Museum of Ethnology Rostock

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The Museum für Völkerkunde Rostock , now also known as the Ethnographic Museum Rostock , was an ethnographic museum in the Hanseatic city of Rostock . Remnants of the formerly important collection can be found in the holdings of various museums in the new federal states, especially in the Rostock Cultural History Museum and the Grassi Museum for Ethnology in Leipzig.

History before World War II and in the GDR

The museum was founded in 1905 on the initiative of the local colonial association. Accordingly, the focus was on promoting the colonial idea. From the beginning, it was made up of private donations and loans. Accordingly, the individual collections were initially presented largely closed, with a regional breakdown resulting from the specific stays of the collectors and donors. One focus was therefore on the German colonies or countries in which Germans pursued business interests. As the collection grew, a rough order according to continents developed, then also according to individual geographical sub-categories. The proportion of pieces that were not included in the exhibition also grew noticeably.

After several moves, it was finally housed in a water tower on the edge of the old town in the 1930s. There were now 11 rooms grouped around a central room. In 1938, the Berlin oceanist Hans Nevermann carried out a targeted scientific review and a new, pedagogically motivated concept . For the first time, the focus was no longer on the colonial character of the museum, but on its function as a scientific educational institution. The quality of the collection was emphasized by contemporaries. Most recently it comprised approx. 3500 objects from all continents, many of which were of considerable rarity and quality. However, stocks had been moved to depots outside the city since the early 1940s. After the end of the war, however, most of them fell victim to looting. Only about a seventh of the collection could be put together. In the 1950s there were certainly efforts to rebuild the museum in Rostock. Due to insufficient capacities and in the context of the concentration of ethnological collections in the traditional museums in Leipzig, Dresden and Herrnhut and in the newly founded Julius Riemer Museum in Wittenberg, almost all of the remaining holdings were handed over in 1957 and 1961.

Holdings in Rostock and Leipzig

Only after the German reunification was it possible to see these parts of the collection, which had hardly been noticed since the time of the handover. In Rostock in particular, there was a return to the ethnographic collection tradition. It became clear that a small but high quality population had remained in Rostock. There are still more than 150 objects in the Rostock Cultural History Museum , especially from the South Seas, but also Africa, Asia and America. All index cards of the former museum are also available. Further pieces can be found in the Rostock Shipbuilding and Shipping Museum . Approx. 450 objects are located in Leipzig, especially from America and Asia. Other holdings are kept in other museums in the new federal states.

Current reception / exhibition

From the late 1990s onwards, Annelen Karge worked on the history of the museum in the Rostock Cultural History Museum. In connection with this, contacts arose with other institutions with parts of the collection. A systematic ethnological classification of the remaining collection in Rostock has been taking place since 2009.

In 2010, the anthropologist Nils Seethaler presented the findings on the history and composition of the collection at the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Museum Conference in Schwerin. A possible future presentation of the collection was also discussed.

The special exhibition "Travel & Conquer - the attraction of the foreign in the 19th century", conceived in 2011 at the Rostock Cultural History Museum, represented a first step on this path by making a large part of the ethnological objects preserved in Rostock public again for the first time since World War II introduced.

literature

  • Annelen Karge: The Rostock Ethnographic Museum - Colonial Spirit in the Hanseatic City. In: Rostocker Blitzlichter 1999, p. 215ff.
  • Hans Nevermann : the Museum of Ethnology in Rostock. In: Kommunalpolitische Schriftenreihe der Seestadt Rostock, Volume 9, 1938.
  • Nils Seethaler: Past, present and future of magazined ethnographic collections in Germany using the example of the former Rostock Ethnographic Museum. In: Announcements from the Museum Association in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania 2010. pp. 11–15.
  • Bernhard Zepernick: In memoriam Hans Nevermann. In: Communications from the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory . Rahden 6.1985, pp. 18-19. ISSN  0178-7896

Individual evidence

  1. a b Annelen Karge: The Ethnographic Museum Rostock - Colonial Spirit in the Hanseatic City. In: Rostocker Blitzlichter 1999, p. 215 ff.
  2. Hans Nevermann : the Museum of Ethnology in Rostock. From: Kommunalpolitische Schriftenreihe der Seestadt Rostock, Volume 9, 1938
  3. ^ A b Nils Seethaler: Past, present and future of magazined ethnographic collections in Germany using the example of the former Rostock Ethnographic Museum. In: Messages from the Museum Association in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern e. V. 2010. pp. 11-15
  4. Travel and Conquer. The attractions of the foreign in the 19th century - Rostock-today

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