Projects

DEHIO

The project Handbook of Artistic Monuments in the Baltic States and Digital DEHIO East-Central Europe (OME) is a project of the Böckler-Mare-Balticum Foundation in cooperation with partners in the Baltic States and in Germany. The aim of the project is to index and research the cultural heritage of the three Baltic states on the basis of a selection of 1,000 representative buildings each. The results will be published both in the form of a printed handbook, conforming to the guidelines of Georg Dehio, and in a digital DEHIO portal. The project has been under joint development with the Herder Institute since 2018 (https://ome.dehio.org/de/teilprojekte), initially in a one-year preliminary project with financial support from Die Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). From 2019 to 2022, it continued as a three-year main project on the art monuments in the Baltic countries, made possible by generous funding from the BKM as well as the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and the Gerda Henkel Stiftung.

The Digital DEHIO East Central Europe (OME) was developed at the Herder Institute in cooperation with the digiCult-Verbund eG and will continue to be edited at the Herder Institute. The portal went online on 1 November 2022 and has been continuously expanded and developed ever since.

Here is the link to the portal: https://ome.dehio.org/de/start


Funded by:
The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM).
https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/bundesregierung/staatsministerin-fuer-kultur-und-medien

Gerda Henkel Foundation
https://www.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/en/

ZEIT Foundation Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius
https://www.zeit-stiftung.de/en/



Partners:
Dehio Vereinigung - Scientific Association for the Continuation of the Art Topographical Work of Georg Dehio e.V.
German Documentation Centre for Art History DDK / Bildarchiv Foto Marburg
digiCULT Association
Estonian National Committee for the Protection of Monuments / Muinsuskaitseamet
Estonian Academy of Arts / Eesti Kunstiakadeemia
Herder-Institut for historical research on East Central Europe - Institute of the Leibniz Association
Museum of Estonian Architecture / Eesti Arhitektuurimuuseum in Tallinn
For the European Heritage Year SHARING HERITAGE 2018, the project was added to the list as an official contribution.




Academic Research on the Foundation’s Founder

Since 2021, the Böckler-Mare-Balticum Foundation has been conducting an academic research project on its founder Erich Böckler. On the one hand, the aim is to gain further insight into his biography and his activities as an architect and publicist; on the other hand, it seeks to critically examine his relationship to National Socialism.
In September 2022, an initial workshop was held at the International Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of the University of Szczecin in Kulice, bringing together experts in architectural history and history. The focus was on the generation of architects active before and during the Second World War, to which Böckler belonged, as well as their professional networks in the post-war period. From this, research questions were developed that were further explored at an international academic conference, “From Nazi Planning Office to Reconstruction. Architect Biographies between 1930 and 1980,” held in cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO) in Leipzig in October 2023. This conference was very well received by the participants and opened up further research perspectives.
As part of the scholarly engagement with the history of the foundation, a critical examination of the biography of the founder Erich Böckler is being carried out. As part of this project, his journalistic works—particularly those from the Nazi era—are being examined, and his family history is being researched in Estonian archives. In addition, a catalog of Böckler’s architectural works has been compiled, which is scheduled to be published as an open-access publication in 2027 (current status: June 2026).