Ideally, the order in which cultural assets should be rescued is determined at a desk, not outside a burning storage facility. A salvage list translates cultural significance into practical instructions: which object, which location, which equipment. Whatever comes first on that list gets a head start when time is short.
The issue of ‘Politik & Kultur’ published on 29 October addresses the protection of cultural assets in the event of war. Behind this lies a practical question: who can not only justify a selection, but also organise staff, transport and a safe place to receive the objects?
Who selects – and who can act
The federal government is responsible for civil defence against war-related hazards; measures are implemented jointly with the federal states. Disaster protection in peacetime, by contrast, is the responsibility of the federal states, with operational assistance largely organised at municipal level. This distinction is no substitute for emergency planning within each institution.
The SiLK security guidelines provided by the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance place overall responsibility for the security strategy with the institution’s management. The selection based on specialist expertise should be set out in the salvage plan in advance, so that it does not fall to non-specialist helpers under time pressure in an emergency. Saving lives takes priority; a priority list is not permission to enter hazardous spaces.
SiLK lists cultural, historical and financial value, ownership or loan status, and physical condition as selection criteria. This is guidance, not a nationally binding order of precedence. Different hazards may require different lists. A particularly fragile object may be safer protected on site than transported. The order of salvage is therefore not simply a ranking of art history’s greatest works.
What can actually be substantiated
In Zwickau, eight institutions practised alert procedures, the allocation of tasks and salvage operations at the August Horch Museum on 31 March 2025. According to the city’s report, an emergency trailer containing eight roll containers was deployed. It is stationed with the professional fire service, which, under the planned arrangements, takes it to the incident site. KEK and SLUB supported the purchase. This provides concrete documentation of an exercise, equipment and transport arrangements – not merely a statement of intent.
A report published in 2022 by the Detmold emergency response network describes how receiving areas can also be prepared. The participating institutions had identified transport capacity and storage space for cultural assets from elsewhere. Emergency contact lists enabled communication through the control centre; three large exercises, each involving 30 to 50 people, were documented. This demonstrates preparation undertaken, but does not automatically establish that operational readiness remained unchanged in October 2026.
For alternative storage, SiLK recommends having several options and contracts where premises belonging to others are to be used. An identified space is not yet a secure storage facility available at all times. Equally, a trailer containing packing materials does not in itself demonstrate the capacity to transport an entire collection.
Who pays for readiness
Funding comes into play at several points. In Detmold, a KEK grant of 18,000 euros helped fund the purchase of seven roll containers in 2018. Smaller emergency boxes were purchased from the institutions’ own budgets. The Notfallallianz Kultur action fund supports equipment, training and emergency plans, among other things, generally with a maximum of 5,000 euros per project. Such grants enable preparation; they are no substitute for sustainably funded staffing and storage plans.
These examples cannot be extrapolated to establish the extent of preparedness nationwide. KEK’s map of emergency response networks is based on voluntary submissions and makes no claim to completeness. A lack of publicly available information is therefore not proof of a lack of preparedness. Conversely, a local water-damage exercise does not demonstrate operational capability in the event of widespread wartime emergencies.
Those who decide what to rescue therefore make two decisions: a specialist decision about priorities – and an organisational decision about whether that selection can be acted upon. Only people who can be reached, suitable vehicles and secure receiving sites turn a list into a rescue plan.
Original reviewed by the editors · 29 October 2026
