dk nkf - Nordisk Konservatorforbund Danmark

Despite all our rational attempts at being “faithful
to the work”, it seems to me – as an engineer and
admirer of this unique building - legitimate to
interpret the recreation of the original building idea
as being true to the spirit of the place. Just as every
new performance of a classical piece of music is of,
necessity, a reinterpretation, we wish to reinterpret
our monument in a consciously responsible manner.
This process comes up against its limits when the
existing substance is destroyed at the expense of
recreation. It goes without saying that we also have
to discuss the scope and positioning of the recreation
in the context of the building itself.
Two basic decorative elements in Bruno Möhring’s
building will serve as practical examples here: the
stained glass in the large windows in the façade, and
the Jugendstil canopy over the entrance door to the
engine house.
The surviving windows on the outer façade all have
clear transparent glass. There are many signs that
the steel window frames were partially repaired,
changed or even renewed in the 1950s, and at this
point of course they would have received new
panes of glass. When we look at the sources and
the old black and white photographs it is possible to
clearly establish that the windows were originally
lavishly endowed with stained glass. Both the large
windows in the central projection contained lead
glazing motifs. But what colour were they and what
was the quality of the glass? A good indication of
what it might have been like is provided by the
interior windscreen near the door, where 98% of the
glazing still exists [14], although it is clear that the
motifs were entirely different from that of the main
windows on the façade. Intensive searches made in
obscure corners of the interior of the building and
in the ground outside threw up a few very small
coloured glass splinters. That said, it is still difficult
to reconstruct an exact quantitative arrangement of
the motifs in the windows. There now exist new
methods of making a comparison by using blackand-white
photos and “reference glass fragments”,
and these have enabled us to make a plausible
reconstruction of the original stained glass. But
we have still not solved the problem of how to
establish the exact properties and surface structure
of the glass. And even if we do, today’s coloured
glazing, including so-called cathedral glass, differs
considerably from the original glazing in its method
of manufacture and the materials used.
Such differences would not really matter if we simply
used the replica of a complete stained-glass window
without comparing it with the original. What is to stop
us from making a conscious new interpretation and
presentation of the original? Many recent publications
have described the engine house as a “cathedral of
labour” – and it must have made a similarly solemn
impression over 100 years ago. For this reason I would
be in favour of at least furnishing the windows on the
west wing of the engine house, which still contains
original engines, with new stained glass, provided there
is no attempt to imitate the original state of the window
but merely present it as a “surrogate” in the sense of
Fig 13: Conservation work on the façade has been tested on
a small scale in order to get experience for the entire task (N.
Tempel, LWL-Industriemuseum, Dortmund, 2008)
201