The two-part podcast miniseries "A Trail of Artefacts" tells the stories of some objects from the former African colonies of the German Empire and the people who brought them to Mannheim. It also sheds light on how these objects became part of the collection "World Cultures and Natural History" of the Reiss-Engelhorn Museen. The second episode is about Franz and Marie Pauline Thorbecke, who undertook an expedition to Cameroon from 1911 to 1913.
Part 1 of A Trail of Artefacts – Theodor Bumiller (1/2)
We areaware that the focus here is on the perspective of the conquering societies. Due to the limited time available for the implementation of the project, we had to resort to those perspectives for which there is a sufficiently good source material. We have endeavored to be as critical as possible in our presentation of the various biographies.
This podcast is a project of kulturweit tandems of the German UNESCO Commission in cooperation with the Reiss-Engelhorn Museen.
The aim of the kulturweit tandem program is to bring people from Germany and Africa together. Within three months, teams of two develop projects that deal with the history of colonialism and our postcolonial present.
Special thanks to Oussounou Abdel-Aziz Sandja and Lucia Stockinger for their input and support.
Information on the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums' handling of collection items from colonial contexts: https://www.rem-mannheim.de/sammlungen/kolonialzeit/
About the authors:
Cheruto Valentine and Lara Wendel are a Kenyan-German tandem team. As part of the kulturweit tandem program, they implemented a three-month project at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen. Cheruto is based in Nairobi where documents African culture and history through storytelling, and Lara comes from Rhineland-Palatinate and studied cultural studies.
Literature:
Horstmann, Anne-Kathrin: Koloniale Geographie – das Ehepaar Franz und Marie Pauline Thorbecke. In: Dies. und Bechhaus-Gerst, Marianne (Hrsg.): Köln und der deutsche Kolonialismus. Eine Spurensuche. Köln u.a. 2013, S. 101-106.
Kulturamt der Stadt Mannheim (Hrsg.): Franz Thorbecke, Afrika-Forscher oder: Was tut ein Mannheimer Professor in Kamerun? Mannheim 1980.
Pytlik, Anna: Träume im Tropenlicht. Forscherinnen auf Reisen. Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow in Ozeanien 1906 - 1910, Marie Pauline Thorbecke in Kamerun 1911 – 1913. Reutlingen 1997.
Skulpturen aus Kamerun. Sammlung Thorbecke 1911/12. Zusammengestellt und bearbeitet von Klaus Born. Herausgegeben vom Städtischen Reiss-Museum Mannheim in Verbindung mit dem Fördererkreis für das Reiss-Museum E.V. Mannheim 1981.
Musik:
Guinea Wedding by Balafola Suedi Vatnajökull by Martin Landh
Late Night Sketches by Gavin Luke
Pensive Gaze by Amber Glow
© Music sourced from https://www.epidemicsound.com/