Johanna Agthe

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Johanna Agthe (born September 7, 1941 - † February 20, 2005 ) was a German ethnologist .

Live and act

Johanna Agthe was the daughter of the publisher Siegfried Agthe and his wife Margarethe. After the Second World War, the family had to reorient themselves as expellees and moved from Berlin via the Ore Mountains to the Sauerland .

Agthe first went to grammar school in Brilon and graduated from high school in Hamburg . In 1961 she began studying at the Georg-August University in Göttingen and first studied history , then from 1963 ethnology . In 1964/65 she studied at the University of Vienna . From 1967 she wrote her dissertation The images in travel reports from Oceania as a source for ethnology (16th to 18th centuries) at the University of Göttingen, where she also worked as a research assistant from 1966 to 1967 .

From 1968 to 1970 she was initially a volunteer , then a research assistant at the Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin , where she a. a. in the South Asia department in 1968 was co-responsible for an exhibition on handicrafts from Indonesia . There she was the first director of the Junior Museum, an innovation in German ethnological museums. In 1970 she realized the exhibition Fetish, Amulet and Talisman. Since then, Africa has been the focus of their work.

In 1971 Agthe started working at the Museum of Ethnology (now the Weltkulturen Museum ) in Frankfurt am Main as a museum employee. In 1973 she was appointed custodian and in 1986 senior custodian and was thus deputy director until shortly before her early retirement due to illness in 2003. Since 1974, she has built up an important collection of contemporary African art. In doing so, she had to overcome some resistance because the museum then concentrated on classic African art and the early colonial era and then faded out the period afterwards. The transition from traditional collectibles to contemporary art was made in 1975 by the exhibition and publication Art? Handicrafts in Africa in transition . In the exhibition Tagewerke (1999/2000) she showed the connection between contemporary art from East Africa and the realities of the people there.

Significantly closer to classical ethnology was the Luba Hemba inventory catalog from 1983 on traditional African sculpture, as well as the exhibition and publication Ehe die Gewehre haben. Traditional weapons in Africa and the inventory catalog of weapons from Central Africa (both 1985).

Agthe made numerous research trips to Africa, especially Kenya . Another travel destination was Sumatra , which led to the Arm Through Wealth exhibition in 1979.

Publications

  • The illustrations in travelogues from Oceania as sources for ethnology , doctoral thesis, Göttingen , 1969
  • Dreaming in pictures , Museum der Weltkulturen Frankfurt am Main, 2001
  • Tagewerke - Pictures of work in Africa , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1999
  • I studied it , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1991
  • With brush and chisel , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1991
  • Signs of the time , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1991
  • Road sign , Museum of Ethnology Frankfurt am Main, 1990
  • Before the guns arrived , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1985
  • Weapons from Central Africa , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1985
  • Luba, Hemba , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1983
  • Poor through wealth, Sumatra , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1979
  • Art? , Museum für Völkerkunde Frankfurt am Main, 1975

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Dieter Kramer: DR. JOHANNA AGTHE 1941–2005 , 2005, in: journal-ethnologie.de
personal data
SURNAME Agthe, Johanna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ethnologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1941
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 2005