Call for signing petition The right to collect in Germany

[Soenke]

Hello together,

 

sorry for being so late, giving you a summary here. Thanks Roger, for keeping the forum updated meanwhile!

 

The argument concerning the cultural goods protection act was very time consuming in Autumn 2015 and also in Spring and partially Summer 2016. The organisation and coordination of the protest was complex, because there were no organised powerful structures before, which we could have used, despite of the international fossil boards and some relevant scientists and collector associations in Germany, which all have been more or less apolitical before. And it was also difficult to clarify what´s wrong with the law, as "protection of cultural goods" sounds really fine, doesn´t it?

I´ve been several times in Berlin with other supporters of our matter to talk with politics (others have also been in touch with their regional representatives) and finally we managed, that they understood some of our points within all actual parliament parties. They didn´t react to all our wishes, but some main bugs of the law, that has come into power meanwhile (since August) have been fixed.

 

So, what does our protest change?

 

Just a few words, but more than we thought it would change (as we´ve come into the "game" within a late phase of the legislation, lobbyists do their work normally earlier, as this is  by far easier)!

 

- There is now more differentiation between artifacts and fossils in the definitions. Therefore you need to know, that they want to limit the trade with artifacts strictly with the cultural goods protection act (using oftentimes the argument that the so called Islamic State is financed by illegal artifact trade...). This was the main issue and every rule was made for both (fossils and artifacts) in the earlier version of the law. The commercial trade with artifacts is now strictly limited, without regarding the monetary value. With regard to our fossils the strongest duty of care rules (which can hardly be followed) only concern objetcs with a value higher than 2500 euros. So a lot of fossils aren´t part of the strictest and therefore most problematic rules. There is no more risk of mixing artifacts and fossils in this point, due to to the changes.

 

- They changed the planned importing rule(!). Now you need only to prove the legality of the import by (export) papers if you are importing "national cultural goods of a foreign country". This is not every fossil as it was in the draft due to the definitions. Of course this stays problematical with countries that installed strict and general export rules, saying "all our fossils are our national heritage" (as p.E. Brazil does, to my knowdlege ... within the same time I am writing tons of rocks yielding fantastic fossils are quarried there for industrial purposes... what does that teach us? Destroying fossils is better than exporting them into the hands of scientists and collectors worldwide? ).

 

- They also reacted concerning the criticism of scientists, we mentioned ofentimes in the discussions and e-mails. There was a proscription of changing / preparing cultural goods (including fossils) that are national Heritage of Germany in the draft of the government. This would have caused the (idiotic) consequence, that fossils like Archaeopteryx, which are included in the list, couldn´t have been prepared! And no invasive technics could have been use anymore in palaeontology if the objects were listed (and listed are especially some of the scientifically relevant pieces). But they understood this point (in all represented political parties) and changed it in a way, that says "if the change of a cultural good happens under the rules of contemporary science, it is allowed".

 

There were some other changes, seeming to be little, but in fact with relevant consequences, also concerning the question who needs to proof that something is legally in Germany (burden of proof). But also the act is in power now, lots of things stay completely unclear and future practice of the public authorities will show how relevant the act gets. At the moment there is a great lack of informations, especially concerning foreign export laws with regard to the fossil topic. This should have been a requirement for taking effect normally; but they wanted to push the law through in Summer.

 

There are plans for a constitutional complaint and also the idea to use the European Community Law for further protest (as the law limits the free market of the member states of the union, which is guaranteed without restrictions by law).

But this judicial procedure isn´t organised by the fossil community. Dealers and collectors of artwork have a lot of interest to achieve a liberalisation too. But they mainly tend to attack the German export rules, making it more complex for them as it was before to export art from Germany. They always have the risk, that the export of valuable art doesn´t get a permit, a big disadvantage for German dealers. This was the main topic in the public German discussion of the law and it hasn´t been easy to make clear, that this isn´t our point, we are talking especially about import.

 

The fossil forum and all who signed the petition contributed a lot to the perception of the protest!

In the beginning the government doesn´t seem to be interested what we had to say, half a year later we talked with more or less open minded parliamentarians, saying the same things we said months before without any impact. These were other people, but I think, that the audible protest contributed a lot to their openness.

 

So, thank you all again (!!!) and let us stay thoughtful concerning new tendencies limiting our fantastic hobby, or even worse putting it into illegality - they do it due to being uninformed, not because they really want it, but we have to raise our voices...

 

I´ve posted all these things in more detail - but in German language - on Steinkern:

https://www.steinkern.de/news-updates/1163-kulturgutschutzgesetz.html

Feel free to use translation tools to have a look. Things are complex, so I could only summarise them here along general lines in English.

 

We´ve done everything we could so far and now we´ll see if we get precedent. Hopefully not too much and not too bad precedent.

 

Best wishes

Sönke

[Scylla]

Thank you for all your work and the update.