Michaelis Church in Rostock Reconstructed

The St. Michaelis Church in Rostock has received a facelift. With work beginning in July 1999, the civil construction office of Rostock has begun to refurbish the monastery church with WEBAC_® 2061. As the buildings are listed, the requirements were quite formidable.
The St. Michaelis monastery is among the city's most ancient buildings. Between 1480 and 1502 the "Brüder zum gemeinsamen Leben" ("Brothers in Common Life") erected the church and the living and workshop quarters. The brothers lived a life of piety which was quite novel for the time: without being bound to vows, they linked the succession of Christ with charitable service and educational work. In 1476 they printed the first book in Rostock, making Rostock the second Hanse city of letters in Northern Germany after Lübeck. After a vicissitudinous history, the Michaelis monastery has held up this tradition to this day: one part of the building is used as a church, the other houses the university library.
The reconstruction work proceeded under strict listed buildings regulations. The injection material had to have both a consolidating and hydrophobic effect, had to be invisible and was to be injected only in the joints. The solution came with the injection of the polymer-modified silicate system WEBAC_® 2061. This new masonry consolidation system with its hydrophobic properties was developed specially for this project.
Tests made during and after the reconstruction work confirmed the even penetration of the inhomogeneous mortar and the high efficiency of this system. Injecting WEBAC_® 2061 allowed the old building substance to be strengthened and consolidated to such an extent that the masonry of the monastery again fully meets the load-bearing capacity requirements. Its most outstanding features are moisture-repellent properties and an even and regular intrinsic strength within the jointing structure. The damaged masonry is not only strengthened, it is also impregnated and is so protected from further decay. Our "Brothers in Common Life" would have enjoyed seeing the new walls.