Decolonise!

Decolonise!

IMPRESSUM

Decolonise!

BA + MA Architecture

Project Workshop

Taught by Sarah Maâfi & Tonderai Koschke in 21/22 at the

Chair of History of Architecture & Curatorial Practice of

Prof. Dr. Andres Lepik, TU Munich + Architekturmuseum

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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01.

02.

03.

04.

05.

06.

07.

08.

09.

10.

11.

Preface by Sarah Maâfi (ed.)

Remembering Bismarck: One book at a time by Abdé Batchati

Hamburg, a gate to the world by Chiara Kuijpers

Munich atelier of murdered animals by David Lachermeier

Decolonised imaginaries: Flip the scene! by Ece Tamer

Did you know? Untold links between modernism and

colonialism by Luis Eduardo Arteaga Salazar

… Typically? by Marc-Thomas Zettler

Curating ignorance: On exhibitions in art museums by

Minna Radakovits

Telling a nameless tale by Mogheesa Hasnain

Terrible nearness of distant places by Rosa Schuster

……………………… [Remembering the Herero and Nama

genocide] by Sarolta Szatmári

Geranium journey by Sebastian Haberl

APPENDIX

End notes

Glossary

PREFACE

• 4 •

SARAH MAAFI (ED.)

.

Continuities and

Interventions

“Decolonise! Continuities and Interventions” was a

project workshop run by two MA students at the Chair

of History of Architecture and Curatorial Practice at the

Technical University of Munich. The two students were

me and Tonderai Koschke, who was also studying

architecture at TUM at the time. It was one of the first

student-led seminars at the faculty of architecture. How

do two students end up teaching their peers on such an

important topic?

Back in 2021, I won an architectural writing prize for an

article on discrimination in architecture that was

published in the RIBA Journal in London. My writing

was fuelled by anger and disbelief at the murder of

George Floyd, and encapsulated how disoriented I felt

that week when things just seemed to carry on as normal

in the predominantly white architectural practice I

worked in. I decided to pour my anger into action, and

attempt to at least contribute something - however small

- to unravelling the mechanics of racism and the clichés

that dehumanise people because of the colour of their

skin.

Armed with first ideas, and an art history degree

predating my training as an architect, I approached

Prof. Dr. Andres Lepik, who agreed to provide the

necessary framework and put me in touch with Tonderai

Koschke, who in turn brought with her a lot of

invaluable experience around the topic as well as the

drive to pass on her knowledge to other students. Over

several months, and still halfway through the pandemic,

we developed the curriculum together. And we could

not be prouder of the passion, creativity and critical

thinking that these students put into the course once it

started.

After a series of lectures and discussions led by Tondi

and I, they began to locate their own case studies related

to colonial history from Berlin to Hamburg to Munich.

We even travelled to Berlin together on a 3-day study

trip where we visited as many sites and museums as we

could, from the small and clued-up Savvy Contemporary

gallery to the large and controversial Humboldt Forum,

and even to the local museum in Treptow with its

flawlessly curated exhibition “Zurückgeschaut -

Looking back” about the Black men and women

exhibited in the Treptower Park in 1896.

The students expanded their design knowledge by

taking on the roles of historians and curators, and

presented the findings of their research through texts

and images. The task was not only to question sources

and clichés, but also to respond creatively through a

proposed intervention that could explain their case

study to a wider audience, using their artistic and craft

skills ranging from collage, drawing, paintings and

comic books to book-binding. We are extremely happy

and grateful that they came on this journey with us.

• 5 •

DECOLONISE!

ABDÉ BATCHATI

01.

Remembering

Bismarck:

One book at a time

The statue of Bismarck in Berlin is

one of many monuments that have a

connection to European and

German colonialism, being located

in the country that was significantly

involved in the Berlin conference of

1884/1885. While Germany‘s first

Chancellor Otto von Bismarck is

known as the initiator of a unified

Germany, his relationship with

German colonial policy is often

forgotten.

Even though Bismarck was initially

against the annexation of colonies -

for economic reasons, not for

humanitarian ones - he later became

the initiator of the Berlin Africa

Conference. The main reason for the

Conference from 15 November 1884

to 26 February 1885 was to divide the

highly influential Area of the Congo

basin in central Africa, which with its

strategical and economic value was

offering a constant potential of

conflict between the European

powers.

Bismarck saw the political tension

between the competing European

powers rising and called for this

conference in Berlin - without any

African participation - to define a

division of wide parts of the African

continent and create “regulations on

how the European colonial powers

could file new territorial claims in an

orderly procedure.”¹

Bismarck declared at the opening of

the conference, that its goal was to

„enable the natives of Africa to join

civilisation by opening up the

interior of this continent for trade“²,

which shows his colonialist world

view and a feeling of supremacy.

During these negotiations the

German Empire declared Togo,

Cameroon,” German Southwest

Africa”,” German East Africa” and

“German New Guinea” as German

protectorates in Africa and later

Kiautschou (1897) and “German

Samoa” (1899) in Asia.

Regarding the Bismarck monument,

the intervention “One Book at a

Time” tries to offer a solution on

• 6 •

how to deal with such a statue

venerating a colonial offender. The

issue of such statues has been a hotly

debated issue for that is now

reaching wider circles. The Rhodes

Must Fall movement, for example,

reflects the demands of mostly Black

people to end and expose the

veneration of colonial perpetrators.

Cecil Rhodes was a British

Imperialist and the Premier Minister

of the Cape Colony, one of the

leading players in the race for Africa,

and a great advocate of racist

ideologies. The movement was first

conceived in March 2015 and was

originally directed against the

bronze statue of Cecil Rhodes at the

University of Cape Town, which was

then taken down, and started to

spread all over South Africa.³

Whereas with many names such as

Rhodes, Lüderitz, Peters or

Nachtigal, there has been agreement

in their respective countries that

they are colonial criminals who

should not be admired or honoured

by street names or statues, the

A THOUGHT EXPERIMENT:

YOU ARE ANNOYED BY THE OBSTRUC-

TED VIEW OF BISMARCK? YOU MAY TAKE

THE BOOKS AWAY. ONE BOOK AT A TIME.

THERE IS ONLY ONE RULE:

EVERY BOOK THAT IS LIFTED FROM THE

PEDESTAL MUST BE READ.

IN THIS WAY,THE COUNTLESS PERSPEC-

TIVES AND STORIES MORE WILL PER-

MEATE THE WHOLE OFBERLIN, BECOME

PART OF THE WRITING OF HISTORY

AND HOPEFULLY ENTER THE GENERAL

CONSCIOUSNESS.

