Nomination Process

In the year 2000 the starting gun was fired for the efforts to have the Schwerin Residence ensemble inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Public lecture events and podium discussions by the ProSchwerin e.V. association advanced the concept of applying for World Heritage status. During his visit, the late Professor Gottfried Kiesow, curator of ancient monuments and founder of the Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz (German Foundation for Monument Protection), also spoke about the potential of the Schwerin Residence ensemble. Then followed the resolution by the city representatives to promote this idea and also the resolution by the State Parliament (the “Landtag”) in 2007 in favour of the “World Cultural Heritage Schwerin Castle Ensemble”. Shortly afterwards the three partners set to work: the City of Schwerin, the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Landtag Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Since then, many different events, flyers, brochures and the establishment of work-groups from associations and institutions have promoted this project.

“A common goal”

In 2014 the first milestone was reached – the Residence Ensemble was inscribed on the German candidate list, the Tentative List. Inscription on this list is the precondition for bringing the application before the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, see also "Convention".

You can discover more about the content of the application for the Tentative List and the associated applications documents in German und English under the point "Criteria".

Since 2014, the nomination document has been prepared and the unique characteristics of the Schwerin ensemble have been defined. Here, the academic advisory board was supporting the three partners and lending its expertise and experience along the next steps towards the completion of the nomination document. In April 2022, the nomination papers were presented to the city council and are now going to be translated (with status from April 2022). Within the following weeks, you will find information about some changes considering the focus of the Residence ensemble on the following pages.