diff --git a/src/Base/PersistencePy.xml b/src/Base/PersistencePy.xml
index 0408f0d15f..cf10cd72a3 100644
--- a/src/Base/PersistencePy.xml
+++ b/src/Base/PersistencePy.xml
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
       <DeveloperDocu>This is the Persistence class</DeveloperDocu>
       <UserDocu>This is a persistence class</UserDocu>
     </Documentation>
-    <Attribute Name="Content" ReadOnly="false">
+    <Attribute Name="Content" ReadOnly="true">
       <Documentation>
         <UserDocu>Content of the object in XML representation</UserDocu>
       </Documentation>
@@ -26,5 +26,22 @@
       </Documentation>
       <Parameter Name="MemSize" Type="Int"/>
     </Attribute>
+    <Methode Name="dumpContent" Keyword="true" Const="true">
+            <Documentation>
+                <UserDocu>Dumps the content of the object, both the XML representation as well as the additional datafiles  
+                          required, into a byte representation. It will be returned as byte array.
+                          dumpContent() -- returns a byte array with full content
+                          dumpContent(Compression=1-9) -- Sets the data compression from 0 (no) to 9 (max)
+                </UserDocu>
+            </Documentation>
+    </Methode>
+    <Methode Name="restoreContent">
+            <Documentation>
+                <UserDocu>Restore the content of the object from a byte representation as stored by \"dumpContent\".
+                          It could be restored from any python object implementing the buffer protocol.
+                          restoreContent(buffer) -- restores from the given byte array
+                </UserDocu>
+            </Documentation>
+    </Methode>
   </PythonExport>
-</GenerateModel>
+</GenerateModel>
diff --git a/src/Base/PersistencePyImp.cpp b/src/Base/PersistencePyImp.cpp
index ac2d4c79b0..890773996b 100644
--- a/src/Base/PersistencePyImp.cpp
+++ b/src/Base/PersistencePyImp.cpp
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 
 #include "PreCompiled.h"
 #include "Writer.h"
+#include "Reader.h"
 #include "Persistence.h"
 
 // inclution of the generated files (generated By PersitancePy.xml)
@@ -48,16 +49,117 @@ Py::String PersistencePy::getContent(void) const
     return  Py::String (writer.getString());
 }
 
-void  PersistencePy::setContent(Py::String /*arg*/)
-{
-    throw Py::AttributeError(std::string("Attribute 'Content' of object 'Persistence' is read-only"));
-}
-
 Py::Int PersistencePy::getMemSize(void) const
 {
     return Py::Int((long)getPersistencePtr()->getMemSize());
 }
 
+PyObject* PersistencePy::dumpContent(PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds) {
+ 
+    int compression = 3;
+    static char* kwds_def[] = {"Compression",NULL};
+    PyErr_Clear();
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTupleAndKeywords(args, kwds, "|i", kwds_def, &compression)) {
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    
+    //setup the streams
+    std::stringstream stream(std::stringstream::out | std::stringstream::in | std::stringstream::binary);
+
+    //we need to close the zipstream to get a good result, the only way to do this is to delete the ZipWriter. 
+    //Hence the scope...
+    {
+        //create the writer
+        Base::ZipWriter writer(stream);
+        writer.setLevel(compression);
+        writer.putNextEntry("Document.xml");
+        writer.setMode("BinaryBrep");    
+        
+        //save the content
+        getPersistencePtr()->Save(writer);
+        writer.writeFiles();
+    }
+     
+    //build the byte array with correct size
+    if(!stream.seekp(0, stream.end)) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "Unable to find end of stream");
+        return NULL;
+    }        
+    std::stringstream::pos_type offset = stream.tellp();
+    if(!stream.seekg(0, stream.beg)) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "Unable to find begin of stream");
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    
+    PyObject* ba = PyByteArray_FromStringAndSize(NULL, offset);
+    
+    //use the buffer protocol to access the underlying array and write into it
+    Py_buffer buf = Py_buffer();
+    PyObject_GetBuffer(ba, &buf, PyBUF_WRITABLE);
+    try {
+        if(!stream.read((char*)buf.buf, offset)) {
+            PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "Error copying data into byte array");
+            return NULL;
+        }
+        PyBuffer_Release(&buf);
+    }
+    catch(...) {
+        PyBuffer_Release(&buf);
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "Error copying data into byte array");
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    
+    return ba;    
+}
+
+PyObject* PersistencePy::restoreContent(PyObject *args) {
+
+    PyObject* buffer;
+    if( !PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "O", &buffer) )
+        return NULL;
+    
+    //check if it really is a buffer
+    if( !PyObject_CheckBuffer(buffer) ) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "Must be a buffer object");
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    
+    Py_buffer buf;
+    if(PyObject_GetBuffer(buffer, &buf, PyBUF_SIMPLE) < 0)
+        return NULL;
+    
+    if(!PyBuffer_IsContiguous(&buf, 'C')) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_TypeError, "Buffer must be contiguous");
+        return NULL;
+    }
+    
+    try {
+        
+        //TODO: this mkes a stupid copy, we should make a stream directly from the buffer
+        std::stringstream stream(std::string((char*)buf.buf, buf.len), std::stringstream::in | std::stringstream::binary);
+        
+        zipios::ZipInputStream zipstream(stream);
+        Base::XMLReader reader("", zipstream);
+
+        if (!reader.isValid()) {
+            PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, "Unable to read file");
+            return NULL;
+        }
+        
+        getPersistencePtr()->Restore(reader);
+        reader.readFiles(zipstream);
+    }
+    catch (const Base::Exception& e) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, e.what());
+        return NULL;
+    } 
+    catch (const std::exception& e) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_IOError, e.what());
+        return NULL;
+    }   
+    
+    return Py_None;
+}
 
 PyObject *PersistencePy::getCustomAttributes(const char*) const
 {