Artwork

“approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak.” is a quote from the route description to the Central Refuge of the Federal Republic of Germany (Zentraler Bergungsort) from the UNESCO International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection. The route description leads to the Barbarastollen, a former ore mining tunnel in Hintertal, near the municipality of Oberried in the Black Forest.

After witnessing the loss of cultural property during the Second World War, the ore mining tunnel was reconstructed from 1972 onwards in order to prevent the loss of cultural property in the event of a possible conflict or catastrophe. The first storage took place in 1975, and since April 1978, the Barbarastollen has been listed as one of fourteen properties under Special Protection worldwide.

Administered by the Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance—former Office of Civil Defence (Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe—früher Amt für Zivilschutz), the facility is constructed to store the republic’s cultural property in the Barbarastollen for at least 500 years.

Municipality of Oberried. District of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald (Black Forest). Regional administrative district of Freiburg. Federal State (Land).

Zentraler Bergungsort (Central Refuge) Oberrieder Stollen

(a) The refuge is situated about 2,500 m south-west of the Oberried municipal office.

(b) Area: approximately 1,440 sq. m². Sheltered by a gneiss massif about 200 m high, the main drift is 400 m long. There are two parallel side drifts, each 50 m long.

(c) It can be reached from the southern end of the village of Oberried by road which, 1,000 m from the village exit, leads to a connecting road branching off to the right (westward) and reaching three houses after 230 m. From these three houses, which are situated at a bend in the road, the road runs uphill through the woods for another 260 m leading to a 400 sq. m² circular open space in front of the actual entrance to the Central Refuge. The entrance itself is let into a rock wall. The drift can be reached directly via the L 126 road leading from Kirchzarten to Todtnau. The refuge is situated approximately 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak.

(d) Longitude: 7° 56’ 12’’ East; Latitude: 47° 55’ 23’’ North¹

Isabel Motz, approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., diploma exhibition invitation poster, video footage from site visit, 2024

The cultural property shelter was built in a place that, due to its location and conditions, is particularly unattractive for military operations. There is no train station, broadcasting station, airfield or other infrastructural facility. The area of 3 kilometers around the Barbarastollen is considered a demilitarised zone. No military manoeuvres or activities are permitted in this zone.

The following examination of the Barbarastollen questions the logic of rearmament during the Cold War by trying to understand the infrastructure of the site. As the times in which the Barbarastollen was planned and built were dominated by the nuclear threat, the Central Refuge could be seen as an attempt to regain control over the unpredictable situation and to escape the paralysing state of fear.

To ensure the survival of the cultural heritage for at least 500 years, the “nuclear inferno” was countered with technologically advanced safety systems, calculations of possible pressure shock waves, artificial ageing tests of the materials used and, finally, with bureaucratic management of the cultural heritage in the form of the Federal Safeguards Filming (Bundessicherungsverfilmung) program, developed specifically for this purpose.

During the observation of the site, the following actors have been identified as strategic barriers protecting the information that is being secured in the Barbarastollen: the Schauinsland mountain, the mine, the protection emblem, the bunker door, the steel containers, and the microfilm.

The Schauinsland mountain—south of the community of Oberried, considered the safest place, unattractive in the event of armed conflict. Chosen to hold the archive, the site fulfills the conditions of Article 8 of the Hague Conventions:

CHAPTER II

SPECIAL PROTECTION

ARTICLE 8
GRANTING OF SPECIAL PROTECTION
1. There may be placed under special protection a limited number of refuges intended to shelter movable cultural property in the event of armed conflict, of centres containing monuments and other immovable cultural property of very great importance, provided that they:

(a) are situated at an adequate distance from any large industrial centre or from any important military objective constituting a vulnerable point, such as, for example, an aerodrome, broadcasting station, establishment engaged upon work of national defence, a port or railway station of relative importance or a main line of communication;

(b) are not used for military purposes.²

Fig. 1: Isabel Motz, approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., panel Schauinsland mountain, 2024

The mine—as a hiding place in the mountain. Under a 200 meter gneiss massif, it offers sight protection and restricted accessibility. The Federal Office of Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance has planned to close the tunnel entrance with a stable brick wall in times of “extremely high probability of danger.”

1. PROTECTION AGAINST RISKS DIRECTLY DUE TO MILITARY OPERATIONS
TOTAL PROTECTION
NUCLEAR WEAPONS
In view of the fact that the danger of nuclear weapons is by far the greatest and that provision is made against all other risks by every appropriate means, it is clear from the foregoing that there can be no lucid or honest discussion of the matter of total protection against nuclear weapons for either non-transportable or transportable cultural property without envisaging an underground shelter covered by a minimum of 500 m of average rock, and defended against all other direct or indirect risks.³

Isabel Motz, "The Mine," approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., 2025

The protection emblem—symbolising the protection given by the Hague Conventions. Repeated three times, it symbolises a site that is under special protection—no military is allowed in a 3-kilometer zone around the site. Communication about the cultural property is currently only provided by the three protective signs of the Hague Conventions at the entrance to the mine—there is no written word or other attempt at communication.

