most public buildings, streets and bridges were severely afffected. And the few countryside experts couldn't master this immense task of assessing damages. But the authorities had very good reasons to ask for quick estimates. First of all the Federal Republic had announced an instant support scheme for cultural institutions of 3 Mio €; foundations added 2,5 Mio €. In order to distribute these very urgently needed grants, a quick assessment of damage was indispensable. By august 23rd - 10 days after the mountain flood and only a few days after receding of Elbe floods - the estimates had to be ready. It was hard work for our coordinator as well as for museums, communities and experts - but we managed it. It was worth wile: Half of the fresh federal money went to Saxon museums (and most of it to smaller museums) How much does cost a flood catastrophe? There are many costs one doesn't think of - at least not in the first critical days. So we tried to compile a catalogue of all the different issues you have to pay for. A) During catastrophe 1) rescue actions B) After catastrophe 1) clearing away: mud, rubble, furniture C) Reduced takings 1) total closing period D) Preparation of reopening 1) temporary constructions (entrance, staircase) E) Repairing the building 1) grounds (entrance, parking space, yards) F) Renovating the museum 1) outdoor (exhibits, historic reconstructions, action zones) G) Care for museum objects 1) damages directly caused by water H) Loss of museum objects 1) complete loss due to the floods I) Prevention 1) expert opinions (causes, prevention) |
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Federal Republic of Germany
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of the German Site |
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Saxon Museums Association (Sächsischer Museumsbund
e.V.) task force "flood" (manager: Dr. Thomas Schuler) c/o Schloßbergmuseum Chemnitz Copyright Sächsischer Museumsbund 2002 Text, Design and Editing: Thomas Schuler Issue of this document: 2002, September 14th - Oktober 9th Webmaster: th.schuler <at> t-online.de Verantwortlich
im Sinne
des IuKDG (Informations- und Kommunikationsdienste-Gesetz):
Auf dieser Website finden Sie Links zu anderen Seiten im Internet. Wir machen ausdrücklich darauf aufmerksam, daß wir keinen Einfluß auf die Gestaltung und Inhalte gelinkter Seiten haben. Aus rechtlichen Gründen distanzieren wir uns ausdrücklich von den Inhalten gelinkter Seiten und machen uns Ihre Inhalte nicht zueigen. |
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Site of Schloßbergmuseum Chemnitz (in German) |