REMEMBERING BISMARCK/

ONE BOOK AT A TIME

• 7 •

• 8 •

discussion about Bismarck in

Germany is a much more difficult

one. In this country, Bismarck is still

remembered as the unifier of

Germany, and in his time and after

even heroised as a superhuman. This

is well-illustrated by the Bismarck

National Monument in Berlin. The

15-metre-high monument, which

was completed in 1901 and

inaugurated on today’s Platz der

Republik in front of the Reichstag

building, now stands on the

northern edge of the Große

Sternallee, where it was relocated to

in 1938 along with the Victory

Column and two other monuments

to general field marshals as part of

the „North-South Axis“ planned by

Albrecht Speer for the „World

Capital Germania.“

Bismarck’s statue is accompanied by

four allegorical figures at his feet.

The four figures, a titan kneeling and

carrying the globe on his back as a

symbol of Bismarck‘s strength and

earth-spanning greatness, Siegfried

the dragon-slayer who is producing

the sword with which Bismarck

defeated all the enemies of the

empire, a mythical prophet on the

back of a sphynx looking into the

book of history as an allegory of state

wisdom and spiritual significance,

and the figure of Germania

symbolizing state power and

strength, are intended to represent

Bismarck‘s various characteristics. 4

My intervention deals with the

question of how to deal with such a

monument. Who should be allowed

to decide whether the statue, like

that of Cecil Rhodes, should be

removed? And if these demands are

met, where should it go and what

should replace it? The intervention

avoids all these sources of conflict,

as it does not touch the statue itself,

and instead brings a certain

interference filter into the picture,

thus irritating the unreflective,

purely positive view of Bismarck.

I’d like to quote one of the speeches

of the Black activist and poet Audre

Lorde: “The master’s tools will

never dismantle the master’s

house.“ What is meant is that the

goal of freedom for marginalized

groups of people cannot be achieved

with the same tools that bring about

their oppression or humiliation.

Statues generally are a very massive

and static manifestation of an

individual, a personified view of

history, leaving large parts of history

invisible. I therefore think that

replacing the statue with someone

else’s figure is not the right solution.

Instead, this intervention wants to

highlight many other stories and in

the same time de-center the story of

Bismarck’s heroisation.

The intervention is a thought

experiment, with a postcard that

shows the statue covered in stacks of

books. The postcards are placed by

the monument for visitors to take

and remember their visit. In the

image, the view on Bismarck is

irritated, he is literally swallowed up

by the books that completely

envelop him:

Books whose content undermines

the Eurocentric view on the colonial

era and expose racism. Books by

Black authors and authors of color.

Books that tell about colonisation,

exploitation, racism, exoticisation,

sexism, marginalisation, erased

languages. But also books about

empowerment, resistance, powerful

unions of Black people in Germany,

uprisings, taking up space, holding

people accountable, Black love and

Black joy.

There is, for example, the Book of

the poet May Ayim, who as a Black

woman in Germany coined the term

„Afro-German“ to show that being

Black and German is not a

contradiction. She wrote her thesis

in 1986 on the cultural and

socialisation history of Afro-German

people, which is published in

“Farben bekennen”. There is also

the poem „a blues in Black and

white“, which criticised the process

of unification of Germany in 1989

that left out „immigrants, refugees,

Jewish and Black people“ and

celebrated „expulsion, enslavement

and genocide/ in the Americas/ and

in Asia/and in Africa“. 5

There are books like „(K)erben des

Kolonialismus“, a reference work

• 9 •

with texts that question how „racism

has carved itself into a dominant

archive of knowledge that speaks in

and out of German words“. 6

Or the booklet „Borderless“ from

the exhibition of the same name:

„Borderless. Colonialism, Industry

and Resistance“ at the Hamburg

“Museum für Arbeit”, which

contains artistic contributions of

Black realities.

There is also the story of Theodor

Wonja Michael. Born in 1925 in

Berlin, the Afro-German actor and

author was part of the so-called

„Völkerschauen“ as a child with his

Cameroonian father, later one of the

last Black contemporary witnesses of

the Weimar Republic and National

Socialism, and transmitted his

experiences in his book „Schwarz

Sein und Deutsch Dazu“.

If we knew all these stories and had

them as the base of our collective

knowledge, to help us to think

critically of colonialisation, racism,

discrimination and to question

certain narratives, then I can perhaps

live with the fact that the Bismarck

monument is standing still for the

time being.

DECOLONISE!

CHIARA KUIJPERS

02.

Hamburg, a gate to

the world

Hamburg is one of the main port

cities of Germany, directly

connected to the North Sea.

Hamburg has developed its power

and wealth over the past five

centuries. This process started with

the diaspora of the Portuguese and

Spanish Jews in the 1492, that

established a trade network with

other European harbour cities. In

the 17th century, the Portuguese that

settled in the Portugiesenviertel – a

quarter that was not in the best

conditions – were the ones working

in the harbour and making the

transatlantic trade system with Brazil

and Africa, mainly for the

production of sugar cane, but also

coffee and other goods.

This trade growth was based on

colonisation and an intrusion on the

Brazilian landscape by dispossessing

land and displacing inhabitants for

the establishment of sugar cane

fields. This oppression is still

present in the street names of

HafenCity, the former location for

warehouses and the quay, that recalls

some of the products and the

oppressors who imported them.

Nowadays, Hamburg wants to

portray itself as a very international,

welcoming and diverse city. 1 Yet it

ignores its colonial past; a past that is

present in several elements

throughout the city.

Some examples of this are the

buildings at the Hafenkrone that

recall the institutions of transatlantic

navigation in colonial times, the

street names of the HafenCity that

refer to some oppressors and

colonial products, 2 the so-called

Portugiesenviertel that was the

home of all the Portuguese workers

and has been upgraded to a very

touristic quarter, and furthermore

the Bismarck Denkmal that looks

over the Elbe and memorializes the

moment Germany started financing

Hamburg’s colonial project in

1906. 3

In other words, Hamburg promotes

tourism by using these colonial

• 10 •

remnants as attractions, but without

naming them as such and ignoring

the effect it might have on some

people, thus solely using the white

gaze. In some of these structures,

created by the colonial remnants,

Hamburg has been limiting the

public spaces, suppressing and

displacing people and not giving

them the right to the (entire) city.

This has been an issue for centuries.

