Skip to content

Wie weiter mit Humboldts Erbe?

Ethnographische Sammlungen neu denken

  • Contributions
  • About this blog
  • Site Notice
Wie weiter mit Humboldts Erbe?

Collateral Damage. A Polemic

19. December 2017

by Karl-Heinz Kohl

“Europe is a master of criticism. If it doesn’t criticize, it disappears. What it fears most is nonexistence. I tried to criticize it, too, because it demanded this from me, but I wasn’t able. At most, I could repeat its self-criticism.”[1] These sentences by the Japanese author Yoko Tawada occurred to me when I read some of the blog texts. Yoko Tawada is referring to Europe, but she really means Germany, the country she has lived in for so long.

more “Collateral Damage. A Polemic”

Blog

A Look into the Vienna Weltmuseum The relaunched Ethnological Museum of Vienna gives us a first taste of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum to come

12. December 2017

by Johanna Di Blasi

Following a three-year renovation period, the former Ethnological Museum in Hofburg/Vienna was recently reopened as the Vienna Weltmuseum (VWM). Responsible for content development and the presentation of the exhibits was the same museum exhibition design firm, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, which previously designed the Canadian National Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg and the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened by Barack Obama in Washington DC, and which is also currently preparing the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. Therefore, Vienna can be considered a test run for the major project in Berlin, which is also housed in a palace. At the Vienna Weltmuseum, we are able to paradigmatically study the state-of-the-art of ethnographic-scenographic exhibitions in the second decade of the 21st century, as well as the new role of contemporary art in historical museums, the latter of which I gave special attention to during my visit.

more “A Look into the Vienna Weltmuseum The relaunched Ethnological Museum of Vienna gives us a first taste of Berlin’s Humboldt Forum to come“

Blog

‘Cannibals’ with Chestpains: On Ethnographic Collection Histories

5. December 2017

by Rainer F. Buschmann

A Pacific Presences Workshop meeting at Cambridge in July of this year revealed an estimated 250,000 Oceanic artifacts available in numerous German Völkerkunde museums. The astonishment behind this number is twofold: 1. Most of these objects were collected during a relatively short time (roughly between the years of 1870 to 1914). 2. Comparatively speaking German museums house more Oceanic artifacts than France (65,000), The Netherlands (80,000) and Russia (10,000) combined (Buschmann, forthcoming). Assuming that similar numbers also emerge from the rich African collections in the same museums, one can easily grasp the multiple controversies surrounding the Humboldt Forum and related Völkerkunde museums highlighted in this fascinating blog space. The focus of this blog – the novel rethinking of ethnographic collection – should, however, engage “newer” as well as “older” considerations.

more “‘Cannibals’ with Chestpains: On Ethnographic Collection Histories“

Blog
  • deDeutsch
  • enEnglish

New Contributions Every Tuesday!

New Contributions Every Tuesday!

© Jonathan Fine

Our Authors

Jonas Bens
Felicity Bodenstein
Rainer F. Buschmann
Silvy Chakkalakal
Claus Deimel
Steffi de Jong
Johanna Di Blasi
Hansjörg Dilger
Elizabeth Edwards
Ethnologie-Studierende der Uni Bayreuth
Leonor Faber-Jonker
Christian Feest
Anujah Fernando
Callum Fisher
Larissa Förster
Sarah Fründt
Rainer Hatoum
Paola Ivanov
Monica Juneja
Claudia Jürgens
Michi Knecht
Karl-Heinz Kohl
Viola König
Fritz W. Kramer
Christian Kravagna
Ingrid Kummels
Oliver Lueb
Barpougouni Mardjoua
Achille Mbembe
Mark Münzel
Kwame Tua Opoku
Glenn Penny (1) (2)
Martin Porr
Andrea Scholz
Philipp Schorch
Erhard Schüttpelz (1) (2) (3)
Sven Schütze
Anna Seiderer
Bernhard Streck
Z. S. Strother
Luísa Valentini
Sarah van Beurden
Ulrich van Loyen
Friedrich von Bose
Margareta von Oswald (1) (2)
Cordula Weißköppel
Souad Zeineddine (1) (2)

Recent Posts

  • Reversal of the gaze 8. January 2019
  • The ‘Restitution Report’ 18. December 2018
  • “The truth is that Europe has taken something from us, which it will never be able to return”* 11. December 2018
  • Whoever’s Right 6. December 2018
  • Everything Must Go: Looting the Museum as Compensation for Looting the World 28. November 2018

Selected Media Reports

For a detailed documentation of the media coverage please visit the CARMAH Media Review on Museums
–––

Gedenkraum für koloniales Unrecht im Humboldt Forum gefordert
(Monopol, 03.01.2019)
Unterm Strich: Die Debatte um geraubte Kulturgüter aus der Kolonialzeit nimmtweiter Fahrt auf.
Interviewausschnitte mit M. Grütters
(taz.de, 03.01.2019)
Jason Farago: Artwork Taken From Africa, Returning to a Home Transformed
(NYTimes.com, 03.01.2019)
Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin: Alles aus Frankreich muss zurück nach Afrika
(NZZ.ch, 31.12.2018)
Werner Bloch: „Wir wollenkeine Almosen“
(ZEIT.de, 27.12.2018)
„Gegen jeglichen Verkauf“. Die Ethnologin Viola König kritisiert den kulturellen Mißbrauch indigener Objekte.
Interview von Tobias Timm
(ZEIT.de, 18.12.2018)
Sebastian Frenzel: 265.000 Objekte, 0 Provenienzforscher.
Interview mit Barbara Plankensteiner
(Monopol, 18.12.2018)
Alexander Herman: The eye of the beholder: How we return art to its rightful place.
(The Globe and Mail, 30.11.2018)
Should looted colonial art be returned?
(Podcast, theartnewspaper.com, 14.12.2018)
Rebekka Habermas: Was schuldenwirkolonialen Objekten?
(Vortrag, Einsteinforum, 29.11.2018)
Alexander Herman: The eye of the beholder: How we return art to its rightful place.
(The Globe and Mail, 30.11.2018)

Felwine Sarr and Bénédicte Savoy: The Restitution of African Cultural Heritage. Toward a New Relational Ethics
http://restitutionreport2018.com

Tristram Hunt, Hartmut Dorgerloh, Nicholas Thomas: Restitution Report: Museum directors respond
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/comment/restitution-report-museums-directors-respond

BeninDialogueGroup: Museum für Kunst aus Benin geplant
(Stiftung Preussicher Kulturbesitz, 22.10.2018)
Catherine Hickley: Berlin’s Humboldt Forum: how its director plans to confront German colonial past
(The Art Newspaper, 17.10.2018)
Peer Teuwsen: Wir müssen nicht auf den nächsten Krieg warten, wir können die Sachen jetzt zurückgeben“. Interview with Bénédicte Savoy
(NZZ.de, 15.10.2018)
Peter Burghardt: ‚Zweckfrei fördern’.
(sueddeutsche.de, 14.10.2018)
Haroon Siddique: Not everything was looted’: British Museum to fight critics
(TheGuardian.com, 12.10.2018)
Graham Bowley: A new museum opens old wounds in Germany
(NewYorkTimes.com, 12.10.2018)
Jörg Häntzschel und Andreas Zielcke: Eine Räuberbande will Beweise. An interview with the lawyer Wolfgang Kaleck about the legal aspects of restitution.
(sueddeutsche.de, 11.10.2018)
Achilles Mbembe: Restitution ist nicht genug.
(FAZ.net, 09.10.2018)
Jörg Häntzschel: Aufbruch vertagt
(Süddeutsche.de, 21.09.2018)
Andreas Kilb: Wie kolonialistisch sind Naturkundemuseen?
(FAZ.net, 13.09.2018)
John Eligon: The Big Hole in Germany’s Nazi Reckoning? Its Colonial History
(NewYorkTimes.com, 11.09.2018)
Richard Dören: Wem gehört die Bibel von Hendrik Witbooi?
(FAZ.net, 06.09.2018)
Christoph Schmälzle: Ist das Kunst, oder muss das wieder weg?
(FAZ.net, 16.08.2018)
Karl-Heinz Kohl: So schnell restituieren die Preußen nicht
(FAZ.net, 17.05.2018)
Viola König: Zeigt endlich alles! Warum nur ein radikales Konzept das Humboldt Forum noch retten kann
(Zeit.de, 25.04.2018)
Jörg Häntzschel: Wie ein ethnologischer Kindergarten

(Süddeutsche Zeitung, 21.03.2018)
Cody Delistraty: The Fraught Future of the Ethnographic Museum
(frieze.com, 28.02.2018)
Casey Haughin: Why museum professionals need to talk about Black Panther
(The Hopkins Exhibitionist, 22.02.2018)
Nicola Kuhn: Berlins verfluchte Schätze

(Tagesspiegel.de, 13.02.2018)

Archives

  • January 2019 (1)
  • December 2018 (3)
  • November 2018 (4)
  • October 2018 (3)
  • September 2018 (2)
  • July 2018 (4)
  • June 2018 (2)
  • May 2018 (5)
  • April 2018 (1)
  • March 2018 (3)
  • February 2018 (4)
  • January 2018 (4)
  • December 2017 (3)
  • November 2017 (4)
  • October 2017 (7)

RSS RSS-Feed: Humboldt’s legacy

  • Reversal of the gaze 8. January 2019

An Initiative by:

 

 

 

In Cooperation with:

 

 

Idealist by NewMediaThemes