One of the most important aims of cultural policy is to protect cultural property, which bears witness to the cultural history and identity of peoples and nations. This section contains further information about the protection of cultural property in terms of its objectives, the measures to be implemented, the key pieces of legislation and the relevant legal bases.
What does the Act on the Protection of Cultural Property mean for…
This section contains links to the registers of cultural property of national significance maintained independently by each of the Länder. Our database provides a comprehensive overview of the entries contained in all of these registers, and can also be used to carry out targeted searches for individual items of cultural property of national significance.
This website provides information on the legal situation regarding the protection of cultural property in other countries, in implementation of the provisions of Section 4 (1) (2) of the German Act on the Protection of Cultural Property (Kulturgutschutzgesetz, KGSG). Particular emphasis is placed on the signatory states to the UNESCO Convention of 14 November 1970 on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, and the information is updated on an ongoing basis.
The United Kingdom left the European Union on 31 January 2020. The transition period which followed, and during which all previous regulations remained unchanged, ended on 31 December 2020. What this means for the cross-border movement of cultural property is summarised in this section.
This section contains details of the contact persons within the authorities with jurisdiction for the protection of cultural property, as well as links to downloadable forms, publications, leaflets and other information, particularly regarding the expert committees of the Federal Government and the Länder. If you are unable to find the information you require, please feel free to get in touch with us using the contact form.
Everything about the protection of cultural property
In 2016, Germany completed a comprehensive reform of its legislation on the protection of cultural property, one of the aims of which was to bring German law into line with EU and international standards, in particular the 1970 UNESCO Convention.
Source: picture alliance/ AP Photo/ Domenico Stinellis
The German Act on the Protection of Cultural Property (Kulturgutschutzgesetz, KGSG) entered into force on 6 August 2016, and serves to protect not only cultural objects that are particularly important for Germany because of their outstanding significance for the country’s cultural identity (“national valuable cultural property”), but also objects categorized as national cultural property by other countries.
This Act marked the first time that the legislator had combined all of the regulations on preventing the exodus of cultural property and securing the return of cultural property that had previously applied under German law into a single piece of legislation. The provisions were also revised and supplemented with a great many new regulations and procedural simplifications.
Further details of the material regulatory requirements can be found in the section entitled Key points.
