From 1983 to 1991, he succeeded Werner Bornheim gen. Schilling and Hartmut Hofrichter as the third Landeskonservator [de] of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate Rheinland-Pfalz in Mainz.
with Heinrich Lützeler for his thesis Julius Ludwig Rothwei, ein rheinisch-hessischer Barockarchitekt and his dissertation was also awarded the Paul Clemen Scholarship.
His most important work from this period is the Hesse edition from the series of Handbuch der deutschen Kunstdenkmäler [de] founded by Georg Dehio and continued by Ernst Gall.
[3] In addition to his official activities, during which he developed, among other things, a financing model for the launch of the Denkmaltopographie Bundesrepublik Deutschland [de] in Rhineland-Palatinate, Backes also belonged to numerous organisations, associations and corporations.
At the level of UNESCO, he represented the Federal Republic of Germany during the talks held in Australia concerning the inclusion of the Speyer Cathedral and the Würzburg Residence (1981) to the World Heritage List.