The archive of the founder of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre and later UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Culture, Prof. Dr. Bernd Freiherr von Droste zu Hülshoff, contains fundamental documents and extensive visual material on UNESCO's nature and cultural heritage protection programs. In 1973, he joined in Paris UNESCO’s Department of Ecological Sciences, which laid the foundations for the establishment of biosphere reserves. From 1992, as founder of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre in Paris, together with his staff, and the advisory organizations IUCN, ICOMOS and ICCROM, fundamentally he shaped the protection of natural and cultural heritage on a global basis for more than a quarter of a century. He also introduced aspects of sustainability into the protection of natural and cultural resources as early as the 1970s.

To mark the handover of his extensive archive to the Jiří Toman Center at the University for Continuing Education Krems, this symposium will discuss aspects of his work at UNESCO at the time (which now represent global protection and preservation standards) from different perspectives. New fields of research based on this unique archive collection will also be presented.

The event will end with a visit to a Heurigen (wine tavern).

The lectures will be held partly in German and partly in English. Admission is free, registration is requested. The program will be published shortly.