For instance, in the past Portuguese

settlers and tradesmen were only

welcome within the city walls if they

could benefit the economy; then

Bibby Altona, a floating refugee

camp, was created 30 years ago (and

torn down in 2006) for people who

did not have a valid passport and thus

could not benefit the city were not

granted access to the city. Yet

tourists are very welcome, as they

benefit the economy by spending

money in the city.

In other words, the fact that

Hamburg shows itself as being

welcoming seems contradictive, as it

Reference: “Kawkab of Immigrants”by Aude Nasr, in:

The Architectural Review, 02.12.2021

depends on who you are: Only if you

were/are a benefit for the economy,

you were/are granted access to the

city.

In order to discuss the question of

access to the city, my comic focuses

on the colonial remnants along the

Elbe, as the line between water and

land functions like a city wall. Only

through some points (such as ship

disembarkation zones), you are

allowed to enter this city. This idea is

translated in the word ‘gate’ in my

title. The cityscape along the Elbe is

also what you can see when entering

the harbour via ship, as sailors and

migrants did centuries ago. Along

this shoreline a lot of colonial links

are to be found.

Why the use of a comic as a medium?

How our urban reality is designed,

defines how the public spaces are

experienced. Sometimes elements

that seem very normal or go by

unnoticed, actually have a

problematic past. These elements,

the colonial remnants, might be

thought of as material for reappropriations

and strategic

activation within the politics of the

present.

This can be seen as a tool for

narration, to make people aware of

them. Hamburg itself does not do

anything/much to decolonise or to

make reparations. So far only private

organisations, such as Hamburg

Postkolonial, have acted to raise

awareness on the topic, but there has

not been a big change in the system

yet. With my intervention my main

goal is to help raise that awareness &

look behind of the image-making

Hamburg is trying to do.

The relationship between

architecture/urban planning &

comics became only clear to me

when reading the article ‘Urban

Comics: Infrastructure and the

Global City in Contemporary

Graphic Narratives’ by Dominic

Davies. The introduction explains

the relation between the

infrastructure of the city & the

• 11 •

infrastructure of the graphic novel.

The built environments of our cities

are not static/depoliticised, but

highly charged spaces that allow

some forms of social life to exist,

whilst also prohibiting others. Urban

comics have a certain agency: they

are able to represent, repair and

even rebuild global cities towards

more socially just and sustainable

ends.

• 12 •

• 13 •

• 14 •

• 15 •

DECOLONISE!

DAVID LACHERMEIER

03.

Munich atelier of

murdered animals

Munich-Schwabing. Behind the

ornate façades of Kundigundenstraße

and Mandlstraße, a polarising

artist’s studio spaces were hidden.

These studios no longer exist, but

the results of that artistic endeavour

may still be seen in the streets of

Munich: a bronze panther guards the

Faculty of Veterinary Medicine’s

entrance building, while a bronze

lion keeps a watch on visitors to the

Hellabrunn zoological garden.

Not an apolitical re-production and

molding of animal bodies were part

of his oeuvre, but a colonial agenda:

Because of their lifelike, slightly

over-formed representation technique,

these statues are remarkable.

At the same time, however, they

conceal the story of their creation.

They are relics from Germany’s

brutal colonial past. The fact that

such ideologically dubious concepts

have led to such unusual works of art

here and that they still have a home

in the cityscape is a challenge of our

present. What should we do about

this art?

Fritz Behn, a German artist whose

major works were created during the

German colonial period and the

following decades, is the subject of

my study.

He had strong ties to Munich, having

visited the Art Academy, being a

member of the Deutscher

Künstlerbund, and teaching as a

Royal Professor of Bavaria on the

subject of sculpture. He also became

a member of the German Colonial

Society, and helped form the

Kampfbund für Deutsche Kultur, a

national-socialist organisation

dedicated to the promotion and

defence of German culture. In

addition, he concentrated on the

design of several oversized military

monuments, including the Reichskolonialehrendenkmal

in Bremen

and the Bismarck Statue near the

Deutsche Museum.

After 1945, his extremist position

prevented him from continuing his

artistic activity. In 1970, he died and

was buried in the Nordfriedhof.

• 16 •

Two photographs depict his Munich

atelier. I enhanced these photos

throughout the seminar by

introducing new components. In

this way, I hope to evoke new

associations, and hence new

interpretation possibilities, and a

reassessment of the artist’s entire

oeuvre.

The focus of the first Black-andwhite

shot is on Behn himself. 1 He is

dressed elegantly in a suit and leans

against a plinth next to a row of white

sculptures. His seemingly heroic

appearance, as well as the complete

composition of the image, are not

coincidental.

It is plausible to assume he is

comparing himself to the muscular,

strong white statue on the right.

There is this naturalistic lion

sculpture next to him giving us a hint

on his artistic activities.

The resulting aesthetic tension,

which is evocative of heroism, pride,

and power, is juxtaposed with a

collage of red-dyed animal carcasses.

A slaughtered giraffe, antelope,

cheetah, rhinoceros, and hippopotamus

lie at Behn’s feet.

The heads of the surrounding white

statues are covered in red animal

skulls. The photographs of the

deceased animals are from Behn’s

original travelogues. The crimson

colour adds a signal impact to the

original photographs, introducing a

different level of context, and

reminds us of the bloodshed and

animal poaching that occurred

during German colonial rule.

Behn studied the African wildlife

intensively on several long journeys

to “German East-Africa”. His adventures

exemplify the escapism

prevalent at the period. He had been

drawn out of Europe into the exotic,

the unknown, into the wilderness to

people and animals, like other artists

of his time.

The African continent was viewed as

a haven of “unbroken vitality and

originality” that might be used to

revitalise Western civilisation. 2 On

his excursions, he made plaster

molds of the animals he killed. He

brought them to his German atelier

for study purposes. He was reliant

on the assistance of the locals, whom

he dismissed as “primitive people”

and denied any culture or capacity

for political independence. 3

Behn is now face to face with the

dead animals in his studio. This is to

bring attention to the crime against

African wildlife and to expose the

artist. The viewer may not realise

what processes go into making a

plaster sculpture at first. It is meant

to scratch at the seemingly flawless

white dominance, which was built on

exploitation and oppression rather

than a dialogue of cultures.

The shadows of the local population,

which were also taken from the

original photographs, are also worth

noting. Their knowledge and skills

were exploited at the time for the

benefit of German colonialists. They

• 17 •

might resemble ghosts, as they still

not are in the centre of social debate,

which is still more preoccupied with

economic interests.