To develop a method of communicating information over a long timespan, the US government’s Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation commissioned the Research Centre for Language and Semiotic Studies at Indiana University in 1984 to design a message, in the form of a sign, for marking radioactive waste repositories. Although the investigations in Communication Measures to Bridge Ten Millennia relate to a much longer time frame than 500 years (as in the case of the Barbarastollen), the information to be communicated—the instructions for the near future—is similar. A nuclear waste repository and the Central Refuge in the Barbarastollen are to remain closed for a (very) long time. A visual message needs to be designed that remains readable and decipherable for as long as possible.

Each mode of communication – iconic, indexial, symbolic (or emblematic) – has a set of advantages and a corresponding set of disadvantages, which are both context-bound. Since the context is far from predictable at any stage over the next 10.000 years, and, with the passage of time, is bound to become increasingly equivocal, it will be recommended that all signs be constructed of a mixture of the three modes.⁴

Fig. 2: Design of the Distinctive Emblem of the Hague Convention and the Standard radiation symbol⁵

The bunker door—as the ultimate barrier, nuclear bomb-safe, a symbol of the rearmament logic during the Cold War. The steel door and container, developed and manufactured by Thyssen⁶, are intended to protect the documents from destruction by armed conflict as part of Germany’s civil defence strategy.

Even in times of peace, the three-kilometer radius around the tunnel is a demilitarised zone, forbidden terrain for soldiers in uniform. However, hostile missiles aimed at strategic targets in Germany are unlikely to be guided by register entries or protective markings. The fact that the storage follows this logic is shown by the extensive security measures intended to protect the bunkered material in the event of an emergency: purpose-built sealed stainless steel containers developed by Thyssen, a branched tunnel entrance that was developed for “final storage” from a strategic point of view, and the protection of the entire facility by an unspecified alarm system.⁷

Isabel Motz, "The Bunker Door," approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., 2025. Interview sound translation⁸

The steel containers—as time capsules and a protective shell against direct environmental influences. Located in a massif, inside steel barrels, the microfilms are shielded from anything happening on the surface. Therefore, they follow the same approach as long-term storage facilities for radioactive material, only in the opposite way: the castors holding radioactive waste need to protect the surrounding environment from their highly toxic insides. Similar not only in their infrastructural features (built inside a stone massif into chambers with walls coated in sprayed concrete, surveilled by alarm systems, protected from moisture drainage systems), but also in design elements: the two repositories use blue and orange, in the nuclear waste repository additionally yellow, and an emblem that requires interpretation. They could be difficult to tell apart, if one imagines finding one of the places in 500 or more years without knowing what is stored in the facilities. Both containers are constructed like reliquaries for a possible future, telling a story about humanity in the twenty-first century.

Fig. 3.1–3.3: Isabel Motz, approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., interim storage facility for high-level radioactive waste in Neckarwestheim in a tunnel in a former quarry, storage of the steel containers in the chambers of the Central Refuge in Barbarastollen, steel shaving from site visit, 2024

The microfilm—as a medium of cultural memory in the form of a selection of documents, a slip of plastic, a footnote, a fragment without an overarching context. Selected by the federal archives, these documents often contain historical evidence of territorial changes and proof of ownership. Forms of authentication, such as signets, are intended to attest to the evidential value of the original documents.

Microfilm recordings of the original are therefore the second most powerful form of evidence. They are forgery-proof and can be stored under good conditions for at least 500 years without information loss.⁹

Fig. 4.1–4.2: Isabel Motz, approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., original microfilm from Barbarastollen from site visit, laser-cut signets, scan from Generallandesarchiv Karlsruhe, 2024

In response to the government’s immense effort of securing documents instead of securing peace for its citizens, a young fruit farmer from Denzlingen, who refused to accept the strategy of the arms race and deterrence through nuclear weapons, started taking action in the early 1980s. He expressed his frustration by crafting protective sign pins to wear and sending letters to the responsible politicians in Bonn, asking to be added to the list of protected cultural property with his address and name. Peace activists all over West Germany followed his idea by sending the letter to the UNESCO office in Bonn and wearing the protective emblem pin.

Fig. 5: Isabel Motz, approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., leaflet and protection emblem pins from 1981, provided by private collections for the exhibition, 2024¹⁰

Today, 50 years after the first airtight sealed steel container with microfilms was stored on site, debates about nuclear armament in Europe are taking place again—over a billion images have been secured in the Barbarastollen so far; the practice of storing microfilm has continued ever since.

