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UNESCO World Heritage List

Places and objects that make a unique contribution to the history of humanity and nature can be named a World Heritage Site. The list includes cultural property such as historical buildings and urban ensembles, industrial monuments, cultural landscapes, as well as natural monuments such as sites of geological discoveries, natural landscapes and reserves.

World Heritage Sites formed through human interaction with nature have been integrated as a subcategory of cultural landscapes since 1992. At the time of writing, the World Heritage List contains 1,154 cultural and natural heritage sites in 167 countries.

In Germany there are 51 World Heritage Sites, of which seven are considered industrial world heritage. In 1992, the Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of Goslar became Germany’s first industrial World Heritage Site. In 2010, the site was extended to include the Upper Harz Water Management System, the historical water system for the Upper Harz mining industry. In 1994, the Völklingen Ironworks in the Saarland was inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List, and in 2001 the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen joined them. The Fagus Factory in Alfeld was inscribed onto the World Heritage List in 2011, while the Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus in Hamburg was accepted in 2015. The Erzgebirge/Krušnohoří Mining Region and the Water Management System of Augsburg have been inscribed in the World Heritage List since 2019. (As of October 2021).