Race, Antiquity, and the Politics of Colonial Legacies in Germany

Date / time: 14 March, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

This talk by Mirjam Brusius (German HIstorical Institute, London) explores the legacies of German colonialism where they are at once most palpably materialized and also erased: Berlin’s national museum collections, now at the heart of current debates around repatriation and colonial collecting. Yet while the ethnological collections in the Humboldt Forum have been the primary object of public discussion, comparatively little attention has been devoted to other key sites of knowledge production, namely the famous antiquities collections on Museum Island opposite the Humboldt Forum. Although mostly from West Asia, they have been discursively marked as ‘European’.

By exposing museological taxonomies and the place of race science in the Wilheminian Empire, the talk will argue that debates around decolonizing the museum cannot afford to address archaeology, anthropology and human remains as if they were separate issues. It argues that the separation has deeper roots related to how German memory culture has been managed through these heritage sites up to this day.

This lecture will take place online and in-person at the University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2HW

For more information and to register, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/race-antiquity-and-the-politics-of-colonial-legacies-in-germany-tickets-521954017517