To mark the European Cultural Heritage Summit "Sharing Heritage - Sharing Values" in the European Year of Cultural Heritage, an exhibition is going on display at the Kunstbibliothek which documents the unique effort to rescue the architectural cultural heritage of the town of Görlitz overall. Entitled Görlitz – Auferstehung eines Denkmals (Görlitz – A Cultural Heritage Site Resurrected) and featuring large-format photographs by Dresden’s Jörg Schöner, it will be on display until 5 August.

Schöner has been documenting the enormous architectural wealth of Görlitz for the last four decades and over that time has become the chronicler of the town’s transformation. His photos capture past and present, areas once derelict and now restored, and thus reveal not only the outstanding architectural fabric of this town on the Niesse but also its everyday life. Having started as the documentation of seemingly unstoppable decay, since 1990 his work has become instead the record of a historically unprecedented resurrection of cultural heritage.

The exhibition also bears impressive witness to the enormous commitment and enthusiasm of the many people who realised the value of the town’s cultural heritage and devoted themselves to its restoration. Enormous achievements by public and private bodies alike have contributed to the blossoming of the town in the 27 years since German reunification. Another factor has been the so-called “Old Town Millions” - the almost 11 million euros which have been given to the town of Görlitz by an anonymous donor over a period of 22 years for the preservation of its cultural monuments.

Curated by Jörg Schöner himself, the exhibition has already been seen by large numbers of visitors in Görlitz, at the Bundesrat in Berlin, at Dresden Airport, at the Wiesbaden Stadtmuseum am Markt, and at Dresden’s State Parliament building.