HERITAGE IN FOCUS

A series of events organised by Goethe-Institut Athen in collaboration with the Humboldt Forum 


The idea of “heritage” is currently experiencing a real surge in interest in academia and politics, in cultural institutions, and in the media. While in the past it was chiefly associated with aspects of private law, such as inheritance law, and, in the broader social context, with the preservation of architectural monuments, the word “heritage” has taken on a whole new range of meaning in recent years, and its use has expanded accordingly. This is partly to do with UNESCO, which has redefined the term and in recent years has significantly extended the provisions that are in place to protect human “cultural heritage”. Cultural traditions, customs, and food were given protected status twenty years ago: from the Byzantine chants of Greece and Cyprus to Berlin’s club “culture”, which was once considered avant-garde and subversive but is now under threat.

In parallel to this and encouraged by public debates, there has, in recent years, been growing academic interest in “heritage”: the question of what is meant by “heritage” is now the subject of much discussion among history scholars and in the realms of cultural science, ethnology and museum studies; this raises further questions about nation building, restitution, and provenance, and about how to deal with (post)colonialism and the overexploitation of people and nature. To give an example: in connection with the climate crisis and postcolonial debates – relating, for instance, to non-human agency – do rivers, forests, and other natural landscapes have rights of their own, and shouldn’t they also enjoy protected status as non-cultural heritage? And don’t mineralogical and natural history collections also tell (cultural) stories of relationships of dependency and human exploitation? At the same time, there are also some early dissenting voices that are critical of an expansive focus on the past – which they regard as “nostalgic” – and in turn contribute to an analytical examination of the topic.

The Heritage in Focus event series, organised by Goethe-Institut Athen and the Humboldt Forum, looks at the question of “heritage” from four different angles, with a special focus on Germany and Greece. Based on the major shift in recent years in how the term is interpreted and a growing interest in the subject, there will be four panel discussions looking at topics such as intangible heritage and urban heritage and at the range of issues connected with nature and heritage as well as the question of nation building as it relates to finds of antiquities and restitution. The results of this series will be presented in 2026–27 as part of the focus on “heritage” at the Humboldt Forum.


Language: English, Greek with simultaneous translation.

Free Admission


Visual Identity: Thinking 

A collaboration between Goethe-Institut and Humboldt Forum.