In his studio, Behn is no longer

alone. His antiquity-breathing

statues no longer demonstrate their

authority via alienation. It's meant to

make him uncomfortable while also

illustrating the many conflicts in his

art in a single image. The coming

together of all of these people casts

doubt on Behn’s art’s legitimacy and

criticises the way his works are

presented.

In the midst of all these casts and

animal carcasses, how comfortable

can it be? The original scene in the

second picture depicts Behn’s

employees casting molds of severed

animal heads. 4 In the collage they

receive unwitting assistance from

companions photographed by Behn

in his travelogues. They are also

reddish in colour. Unbothered

gallery visitors celebrate the

vernissage with champagne glasses

in their hands, while three children

and an adult carry animal skulls. The

size and proportions of the animal

busts demonstrate the true power of

African fauna, parts of which habe

since been lost and reduced to

nothing more than a lustful object.

The vernissage’s setting was chosen

with care to make a connection to

the present: What would the African

helpers, working artists, and visitors

have to say to one another?

The overlapping of different groups

and cultures creates an extraordinary

temporal and spatial clash.

They represent the oppressed

African population, expeditionary

European and German artists, and

today’s somewhat indifferent

society, many of whom still benefit

from colonial ties.

The African animals themselves are

no longer allowed to join in the

debate. Their eyes bleed from the

plaster casts as a symbol of the

suffering caused to the African

continent by German colonialists.

My intervention also includes

making the two collages into

postcards and writing a historical

classification on the back. The cards

will be also provided with Greetings

from Munich-Schwabing. This

localisation tries to irritate the

viewer at first, but because of its

accuracy, it intends to express

proximity and direct concern to our

everyday surrounding.

As flyers they will be distributed at

the statues’ spots in public space and

museums. They will also make

references to the ongoing cruelty of

animal poaching on the African

continent, taking selfies with the

hunted “trophies” and sending

postcards depicting the safari-like

adventure.

As a result, Behn’s animal art was

only supposedly apolitical. It presented

a vision of African nature that

contributed considerably to colonialism’s

emotional occupation. 5

Imperialism and fascism had a

powerful hold on Behn. His

• 18 •

associations with colonialism and

National Socialism have tainted his

work today. 6 As a result, it is crucial

to inquire about the sculptures’

origins. While society may tolerate

the presence of animal sculptures in

public spaces, it must allow for

public discussion of these works.

With my intervention, I hope to

encourage people to contest these

ostensibly apolitical objects, to learn

more about their history, and to

educate people about colonial

entanglements and deeds. To this

end, the studio’s provocative images

serve to exaggerate and make visible

the invisible.

Even a small animal sculpture can

bear witness to a global structural

system’s anti-human and anti-animal

expansionist pressures. It is not only

meant to be the innocent, tamed

panther that greets passers-by in

Schwabing every day.

• 19 •

DECOLONISE!

ECE TAMER

04.

Decolonized

imaginaries:

Flip the scene!

This intervention deals with the

legitimization of colonial practices

through sacralization of science,

using colonial hierarchies as

structures of global knowledge

transmission.

Colonial violence and its connection

with the scientific world, not only as

objectification and judgment of the

colonized people by the colonizers,

but also as a logic of elimination, is

criticized and inverted in this

project. The focus is on the German

context and scientific experiments,

institutions, scientists and human

zoos that existed here.

The architectural background of the

collage is an actual anatomical

theaters that was used in medical

education at the time. It represents

the Western structures and selfperceived

superiority in terms of

knowledge production and science.

These structures were used to justify

the colonial movements and

supported the hierarchical order of

races not only in science but social

and cultural life of that day and

today.

I used actual pictures of people that

lived in those years to illustrate and

invert power dynamics. Instead of

remaining as the victims and objects

of the experiments and exhibitions

that were inflicted on them, they own

the place as students, teachers, and

activists, returning their agency to

them, as they always deserved.

Looking back at the history, the

German colonial structures rooted

their justification in science and

biopolitics, in order to justify

economic gains 1 . Science played a

big part in the colonization process

to create a healthy workforce for the

colonizers. The bodies of the

colonized people became a field of

experimentation, justified by a view

of superiority of the colonizers over

the colonized 1 . This objectification

led their bodies to be exhibited as

souvenirs from exotic lands as well as

sacrificed for the sake of science.

This intervention, therefore, is

• 20 •

trying to show the roots of today’s

scientific institutions and flip the

hierarchical system that the

colonizers built. The collages invert

the hierarchies of the colonized

world through the re-composition of

the cut-out images of actual pictures

from that time and place. And not

only the cut-outs, but also the source

images where those pictures were

cut-out from are important pieces of

my idea since the aim was not just the

creation of a carnivalesque

atmosphere where the world turns

upside-down, but to question the

real structures by tracing such a

surreal scene back to actual

historical events.

The chosen institutes examined for

this project are Robert Koch

Institute, Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute

- now the Max-Planck Institute - and

the Charité Universitätsmedizin

Berlin, which through their

scientific experimentation and/or

knowledge production methods all

contributed to colonizing thoughts

and strengthened the idea of

Western superiority.

As the main thesis, it must be

understood that the asymmetric

value system of the production,

transmission, manipulation, and

direction of knowledge was intended

in every step of the colonisers 1 . The

institutes that I examined in that

aspect, with their celebrated history

of creating and supporting science,

turned out to be one of the most

dangerous aspects that supported

the racist thought systems and

practices.

Nowadays, we see not only the traces

but actual structures in our daily

lives and academic fields. Looking at

the most popular name on that list,

Robert Koch, the founder of the

Robert Koch Institute, was a famous

microbiologist. He had his place in

that colonial scene as a scientist, who

used the African people as

experimental objects to research and

develop vaccinations 2 . He went to

Africa in 1906, and to find a cure for

the so-called sleeping disease, he

experimented on local people with

the arsenic-containing drug atoxyl.

It was proven to cause poisoning,

blindness, and in higher doses,

death 2 . But that was not an issue to

consider at the time since the claim

was that all those biopolitical

intrusions were for the sake of

science that was seen as sacred. 1

However, this was not the only

example of that kind of thought. The

view of people from the Western

world as the only valid creators and

distributors of any kind of

knowledge, and the underestimation

and disparaging of the local cultures

and knowledge were supported by

many important scientific figures

and institutions at that time,

including Hans Virchow, Claus

Schilling, and Eugen Fischer.

