Luftbild Altstadt Regensburg © Nürnberg Luftbild, Hajo Dietz

Management plans for world heritage cities contain the explanation of the World Heritage site, the World Heritage properties and the tools and methods for protection and preservation. In addition they include a part which deals with sustainable development of the site.  

Managementplan Arbeitsgruppe 1 © Stadt Regensburg

Working Group

The elaboration process of Regensburg’s World Heritage management plan started in 2009. Involving municipal and state authorities as well as different local associations a working group was formed. This working group meets regularly and works out the management plan. As a first step the group identified eight significant fields of action for the old town of Regensburg and Stadtamhof. These are: preservation of built heritage, economy, culture and tourism, housing, urban design, traffic, environmental issues and recreation, and awareness raising and research 

For each field of action the working group defined objectives. These objectives are supported by actions which describe specific projects and timelines.

Public consultation process

The participation of the citizen plays a special role in the process. World Heritage can only kept alive by both together, city’s administration and inhabitants. Early 2010 the City of Regensburg had invited interested citizens to discuss the future of the World Heritage site Regensburg. More than 70 people attended the meeting.

Forming small groups, each per field of action, the participants developed proposals for actions und at the end presented them to the plenum. All proposals were reviewed by the municipality. Those which can be implemented were added to the management plan.

In the public discussion was also decided to include two citizen representatives to the management plan working group. Dr Rosa Micus, a specialist in German studies, Dr Peter Morsbach, an art historian, will participate in all working group meetings and contribute in particular the proposed actions of the citizenry to the process.

Next steps

The World Heritage management plan will be completed in 2011. Then the plan will submitted to the City Council for approval.

Part of the management plan is also an action plan. It lists all actions of the management plan. The actions will be implemented depending on financial resources, the congruence of the measures and their feasibility. A lot of the listed actions cannot be realized by the municipality only, but need support urban society.

The process has shown how important contribution of civil society for World Heritage is. This great potential should to be used in the future. It is planned to hold public discussion regularly in the future. By this, the public can be informed about the implementation of the management plan and can also take part in the updating of it.