Historische Bauterrakotta: Entwicklung - Schadensbilder - Konservierungskonzepte / Historical Building Terracotta: Development - Characteristic Damage - Concepts for Conservation

The following article would like to acquaint the reader with the research project, entitled „Preservation of North German Terracotta, as exemplified by the castles of Schwerin, Gadebusch and Basedow". This paper gives an overview of the way and the main subjects of our work which is to be dealt with through inter-disciplinary cooperation and contains results of the chemical investigations, in particular ceramic tests and protective material tests. The aim is to identify both the causes and the development of the various types of damage to terracotta, both where their cause is environmental and where it lies in the manufacturing process. The following stage is the problem of on-site conservation. The term „conservation " here does not refer only to the protective material complex but basicaly also to some materials and techniques necessary for conservation, for example adhesive mortars (to fill blistered areas), battering mortars (to secure the transitional areas of intact surfaces and de tio rated surfaces) and technics of desalination. At the same time, attention is directed to the fact that the material classification „building terracotta" includes a very wide range of characteristic properties, so that one cannot speak of terracotta as such.