Hans Virchow comes to the scene

with his collections of human

remains from all around the

colonized world, that he brought to

the Charité University Hospital in

Berlin. The Charité was founded in

Robert Koch in the laboratory tent on the Sese Islands, 1905/06

(Robert Koch Institute) 2

Blood test on sleeping sickness patient (www.imago-images.de

Collection K. TAPABOR)2

Sleeping sickness patients on the 1905/06 expedition


Herero & Nama activists protesting for reparations

(Rauten Strauch Joest/J. Zeller CC BY-ND 2.0) 2

• 21 •

Medicine Containers


The defendant Klaus Schilling before the

U.S. Military Court in Dachau 2

1727 by King Fredrick William as a

military hospital and training center,

with the influence of its name ”the

charity” claiming to do only good

deeds for people in need. 3

The Charité hospital has an

anatomical theater, as built in many

European medicine universities,

where students sit on Amphitheater-like

seats and watch either

animal or human cadavers being

dissected. The bodies for those

cases came mostly from lower class

people, or were bodies of African or

Indian people brought to Europe for

either exhibition or as servants. In

some cases, they were also human

remains that had been brought from

colonized lands. Examining or

exhibiting non-white people was not

considered morally questionable

since they were not valued in the

same value as white people.

The Charité hosted a large number

of human remains that were either

collected from abroad, mostly by the

anatomist Hans Virchow, or from

the African people that were

brought to Germany in colonial

times for exhibitions. They also

included Herero and Nama people’s

remains that were collected from the

prison camp on Shark Island

between 1905 and 1907 to research

their facial muscles 3 .

Another example is the Kaiser

Wilhelm Institute for Antropology

where Eugen Fischer, the creator of

many racist thought systems in

anatomy, was the founder and

director. His thoughts about the

superiority of the white race to Black

people and his wish to prohibit

inter-race marriages became a

starting points for ideas and

practices in the nazi era. For

example, he was responsible for the

involuntary sterilization of Black

women to prevent having a mixedrace

population 2 .

Another prominent figure, Claus

Schilling, did many experiments in

Togo until 1905, and later on in Italy

and also Dachau on mentally ill

people, with new drugs that he was

• 22 •

• 23 •

testing to find a cure for the diseases

found in tropical climates, in order

to protect the colonizers’ health 2 .

All those names are the pieces of a

colonial history that reflects an

understanding of the world by

creating a hierarchy of people.

Laboratory in Robert Koch Institute, beginning of the 20th century


University of Freiburg, where Eugen Fischer

was the director of Anatomical Institute 6

Postcard from the “Talofa Samoa”, ethnological show

in Tiergarten Nill in Stuttgart (1900) 7

within the explicit absence of other

ways of being and other ways of

production served for the benefits

of colonizers 4 . All the human zoos,

which were a shame for the

founders and visitors more than the

people exhibited there, served as a

daily reminder of Western

superiority against all races that

they were exerting dominance over.

The hierarchy between the

exhibited and the visitors was the

small-scale replica of the macroscale

order of the world that was

dominated by the colonizers. The

implicit biases we come across still

today derive from this white gaze

and white supremacy that was

created for hundreds of years fed by

racist structures of social, cultural,

and scientific actors and institutions

of colonization.

There is no such thing as neutral

information or data let alone in

history even in science. Although

there are attempts for restorative

justice, we are still far away from

healing all the wounds and looking

and seeing the history with open

eyes. There are still too many steps

that have to be taken towards a

world of equity and justice. This

intervention is an attempt to give a

voice to the ones that have been

used and looked down on by

Western civilization and science by

making the social structure in the

scientific world upside down on a

very hierarchical space of its own.

Carl Hagenbeck Tiergarten in Hamburg

where human exhibitions happened 7

“Indianershow”: Zirkus Sarrasani in Dresden (1928) 7

This positioning of modernity as

something objectively advanced

• 24 •

ECE TAMER

“The hierarchy between the

exhibited and the visitors was the

small-scale replica of the macroscale

order of the world that was

dominated by the colonizers”

• 25 •

DECOLONISE!

LUIS EDUARDO ARTEAGA SALAZAR

05.

Did you know?

Untold links

between modernism

and colonialism

During my architecture bachelor

studies at the FH Frankfurt am Main,

I attended seminars and lectures on

the history of architecture, where the

contents were explained chronologically

and according to technological

developments. With the

recommended literature for the

class, which had been picked to

underline this pedagogical system,

we studied the history of

architecture “From the primitive hut

to the skyscraper.” 1

The lectures began with the most

archaic forms of architecture:

constructions of branches and

sticks, similar to the examples found

in Nice, France. Those huts were

compared to the Amazonian

Yanomami´s palisade communal

houses despite the extensive

variation in chronology and

technology. The lectures continued

on to the first settlements located in

the middle East and proceeded by

leaping into Çatal Hüyük and later

on Greek and Roman architecture.

By the middle of the semester, the

focus of the lectures became

Eurocentric. At this outset, an

extensively comprehensive study

program of architectural history had

been installed, surprisingly linking

Baroque Castles to architecture of

the Industrialization and of the

beginning of Modernism. There

were no remarks about colonialism

and its connection to architectural

modernism even though they

happened simultaneously.

The effects of colonialism on

German architecture and its

discourse were never mentioned,

despite the vast trade of primary

economic goods from colonial

territories being of substantial

importance for the emergence of

certain architectural developments

in Germany at that time. Instead of

seeing the architectural style of

modernism as a reaction to its time

and a wholly beneficial development

which was a milestone in the history

of German architecture, it must be

acknowledged by us architecture

students and practitioners that

• 26 •

modernism does reflect certain

colonialist visions of the German

Empire and its expansions, which

are explained here:

Upon the foundation of the German

Empire on 1871, its eastern

territories were not completely

populated by “German citizens” and

therefore the state enforced the so

called “internal colonization” policy

and created the Royal Prussian

Settlement Commission. 2 The

purpose and function of the

comission were to increase the land

ownership of ethnic Germans at the

expense of the Polish. 3

Through economic and political

means, this Commission pursued

the eradication of Polish people from

the new territories of West Prussia.

In fact, a kind of racialization of

space that would later appear in the

colonies, which had connections to

the settlement constructions of the

early 20th century in German cities

such as Berlin or Frankfurt am Main.

The internal colonization policy was

• 27 •

based on the romantic vision that

land belongs to the people that labor

for it and not to the ones that have an

historical connection to it (like

Polish people to the former Greater

Poland territories). The state

recognized that land is a finite

resource and, consequently, an

important instrument of governing.

