Upon taking office two years ago as Germany’s state minister for culture and the media, Claudia Roth said that rethinking Germany’s colonial past was a national task. Since that time, a lot has been done in this direction. In 2022, the German government agreed with the leadership of Nigeria on the return of the so-called Benin Bronze. Also, the Germans have been negotiating with Namibia for many years about rethinking the colonial past and possible compensation in this regard.
Now the focus is on Tanzania. This country at one time was part of the so-called German East Africa, that is, the German colony that existed from 1885 to 1918 on the territory of modern Tanzania, Rwanda, Burgundy and northern Mozambique. It was the largest and most populous colony of the German Empire. Here, in an area of 995 thousand square kilometers, the German colonial rulers committed terrible crimes, including stealing skulls from cemeteries in order to examine them. These human remains, also called “human remains” by experts, must now be returned.
Why this is important is explained by Hermann Parzinger, archaeologist, specialist in Scythian culture and chairman of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation.
DW: Professor Parzinger, it has become known that as part of the rethinking of Germany’s colonial past, hundreds of skulls are to be returned to Tanzania. According to information from the German Foreign Ministry, they are stored in boxes in the basements of German museums. As an alternative option, the possibility of burying the skulls in a “suitable place” was discussed. What is the current state of affairs?
German Parzinger: More than ten years ago – in 2011 to be precise – we donated a large collection of so-called “human remains” from the Charité Museum of Medical History in Berlin to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. Then we began to investigate the origin of these remains, mostly skulls. At the same time, it was not about what we should choose, what to return and what not. It was clear that at the end of the 19th – beginning of the 20th century these remains were taken from the cemeteries of local village communities to Europe, and specifically to Germany, for anthropological research. This is a crime for which in Germany – both then and now – punishment is provided. And it is clear that all this must be returned.
What was the study of the origin of the remains? Before returning any things or items, we had to collect all possible information about them, including in the archives of East African countries. It was very important to determine, for example, their origin as precisely as possible. We succeeded, and in this regard there is a joint publication with colleagues from Rwanda and Tanzania.
It should also be added that the “human remains” are not just lying somewhere in the basements, but were mothballed and stored in a special place, and there is no access to them. Of course, they are not available for research either. We are talking about how to adequately preserve these remains and return them to the states from which they were removed. We sent the relevant information to all interested countries two or three years ago. Approximately 250 remains come from Tanzania, about 900 from Rwanda and 35 from Kenya. We have informed that the studies are completed, and the transfer is possible at any time.
– Do these countries want to get them back?
– We have established contact and continue to maintain contact with these three states. I had negotiations with ambassadors, we also wrote letters. We want it back. Contact parties also expressed a desire to get these remains back, but so far nothing concrete has been done. Of course, we have no right to put pressure on them or anything like that. These countries must first clarify for themselves what they will do with these remains when they return. And in this case, we cannot put forward any conditions or give advice – everything must be decided on the ground. But obviously they are not ready yet. In any case, we can return the remains at any time and are waiting for a signal from these countries.
– Is it possible to bury the skulls in Germany as an alternative? Somehow there were talks about finding a “suitable place”.
No, that’s definitely not an option. We cannot do this because it would be an anticipation of the decisions of the respective states or communes where the skulls come from.
– What place can be called “suitable”?
– When you return “human remains”, the question accordingly arises – what will happen to them later? Will they be buried in a suitable place? Where is that place? Will it be located directly in the places of origin, that is, in the areas where the respective communities live, or will it be some kind of common central burial. All this needs to be clarified. And countries must make their own decision.
– Were these skulls on display in Germany?
– No. These skulls were only available for anthropological research. These were the so-called “ethnic studies”. They needed skulls because it was believed that with the help of their measurements, racial characteristics and differences in human populations could be distinguished. The rest of the skeletal material was not of significant interest for such studies. That is why such collections around the world contain mostly skulls. I don’t know if they were exhibited at the beginning of the 20th century, but after the Second World War, definitely not. The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and the state museums in Berlin have never had a “human remains”, that is, an anthropological collection. Only artistic and cultural-historical artifacts were exhibited. The skulls and remains were removed from the Charité Museum of the History of Medicine in order to determine their origin and return them to the respective countries.
– Skulls are special items, if they can be called items at all. Looking at the whole discussion about the return of art, how far have we come with restitution in Germany?
– The return of works of art and cultural values is a completely different topic. I think that we have moved quite far in the right direction, and even more than that, I think that in Europe we are one of the leaders. Last year, five major German museums in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Stuttgart and Leipzig returned all of their valuable exhibits belonging to the Benin Bronze Collection. Things that still remain in other German museums already belong to Nigeria, but are here in temporary use. I think that the return of values was a clear recognition of colonial injustice in the sense that it was a clear looting. Benin City, the capital of the historical Kingdom of Benin, was sacked by British troops during the so-called Benin punitive operation in 1897. The stolen items were sold throughout Europe and later around the world. But now they have begun to return to the countries from which they were stolen.
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