Fig. 6.1–6.8: Isabel Motz, approx. 3 km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak., diploma exhibition view, 2024

“approx. 3km, as the crow flies, from the Schauinsland Peak.” was developed as a diploma project and presented in July 2024 in Großes Studio at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design (HfG Karlsruhe).

Concept and Research: Isabel Motz

Poster Design: Isabel Motz and Moritz Kamil Simon, distinctive emblems by Juliana Vargas Zapata, Vincent Becher, and Saskia van der Meer

Video The Mine: Nis Petersen, Sound: Moritz Kamil Simon

Exhibition Views 1–5: Oliver-Selim Boualam, 6–8: Isabel Motz

Footnotes

1. UNESCO, International Register of Cultural Property under Special Protection, 2000. ↑

2. UNESCO, Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, The Hague, 1954. ↑

3. André F. Noblecourt, Protection of cultural property - in the event of armed conflict, The United Nations, Paris, 1958. ↑

4. Thomas A. Sebeok, Communication Measures to Bridge Ten Millennia, Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies Indiana University prepared for Office of Nuclear Waste Isolation, Columbus, 1984. ↑

5. UNESCO, Final Act of the Intergovernmental Conference on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict; D. A. Cool, H. T. Peterson, Jr., Standards for Protection Against Radiation - A Comparison of the Existing and Revised Rules,Division of Regulatory Applications, Office of Nuclear Regulatory Research, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, 1991. ↑

6. Both the Thyssen Group and Krupp AG were involved in National Socialist economic policy, which is why the Krupp company began armaments production using at least 100,000 forced laborers and concentration camp prisoners. Forced laborers from Poland and the Soviet Union were also housed in prison camps on Thyssen’s factory premises. The two companies merged in 1999 to form Thyssenkrupp AG. Although the Krupp company in 1953 committed itself to no longer producing weapons, Thyssenkrupp generates almost 5 percent of its total turnover with armaments through marine systems. ↑

7. English translation by Isabel Motz. Original quote: Auch in Friedenszeiten herrscht im Radius von drei Kilometern um den Stollen herum eine entmilitarisierte Zone, für Soldaten in Uniform verbotenes Terrain. Die auf strategische Ziele der Bundesrepublik gerichteten feindlichen Raketen werden sich allerdings kaum an Registereintragungen und Schutzmarkierungen orientieren. Daß die Einlagerung sich dieser Logik anschließt, zeigen die umfangreichen Sicherungsmaßnahmen, die das eingebunkterte Material im Ernstfall schützen sollen: verplombte Edelstahl-Container, die die Firma Thyssen eigens für diesen Zweck entwickelt hat, ein verzweigter Stolleneingang, der nach strategischen Gesichtspunkten für die “Endlagerung” ausgebaut wurde, und die Absicherung der gesamten Anlage durch ein nicht näher bezeichnetes Alarmsystem. Stephan Krass, “Eine Kultur bunkert sich ein - Im Katastrophenfall: Im Schauinsland lagern 250 Millionen Filmaufnahmen von Kulturgütern,” Badische Zeitung, 7./8. November 1981. ↑

8. Video with blue door: Georg Felsberg, Kulturbunker, Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart, 25.07.1980; Interview: Urlich Chaussy, Der Kulturstollen im Schauinsland, April 1980.
   Interview translation: We have to consider the possibilities that could trigger an armed conflict and the fact that modern weapons technologies mean that the conventional weapons of the Second World War will certainly no longer be used. This fact has been taken into account in the construction of the mine. We can assume that, according to the conditions prevailing there, below this mountain massif, the tunnel is in all probability nuclear bomb-proof. Of course, there is no guarantee of this. ↑

9. English translation by Isabel Motz. Original quote: Mikrofilmaufnahmen des Originals sind somit die Überlieferung mit der zweitstärksten Beweiskraft. Sie sind fälschungssicher und können unter guten Bedingungen mindestens 500 Jahre lang ohne Informationsverlust platzsparend gelagert werden. Dr. B. Preuss, Der Barbarastollen - Eines der weltweit wenigen Kulturgüter unter Sonderschutz, Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz und Katastrophenhilfe, Forum Nr. 35 – Kulturgüterschutzräume und Notfallplanung Zeitschrift des BABS (Bundesamt für Bevölkerungsschutz Schweiz), Bern, 2020. ↑

10. Protection emblem: handcrafted by Martin Höfflin-Glünkin, Denzlingen, ca. 1980; Leaflet: Christen für Sozialismus Freiburg, Dank Völkerrecht für nur 2,20 DM vom nächsten Krieg verschont!, Freiburg, 1981 ↑