4 After the loss of the German

colonies due to the Great War, it was

already evident that land was also an

important bio-political instrument

for managing human life. 5

Migge Leberecht, a German

modernist landscape architect, who

designed urban extension plans for

German cities alongside Bruno

Taut, claimed in 1926 that the

modern housing Settlements were a

strategic reorientation of colonial

policies. 6 Since Germany lost its

colonies due to the Treaty of

Versailles, in order to maintain the

European lifestyle, Germany had to

intensify and industrialize the use of

its soil. 7 In Leberechts’ “Green

Manifest” he encouraged future

architects to integrate individual

green spaces into habitational

projects, a so-called “garden for

everyone”. 8 This was not as an

ornament but for extensive

agricultural production of each

individual family within their

respective housing units. This

thought can be linked to the colonial

idea that land has a value and that its

control through architecture, built

space and usage legitimizes the land

ownership.

As Professor Cupers mentions in his

critical report “On the Coloniality

of Architectural Modernism in

Germany” with the aim of undoing

structural racism in architecture, it is

important not only to address the

historical traces in contemporary

expressions of the architectural

discourse, but it is a matter of which

histories are told since they affect

different groups in society, ergo they

include and exclude some of its

actors.

Itohan Osayimwese mentions in her

book “Colonialism and Modern

Architecture in Germany”, that

already in 1984 the MoMA hosted an

exhibition about Primitivism in

twentieth-century art, which

triggered critique on European

Modernists appropriation for the

arts of the colonized. 9

In the field of Modern architecture,

the constructed narrative that

architects had the opportunities to

test their ideas in the colonies like in

no place in Europe was overtaken by

newer notions like the assumption of

colonialism and modernism

intersecting. 10 In fact, colonialism is

a multi-directional appearance

bonded to several aspects of both

colonized and colonizing societies. 11

Already before Modernist architects

introduced prefabrication and serial

production technologies, there had

been successful prefabrication firms

in Germany which decayed with the

German colonial affairs, and adapted

these innovative processes into their

business out of a previously colonial

background. 12 Therefore, it is

important to acknowledge the

earlier occurrences of prefabricated

elements, which had been sent to the

German territories in Africa.

The architectural Modernism discourse

is based on the detachment

from earlier theoretical guidelines

and formal language. Based upon the

belief that the future can be forged

by aesthetic technology and

intellectual means, 13 modern

architects tried to solve social

problems with a unified set of rules

that defined spaces, capacities, and

necessities, in order to result in a

new society.

For example, Itohan Osayimwese

considers the Werkbund Exhibition

in Cologne in 1914 as one of the

foundational moments of German

architectural Modernism and the

place where the roots of its colonial

origins of Modernism prefabrication

can be traced. 14 At the exhibition, a

colonial pavilion was erected:

“It presented a wide staircase framed

by two large dwarf palm trees, leads

to a tetra-style portico and deep

‘living veranda’. Simplified classical

columns support an entablature and

frieze with the words “Das Kolonial-

• 28 •

Gehöft”. Above a flat roof rises to a

moderately pitched hip. Beyond the

veranda, three rooms- bedroom,

living-room , and dining room- are

arranged longitudinally to form the

single core…” as Osayimwese

describes it.

Even though the building lacks in

ornamentation, it is supposed to

represent German cultural

superiority over the colonies. Like

the four columns supporting the

entablature with the words Das

Kolonial-Gehöft, this building

embodies already some of the future

pillars of the architectural

Modernism discourse:

Firstly, the concept of

Bodenständigkeit (contextualism)

appears in the simplicity of the

building’s construction. It could be

built everywhere on the colonies by

anyone. Secondly, Sachlichkeit

(objectivity) refers to the kind of

construction that precludes any

ornaments. Thirdly, Zweckmäßigkeit,

the purposiveness of the

construction, a concept that

favourites function, is reflected in

the design of the building.

What hasn’t been told in my

architectural history classes is that

the fixation on prefabrication

present in Modernist architecture

does not come from the

development of this movements’

ideas but is borrowed from

construction guidelines given by

Imperial Germany and its colonizers

who dictated the construction of

infrastructure overseas. In this

context, the Werkbund Exhibition

in 1914 was intended to be a place for

young architects to study the newest

technological advances in

construction, but it became the

starting point of the Modernists’

interest in prefabrication.

My artistic intervention on this topic

consists of a series of posters

showing the connections between

colonialism and the style of

architectural Modernism. These

posters reflect propagandist posters

for the public in colonial times in

Germany, whose aims were to

unmistakably communicate the

• 29 •

promotion of benefits from German

colonial possessions overseas in

order to gain acceptance of the

colonial project among its

population. Instead of depicting

illusionary images of the former

German colonial activities and

territories, my artistic intervention

posters exhibit a critical depiction,

condensing the information of a

particular colonial link with

Modernism as presented in this

article. A title and a short text

provide additional information to

the selected link to each poster.

The artistic intervention aims to

evidence among not just architecture

students, professors, lecturers,

scientific assistants but also

architecture enthusiasts some of the

intricate hidden relationships between

architectural Modernism and

colonialism.

on the subject ‘Decolonisation of

Architecture’.

For reaching a wider audience and as

background information it is

necessary to understand the historical

context of architecture

during German colonial times and

for encouraging students to research

on this topic, a digital blog with

selected literature titles on the topic

has been created. Furthermore, the

blog contains the sketches and

different development stages of the

presented posters of this article.

For reaching the blog, each poster

contains a QR-Code that opens the

Tumblr Blog with the supportive

information for this intervention,

which is also displayed at the end of

this article.

It is intended that the posters can be

hung up in the corridors of the

architecture faculties or even be

presented in a museum exhibition

• 30 •

LUIS EDUARDO ARTEAGA SALAZAR

“It is a matter of which histories

are told since they affect different

groups in society,

ergo they include and exclude

some of its actors.”

• 31 •

DECOLONISE!

MARC-THOMAS ZETTLER

11.

…Typically?

Inspired by the New York Times

article “Tracing Mexico’s

complicated relationship with rice“ I

started to investigate foods further,

which have been naturalized in a

certain area. The article was

describing, how in Mexico a

discussion started about foods which

were brought into the country by the

colonizers, but have long been

naturalized in the Mexican cuisine.

So the question came to my mind

which foods us Europeans take for

granted, not knowing how they came

to Europe.

