„Forschungsreisen“ als kolonialer Erwerbungskontext von ethnografischen Objekten, human remains, Fotografien und Malerei – Die „Forschungsreise der Deutschen Kolonialgesellschaft nach Kamerun“ (1911-1913, Thorbecke)

The project deals with the heterogeneous (scattered) "Thorbecke Collection 1911/12" as well as the so far unexplained whereabouts of human remains and the natural history collection, which the geographer Franz Thorbecke had supposedly created for various institutions in Germany during the "Research Trip of the German Colonial Society to Cameroon" (1911-13). The main focus of the collection area (Tikar) and thus the largest part of the collection has not yet been analysed, which is why the project will also carry out basic research into the historical context at the time of the change of ownership of the conglomerate of objects and subjects described above. The appropriation and acquisition contexts of the above-mentioned objects and individuals are to be evaluated on the basis of a micro-historical analysis with various types of sources on the impact of systematic and direct violence, with explicit inclusion of the perspectives in the societies of origin themselves. The exemplary and micro-historical examination of this "research trip" can show how this type of travelling and acquisition contexts were structurally integrated into the colonial situation.

With the financial support of the German Colonial Society and the city of Mannheim, Franz Thorbecke undertook his research trip to what he called the "Manenguba Highlands", located in the Adamaoua region of the present-day state of Cameroon, for today's collection in the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen Mannheim. During the 14-month journey from 1911-13, Franz Thorbecke was accompanied by his wife Marie Pauline Thorbecke as expedition painter/draughtswoman, Leo Waibel as assistant and numerous other people, including several dozen porters, personal servants and temporary labourers with local knowledge and expertise. During the entire journey, around 90 paintings and drawings, around 800 photographs of people, landscapes and objects, 50 acoustic recordings and all kinds of collections for biological and anthropological use were created, including around 1300 cultural objects, but also human remains of six different people were brought to Germany.

The aim of the project is firstly to determine whether and which acquisition contexts of the appropriated objects and subjects constituted a context of injustice against the background of violence and which objects, apart from the human remains, are considered "culturally sensitive": in the sense of the DMB guidelines and from the perspective of the communities of origin themselves.

Secondly, a delegated group from Cameroon will be invited to view the collections in the various institutions and museums in Germany, thus establishing communication between various international stakeholders .

Based on discussions with the societies in today's Tikar region, the contexts of research trips during formal German colonialism will be (possibly re)interpreted together with the groups and societies concerned, for example by including structural contexts of injustice rather than purely situational ones. This change of perspective may also result in claims by societies of origin that go beyond the restitution of culturally significant objects among those mentioned above or the repatriation of human remains.

© Abteilung Globalgeschichte am Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften, Philosophische Fakultät, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf