The Transformation of Sacred Spaces

Patterns and Paths across Europe

5th Annual Conference of the DFG Research Group 2733 - TRANSARA

TRANSARA Jahrestagung 2025

Thinking about the adapted reuse of church buildings, some binary differentiations seem self-evident:

“Protestant churches are more easily used cooperatively because they are connected with a different understanding of sacrality than Catholic churches.”

“Secularization is connected with a continuing loss of sacred spaces.”

“In the cities, successful transformation is more likely because of a variety of stakeholders present.”

However, the work of the last years in the research group illustrates a complication of confessional, religious, and urban-rural binaries that initiated our comparative endeavor with the selection of the two research areas in East and West Germany. Effects of minority-/majority-confession came into view as well as differences in building culture. Not only did the economic capital appear as a cross-sectional dimension, but also potential for tourism, engagement cultures, and guiding images of the church.
The conference aims to develop a more complex web of transformation paths and patterns and situate it in the European context. Emerging propositions from the inner-German ecumenical comparison will be discussed in relation to perspectives from academic research and experiences in church practice / religious heritage preservation in different parts of Europe.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Deeg, Dr. Kerstin Menzel, Elisabeth März
Subproject 2, Leipzig University

Prof. Dr. Albert Gerhards
TRANSARA Spokesperson, University of Bonn

The conference is supported by Wüstenrot Stiftung.

Registration and Date

Date and Place

Thursday, 15th May 2025 -
Friday, 16th May 2025

Leipzig, Heilandskirche / Stadtteilzentrum "Westkreuz"

Registration & Fees

Please send registrations to prtheol@uni-leipzig.de by 20 April 2025

50,00 € (inlcuding Catering)
Students 25,00 € (including Catering)

Conference Program

Thursday, 15th May 2025

12.00 - Get-together and Snacks

13.00 - Welcome

13.15 - Patterns and Paths. Hypotheses from the work of the research group (30 min, 15 discussion)

14.00 - Comparative European Perspectives. Part I
(3 lectures 25 min, 30 min discussion)

- Sweden: Dr. Henrik Lindblad, Department of Art History, Uppsala Universiteit
- Switzerland: Prof. Dr. Johannes Stückelberger, Neuere Kunstgeschichte, Universität Basel / Institut für Praktische Theologie, Universität Bern
- United Kingdom: Dr. Linda Monckton, Policy Development Department, Policy and Evidence Group, Historic England

16.00 - Coffee Break

16.30 - Comparative European Perspectives. Part II
(3 lectures 25 min, 30 min discussion)

- Czech Republic: Mgr. Barbora Spalova, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, Charles University Prague
- Belgium: Prof. Sven Sterken, Ph.D., Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven
- Poland: Marcus van der Meulen, Faculty of Architecture RWTH Aachen/ FRH Europe

18.30 - Dinner

19.30 - Roundtable: Responses from Practice Experts

- Martin Reichenbach, Kirkerådet / Nordic conference on extended and new use of church buildings, Oslo
- Lilian Grootswagers-Theuns, Advisory Board President FRH, Erfgoed.nu
- Greg Pickup, Chief Executive of the Churches Conservation Trust, Northampton, UK

Friday, 16th May 2025

9.00 - Resumée and Questions

9.15 - Reflection Groups: Mapping the Landscape of Transformation

10.30 - Vectors of Comparison. Part I

- Secularization: Prof. Dr. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr, Institut für Kulturwissenschaften, Universität Leipzig
- Church and the Wider Society: Prof. Dr. Bernd Hillebrand, Katholisch-Theologische Fakultät, Universität Graz

12.00 - Lunch

13.00 - Vectors of comparison. Part II