Ludwig Roselius’ Lüderitz Museum. Critical examination of an NS collection at the Übersee-Museum Bremen

The Übersee-Museum took over the "Lüderitz Museum" collection in 1955. Estimated to contain nearly 1,000 items, this collection of natural specimens and artefacts from Africa was donated by Böttcherstraße GmbH – the company which administers Bremen's iconic street Böttcherstraße, an urban centre that is regarded as a harmonious synthesis of the arts. Its founder was the entrepreneur Ludwig Roselius (1874-1943), who became famous through Kaffee HAG. He also founded the museum in the Hanseatic city which paid tribute to Bremen's "Colonial pioneer" Adolf Lüderitz (1834-1886), to some extent at the instigation of the Bremen Senate. Located in Martinistraße, adjacent to Böttcherstraße, and opened in 1940, this facility was destroyed during the war. It contained exhibitions of animals, ethnographic artefacts, documents and paintings. The collection was assembled in the 1930/40s through purchases from dealers and private individuals. The Böttcherstraße Museums – also established by Roselius – have carried out several restitutions in the past. Roselius was a merchant who acquired art and cultural-historical objects at auctions, but he was also active in the art trade himself and had connections in political circles, though some of these were problematic. The need to review the provenances of the items arose from the figure of Ludwig Roselius himself and the period in which the museum's holdings were assembled.

The history of the Lüderitz Museum was already linked to that of the Übersee-Museum during the Nazi era. At the time, Bremen's colonial revisionists envisioned Bremen as a "city of colonies", a notion that included the idea of establishing a colonial museum. Collections that were intended as the basis for the Lüderitz Museum were initially to be integrated in the Übersee-Museum. Financial difficulties eventually led to the re-establishment of the museum being left to Roselius as a private individual, while the existing museum was renamed "Deutsches Kolonial- und Übersee-Museum" in 1935, with an increased budget being made available.

Research into the provenances of the objects taken over by the Übersee-Museum from the Lüderitz Museum revealed a very heterogeneous pattern among consignors: Roselius procured objects himself when he was travelling abroad – through the French and Dutch art trade ("primitive" art) during the period of occupation, and also while he was on safari in East Africa. He and/or his employees purchased from professional German natural history and ethnographic dealers. Relatives and employees brokered properties from private individuals or sold items themselves, and Roselius' own art dealership provided some items. It was possible to shed light on a good deal of the history of this colonial revisionist project. With regard to provenance, the source base will have to be expanded, as will soon be possible with access to the Kaffee HAG company archive. No clear evidence of confiscation as a result of Nazi persecution has been found, but there are cases in which it cannot be ruled out entirely. There are also indications of a colonial context of injustice among the objects.

The Lüderitz Museum and provenance research at the Übersee-Museum are among the topics covered in the museum's new permanent exhibition entitled "Spurensuche. Geschichte eines Museums" [Tracing the past. History of a museum]. These topics are also covered in the accompanying publication. In addition, there will be a final presentation by the project coordinator, while one essay is being prepared for publication and another is planned.

© Übersee-Museum Bremen