On Wednesday, November 16, 2022, a memorial to the colonial entanglements of the former Museum of Ethnology on Stresemannstrasse will be inaugurated.
Date 16 November 2022
Time: 4:30 p.m.
Location: Corner of Stresemannstrasse/Niederkirchnerstrasse 10963 Berlin
Program:
Speakers include Clara Herrmann (District Mayor of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg), Dr. Ibou Diop (City Museum/ Dekoloniale), Mnyaka Sururu Mboro (Berlin Postcolonial) and Prof. Dr. Bénédicte Savoy (Technical University of Berlin).
Music by Sauti é Haala: The musicians Zaida Horstmann and Abdou-Rahime Diallo critically examine coloniality and experiences of racism in their music and, on the other hand, deal with spirituality, love, life and social paradigms of the Global South and its diasporas.
District Mayor Clara Herrmann: "This memorial plaque reveals that the violent German colonial history also unfolded right in the heart of our district. The Ethnological Museum, with its racist research, imperialist collecting methods and exhibitions, was essentially a unique repository of looted art. As a city society, we must therefore critically examine the history of the objects today and question which people, methods and systems created colonial injustice and how this affected the history of the district."
In 1886, the Museum of Ethnology was opened, which housed and presented the ethnological collections of the German Empire. The majority of the objects had a problematic provenance: they came as war booty and loot from colonized regions or were purchased below value. In addition, human remains, including those from war contexts against colonized people, were misused for racist studies. The Museum of Ethnology was originally in Kreuzberg and was located in what is now the parking lot of the Martin Gropius Bau. In 2009, a district memorial plaque was unveiled there in honor of the founding director Adolf Bastian, which pays less attention to the museum's colonial context. The new memorial plaque focuses more on the colonial entanglements and thus sheds light on a previously little-known chapter of the district's colonial history.
The memorial plaque was created as part of the district's diversity commemoration, which aims to make previously underrepresented perspectives visible in the urban space and public culture of remembrance. It was created in collaboration with Berlin Postkolonial eV
The inauguration ceremony is a cooperation between the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district office and the project “Dekoloniale Memory Culture in the City”.
Media contact
presse@ba-fk.berlin.de
Phone: (030) 90298-2843
© Damian Charles (photo)