I came up with a list of 4 plants to

discuss the topic. Those foods are

asparagus, tomato, rice and potato. I

wanted to deal with this topic in a

creative and playful way. So I

decided to create some kind of a

game consisting of cards with a front

side and a reverse. On the front there

is a picture of a traditional food of a

certain region, but one main

ingredient is cut out and colored in

pink. That ingredient is the plant

which made it to the area only

because of humans. The pictures are

complimented with the text

“typical…?“. The viewer is now

supposed to turn the card around, to

learn more.

On the reverse you will find a picture

of the plant, which has been cut out

on the front. You will also find the

name of the plant and its latin name.

This is to stress how Western

scientists gave plants from all over

the world a ‘scientific name’,

regardless its original name. Next to

the name and the picture there is a

world map, showing where the plant

originated, where it was first

cultivated in the Western world and

To make the viewer even more

curious there is a catchphrase.

Under the catchphrase is a QR code.

If you scan the code you will get to a

Tumblr blog, which will give you a

lot more detailed information about

the plants history and its touch

points with colonization.

During the process I found out that

• 32 •

European colonizers were not the

first to spread crops all over the

world, but that it happened in

Chinese and Arabic history for

centuries, too. where it is mainly

consumed today. Those cards can be

placed around different restaurants

in Munich as everyday history

lessons. In the end the viewer is

supposed to be inspired to be more

attentive and reflect on where his

food is actually from and how it made

its way to the plate.

Tomato

The tomato originates from Middle

and South America. It is not certain

wether it was first found in Mexico or

in Peru. But as for most plants, wild

growing tomatoes differ a lot from

cultivated tomatoes. The first people

to cultivate tomatoes were the Incas,

the Aztecs and the Mayas. That is

also where the name was derived

from: In the native languages the

tomato was called Tumati. Starting

• 33 •

• 34 •

• 35 •

in 200 BC, the indigenous people

began cultivating the plant. But it

was not until the 16th century that

Cristopher Columbus and the

Spanish fleet brought the tomato to

Europe. Columbus being Italian, he

introduced the fruit to Italy.

At first the tomato was considered

some variety of apple and had names

like “golden apple“ or “paradise

apple“. Naming new and unknown

fruits and vegetables after native

plants was really common back than.

Even today you can find relicts like

the Austrian word “Paradeiser“

deriving from “paradise apple“ and

“pomodoro“ deriving from “golden

apple“.

People thought tomatoes were

aphrodisiacs and sometimes even

argued tomatoes were toxic. In the

18th century, after centuries with a

bad reputation, the fruit finally

found its way to Italian kitchens for

the first time. Since then the tomato

has been a staple food in Italian

cuisine.

Asparagus

Asparagus was first mentioned 4000

years ago in ancient China. Back

then it was used for medicinal uses.

The ancient Egyptians, Persians and

Greeks also knew about the wild

growing plant. But the first culture

known to cultivate asparagus were

the Romans, with Marcus Portius

Cato being the first one to give a

detailed description of how to grow

asparagus back in 234-149 BC. The

Romans were also the first ones to

consume asparagus as a food. It was

considered a delicacy all over the

Roman Empire.

Unfortunately there is not a lot of

information passed down on how

asparagus made its way to central

Europe. But it is assumed that the

Romans brought asparagus to the

German speaking world. It is also

said the crusaders took the plant

over to Central Europe back in the

middle ages. Back then, asparagus

was mostly found in the gardens of

monasteries and the courts.

Until the 17th century asparagus was

still mainly used for medicinal

purposes in the German speaking

area. Only in the late 17th century, it

became popular for consumption as

a food.

Outside of Europe, there are also big

producers of asparagus. Alongside

with Thailand, Peru is one of the

biggest producers of asparagus

internationally. And the story behind

that is quite bizarre: Back in the

1980s and 1990s the US had a huge

problem with cocaine. Back than the

coca plant was mostly produced in

Peru. To reduce the production of

cocaine the American government

started subsidizing Peruvian farming

to grow Asparagus instead of the

coca plant.

Today’s production of Asparagus in

Germany is only possible because of

seasonal migrant workers from

Eastern Europe. Most Germans

would not like to pick asparagus for

a living, because it is physically

demanding, bad for your posture

and badly paid.

Potato

The potato originates in the Andes

in Peru. It is proven that the Incas

were cultivating the plant already

back in 7000 BC. The potato had

one big advantage over other staple

foods at that time in South America

like corn, which was its ability to

grow in high altitudes up to 3000 to

4000 meters above sea level.

In the middle of the 16th century the

potato was brought to Europe by the

Spanish. In the beginning people did

not use the potato as a food crop, but

as an ornamental plant. One reason

was its blossoms. But sailors

recognized soon how nutritious and

storable the root of the plant is.

Similar to the tomato, many

European languages describe the

potato as an apple, such as the

southern German word “Erdapfel“,

which translates to “apple from the

earth“. In Prussia it took quite a bit

of time for the potato to become a

staple food. One reason why the

• 36 •

potato was not an immediate success

was its taste and the way you grow a

potato - it could only be grown on

the same field every third year.

To make the Prussian farmers

curious about the potato, king

Frederick II is even claimed to have

potato plants guarded by soldiers, in

order to make the farmers perceive it

as more valuable. What is known as a

fact is that he repeatedly promoted

and ordered the planting of

potatoes. Eventually interest in the

plant rose and many Prussian

farmers started to grow the plant.

Ever since, the Potato has been a

staple food in German speaking

countries.

• 37 •

DECOLONISE!

MINNA RADAKOVITS

07.

Curating ignorance:

On exhibitions in

art museums

This intervention aims to bring into

question the way curatorial practices

and exhibitions are handled at art

museums today, in respect to art of

racially profiled people, or by artists

with racist intentions.

As an architecture student, I have an

innate interest in other aesthetical

pursuits, be it painted art or

sculpture, and have a background in

art and cultural history studies from

earlier in life. As is usually the case

when studying these types of topics,

there is a certain international

consensus on what is regarded as

“good art”, and what is important

enough to be included in the history

books.

Most of these artists are men from

the 20th century and before, and

some of them even have unsavory

pasts in relation to relations with

other groups in society. The heated

debate on whether we should

separate the art from the artist also

touches on these older works. Since

the artist cannot profit from the art

anymore, and since the artist has

been dead for however many years

and cannot further harm any

communities, is it okay to still

display this art without calling their

actions into question?

