Cultural heritage: And suddenly the whole world turns up

Why do we live the way we do? Manuel Trummer is seeking answers to this question. Trummer, Professor of Empirical Cultural Studies and European Ethnology at LMU, is an expert in intangible cultural heritage. “Talk about cultural heritage and most people think of the pyramids or Neuschwanstein Castle, the masterpieces and high points of human attainment. Yet our understanding of intangible cultural heritage actually has a lower threshold and is more democratic,” the LMU newcomer explains. “It all revolves around the notion that communities themselves determine what seems to them to be worth protecting. And that includes knowledge and skills that people pass on for generations.”

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It follows that intangible cultural heritage includes Japanese timber construction and African clay building skills, techno music from Berlin and Italian cuisine. The notion is backed by a paradigm shift that set in at the level of UNESCO. As a subset of the United Nations, UNESCO is responsible for preserving cultural heritage.

Until then, the act of defining what belongs to world heritage had been preceded by a hierarchical process prescribed by Western cultural policy and experts. “The global north and the bourgeois concept of advanced culture essentially predominated. It was all about humanity’s outstanding achievements, but the global south hardly got a look in,” Trummer notes. Accordingly, the international Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage was ratified in an attempt to enable people around the globe to decide what culture is for them. “This participatory approach helps lend visibility to many traditions and marginalized forms of culture that would otherwise remain unseen,” Trummer adds.

Intangible cultural heritage: From the past to the future

In one current research project, Trummer is developing a monitoring system to enable people to sustainably develop their intangible cultural forms in situ after being listed on the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the German UNESCO Commission. In co-creation arrangements together with practitioners, knowledge formats and best-practice guidelines take shape that can provide local support and prevent undesirable developments. In another research project for which Trummer has just submitted an application, the focus would be on making use of knowledge about traditional irrigation methods in modern municipal water management. “In light of the climate crisis, indigenous knowledge can make a powerful contribution to socially and ecologically sustainable economic methods,” Trummer explains. That, he notes, is why intangible cultural heritage is a “mega-topic” and a massive resource for the future, especially at a time of multiple crises.

Trummer’s research plays a part in investigating traditional knowledge and skills as resources with which to tackle current challenges: “Cultural heritage is fascinating because it is a touchpoint between three temporal levels: It is about what is handed down from the past and how we curate it in the present. And in the present, we make decisions about what is so important to us that we as a society want to preserve it for the future and hand it down to our children and their children. That is why intangible cultural heritage is like a magnifying glass that gives visibility to the conservation of societal values, to shifts in those values and to the question “How do we want to live?”

Regarding rural areas, Trummer applies himself to issues such as how mobility and local supplies can be upheld. Preserving intangible cultural heritage could be part of the solution: “Cultural heritage is a community project. It can bring the population of shrinking villages and small towns together to work on a shared goal.”

Between university and cultural mediation

Trummer read comparative cultural studies at the University of Regensburg from 1999 to 2004. He then served as Managing Director of UNESCO’s Walldürn Geopark information center, before returning to Regensburg as a lecturer and, later, to earn his doctorate. He worked here as a research associate and postdoctoral researcher until 2017, staying on after that as an assistant professor and senior lecturer, and ultimately earning his professorial qualification at the same university. Trummer served as Associate Professor of Comparative Cultural Studies at the University of Regensburg from 2023. From 2024 to 2025, he then took up a post as Managing Director at the Institute of Folklore Studies at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

At the start of the winter semester 2025/26, Trummer moved to LMU – one of his “dream destinations” – to take up the Chair of Empirical Cultural Studies and European Ethnology: “Munich has an outstanding cultural scene and research landscape. Even just the discussions I have had in the past two months have confirmed my belief in this excellent location. The opportunities here and the freedoms granted by LMU, the cooperation with practitioners – all this opens up unique opportunities for one’s own research. Intellectually, it is truly an inspiring environment.”

Intangible cultural heritage: Discovering white spots

In his teaching, Trummer believes it is important to involve students in research from an early stage. The LMU professor says that the vocational spectrum that opens up for experts in intangible cultural heritage is widening. One reason, he says, is that the topic is of growing importance in municipal contexts and for museums. And there are still blind spots in intangible cultural heritage directories – “especially in modern urban culture, post-migrant cultural heritage and with a view to gender inequalities. You can encourage the students to discover these white spots in their own living environments.”

Manuel Trummer finds it fascinating that, even for himself, his own discipline repeatedly opens up new perspectives: “You are thinking about everyday routines and the things you are surrounded by, and suddenly the whole world turns up, alongside broader societal processes. And then you often see the world you live in through different eyes.”