In this section, we would like to give answers to your questions about provenance research, acquisition contexts of the items in our museum and postcolonial discourse; colonial heritage management and the dialog with source communities are further topics.
With three guided tours in the permanent exhibition through the museum’s permanent exhibition, we offer for interested parties the opportunity for contact and personal exchange.
> "Stolen cultural property?" Provenance research and restitutions in the museum
> Mission and colonialism – a search for evidence
> Mission then - and today?
Do you have any questions that you would like to ask in writing? Contact us at
kontakt[at]missionsmuseum.de
The majority of objects were collected until 1918 (in East Africa) resp. 1950 (in South Africa) and between 1909 and the late 1930ies (in Korea). Afterwards, the inventory was completed by some acquisitions from art dealers.
Since 1914, only objects connected with St. Ottilien’s mission history were added.
Sources provide as a maximum of information the acquisition region, ethnic group and in around 50% the purchaser. More information about con-
texts of acquisition is available for some Korean objects or purchases from art dealers.
As all available sources are already evaluated, the remaining gaps cannot be filled.
We understand the term not as a time-related "afterwards" in the sense of political indepen-
dence but as a concept that emphasizes, besides decoloni-
sation, as well a consciousness for the continued existence of imperial and Eurocentric struc-
tures in geographical, economic and religious fields up to the present day.
We return/restitute objects to the government of sovereign nations that can then decide in favor of individual source com-
munities.
We are open for requests on restitution and consider returns in case an item is important for the cultural identity of a society, or is scientifically relevant or is a rare cultural heritage.
Since almost no acquisition context can be derived from the sources, there are open questions, especially for culturally sensitive objects such as spears, masks etc. During provenance research, no contexts of injustice were detected. However, due to the colonial power relations, we at least assume an inequality context.
Mission history and colonial history are intertwined; the Missionary Benedictines of St. Ottilien worked in the setting of colonial structures. The missionaries' relation to the colonial government ranged between closeness and distance; the latter especially whenever missionaries stood up for the local community.
Besides cooperation with
specialized bodies and imple-
mentation of the planned interventions regarding colonial discourse, we prepare for the exchange with source communities.
Here, we are expecting a high learning potential and decisive impulses for understanding the objects and their presentation.
German East African objects (protected area of the German Reich (1885-1918), exhibits from other formal colonial rules as South Africa (British protec-
torate, Commonwealth of Nations 1806-1931/61) and Korea (Japanese protectorate 1910-1945) are rated among this category - 98% of the inventory have colonial context.
A museum presentation in the form of a poly-cultural com-
parison of lifestyles may face accusation of enhancing culturalism / cultural racism. With some of our special exhi-
bitions, we we would like to set another focus and give insights into historic structures of power and their effects up to the present.
The museum's inventory is based on ethnology and natural history, but also outlines the work and history of the Missionary Benedictines and is characterized by its connection to St. Ottilien archabbey.
In our view, renaming would only be an undesirable disguise for the context of this missionary collection.