Provenance of colonial-era collections from Togo in the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden and the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig (Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen)

During the project period from 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2023, a total of 700 inventory numbers (objects and photographs) from the period of German colonial rule in Togo from 1884 to 1916 were examined at the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden and the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig (Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden). The focus was on collections that were transferred to the two Saxon museums between 1899 and 1939 by eight actors who were directly or indirectly involved in the colonial system of rule: Ernst F. Gütschow (1869-1946), Oskar Marx (1862-1924), Harry Grunitzky (1873-1912), Adolf Diehl (1870-1943), Hans Gruner (1865-1943), Valentin von Massow (1864-1899), Gaston Thierry (1866-1904) and Adam Mischlich (1864-1948).

Research has revealed the efficiency of networks among the aforementioned actors, who acted as colonial officials, in the police service with a military mandate, with missionary, scientific or commercial objectives in the colony of “Togoland”. The actors utilised the structural context of violence of colonialism in different ways to take possession of objects. For example, von Massow and Thierry acted within the framework of the military colonial land seizure. Their appropriation of objects predominantly took place in contexts of looting. In Gruner’s case, evidence of similar appropriation practices has been found, but further research is necessary. Mischlich used his work as a former missionary and colonial official to appropriate religious objects, which was assessed in the project as an explicit context of violence. There is no evidence of the physical use of force, but the traders Diehl and Grunitzky were in some cases actively involved in the colonial system of exploitation. Diehl’s acquisition of war booty in particular revealed the entanglement of military and commercial interests. A stay in the colony could also be confirmed for Marx, but not for Gütschow. Both of their interests lay in the possession of a private collection, which Marx had gathered at markets in Togo, while Gütschow’s appropriation remained unresolved.

Important results of the project include the collection and transparency of the research data in the DAPHNE museum database, which, in addition to the object-relevant findings, also includes the majority of digitised archive files and conspectuses. The connected Online Collection gives the public an insight into the collections analysed in the project. The collaboration with stakeholders in Togo, Ghana and Bénin that took place as part of the project also forms the basis for a scientific network that can and should be used sustainably for further cooperation.

© Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen (SES)