Charité Human Remains Project

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Winkelmann
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 175718165

The "Charité Human Remains Project" was started in October 2010 out of the need to improve our knowledge about the origin of the Charité anthropological collections and the colonial and scientific historical context of their formation and thus to enable us to answer restitution requests regarding these collections more adequately. Australia and former German colonies in Africa were chosen as the regional focus. Since, the project has produced first results regarding human remains of Australian origin, and, above all, has successfully prepared and accompanied with its scientific input the restitution of 20 skulls to Namibia in September 2011. By interdisciplinary provenance analysis based on anthropological and historical methods we were able to clarify the origin of this limited part of the collection and to prove and document the link to the "context of injustice" of the colonial war of 1904-1908. However, the politically motivated early date of this restitution of a limited but ascertained part of the collection has severely influenced the process of our project, which had originally planned to have a phase of comprehensive research before negotiating restitutions, and has narrowed the research within our African focus to this small collection from Namibia. Moreover, in contrast to our original plans, it has proven necessary to consult overseas archives for our historical research.The aim of the proposed extension of funding by one year is research on those parts of the collection, which had originally been intended for the first two years of our project, particularly those from East Africa, and the evaluation and interpretation of the archival sources retrieved so far, analysing the larger context of scientific and colonial history regarding both the places of origin and Berlin as the place of the final collection. Comparison of the contexts of origin in Australia and at least two regions in Africa will afford us a broad base for an appraisal of the historical context of collection activities. With a view to restitution requests, which, after all, ask for a judgmental perspective on historical events, these different contexts will be critically discussed. In addition, the proposed extension will give us the opportunity to analyse the results of the scientific workshop on 'anthropological collections in German-speaking countries and restitution requests', which we will organise 4 to 6 October 2012, and to edit the conference proceedings. Based on our research so far and on the positions held by referees from very diverse backgrounds and institutions during our workshop, and in coordination with the Deutscher Museumsbund, we will then prepare a proposition for future guidelines for anthropological collections from colonial times, suggesting how to deal with human remains in such collections and with pertaining restitution requests guidelines that are still lacking for the German-speaking countries.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Thomas Schnalke