Twentieth century artists like those

of Die Brücke drew references from

marginalized groups and “were

inspired” by the collections of

ethnographical museums and other

cultures.1 The exhibiting of art that

promotoes cultural appropriation

and stereotypes, and the “separation

between art and the artist” are topics

that, while both being morally

straight forward, still lie in a grey

area. When curating museums,

there are several facets that need to

be acknowledged: What does the

artwork portray? And how?

In the case of the artists in Die

Brücke, the motifs are problematic

in more ways than one. Drawing

inspiration from the objects in

ethnographical collections without

any knowledge of the cultural or

• 38 •

functional significance is perhaps

one of the best examples of cultural

appropriation; taking something

from another culture, and using it in

whatever way they see fit, without

any respect for the purpose or story

behind it, to profit from it

themselves. 2 Be it reducing sacred

objects to mere still lifes, no

different from a bowl of fruit, or

claiming to look up to these objects

as “the core of art”, not because of

what significance they hold to the

artist or craftsman, but because they

are “primitive”, “raw” or “have the

artistic freedom of a child”. 3

This infantilization of people of

colour also shows the view of them as

less-than these white artists. The

paintings of human beings, being

made on the artists’ trips, almost

exclusively portray people of colour

as just another prop. Showing these

works in exhibitions without even

questioning the possible effects this

could have on society and the people

visiting is irresponsible. How to deal

with artworks like these, however, is

a far more nuanced discussion. Not

showing them at all could be seen as

painting over an unseemly part of

history instead of properly

addressing it, and does not help the

core problem at hand.

Scouring my mind to pick a subject

matter for my project, I remembered

an exhibition I attended back in

2015. It was at Waldemarsudde on

Djurgården in Stockholm, 4 a wellknown

and renowned art museum

based on the formerly private

collections of Prince Eugen, whose

estate is the main building for this

museum today. In general, I often

enjoyed going to Waldemarsudde,

as they frequenty host

comprehensive travelling collections

that are otherwise rare to

witness and show many well-known

(and unknown) works of high

quality. This exhibition, however,

has made me question curatorial

practices and how to handle for

example racially sensitive art.

The exhibition, which was on loan

for a couple of months in the spring

of 2015, was called “Colour Storms”

and consisted of a large portion of

Nolde’s most famous pieces, and

aimed to display his use of colour,

which he as an expressionist is

famous for. Although I was younger

at the time – still a teenager at 17, I

remember that some of the works

made me feel uncomfortable. I

cannot recall if I was able to pinpoint

why back then, but looking back, it is

clear to me that the racist imagery

and the caricaturizing of the features

of people of colour cause me

discomfort.

I think that the portraits from the

series of paintings Nolde made in

Papa New Guinea are what most

struck me, especially the series of

paintings named “Die Wilden”,

which translates to “the savages”, a

term used to dehumanize

indigenous people and portray them

as less-than white people. I wonder

why Nolde’s works still get support

from the masses. Is it because of the

feigned interest in the culture he was

exploiting? Or is it because he, as an

influential figure in art history, is

deemed too important to “cancel”?

The organization of the exhibition

was also struck a nerve with me. The

paintings of people were hung right

next to pictures of flowers or

sunsets, landscapes and bar scenes.

It made me wonder if no one had

stopped even for one second to think

that these paintings might be

harmful – they were equated to

completely inoffensive works

without any regard.

The stark difference between that

exhibition and the one we visited

during our excursion to Berlin

within this course made me even

more certain that curating more

sensitively is something worth

paying attention to. In Berlin, the

exhibition, “Whose Expression?”

brings to light the issues with Die

Brücke’s art, and the misinformation

and harmful imagery that art can

promote, 5 and suggests some

answers to the question of how we

can deal with the artworks now in the

curatorial space with respect and

care.

In the Berlin exhibition, more space

was given to the information on

origin, culture, and history, taking

up equal to or larger space than the

artworks themselves. This makes the

idea clear that we cannot view these

paintings without also viewing the

colonial history they represent. By

placing paintings of the villages in

front of actual photos of the places

depicted, we can also see the

difference between reality, and what

the artists wanted to portray. The

comparison allows us to see more

clearly that the artists’ works were

not, as they claimed, based on what

they saw on excursions or during

their “research”, but contained their

implicit biases that they brought

with them.

Nolde even acknowledged this in his

journals from his trip to Papa New

Guinea; he wrote how the nature,

and the people were not as primitive

and wild as he had expected, and he

had to paint images from

imagination rather than life to

capture his ideas. 7 These paintings

were what we now know as the series

of paintings named “Die Wilden”.

The way “Whose Expression?” was

• 39 •

curated made sure to also put the

perspective of the portrayed PoC in

focus, rather than pandering to the

white gaze and hosting yet another

exhibition with artworks simply

hung on a wall to look pretty (á la the

2015 “Colour Storms” approach).

In the curating team, making sure to

keep PoC involved every step of the

way and making space for different

frames of reference to create this

exhibition, makes sure that the

voices that are likely to be affected by

the artworks are the ones heard.

Seeing this exhibition also

encouraged me in my conviction;

there are respectful and responsible

ways to deal with this art, and it can

be done well and comprehensively.

While the topic of questionable

motifs and themes in art is complex,

and while I myself can in no way

claim to have any authority over how

it should be handled, I find solace

and hope in the thought that the way

we view art exhibitions, and the

curatorial practices that create them,

are changing and evolving to be

more sensitive and show the whole

picture. I look forward to seeing how

these works are scrutinized by

museums and curators in future

exhibitions.

With my intervention, a comic

narrating this exhibition critique in a

graphic form, I am addressing all the

museums who choose to turn a blind

eye to uncomfortable topics: For the

art world to be a truly free and open

creative space, we need to also make

it a safe space for everyone.

• 40 •

• 41 •

DECOLONISE!

MOGHEESA HASNAIN

08.

Telling a nameless

tale

Nestled in a permanent exhibit in the

Munchener Stadtmuseum called

“Typical Munich” lies a small bronze

tablet. Crafted by Johann Baptist

Stiglmaier it is one of the incunabula

of bronze casting in the kingdom of

Bavaria. It depicts two children

laying down and a deity blowing on

them [ed: shown overleaf in the

right-hand corner of the 2 nd collage].

Once you read the accompanying

text, you stumble upon the tragedy

of Miranha and Juri, two Indian

children taken from Brazil by two

nature scientists; Johann Baptist von

Spix (1781–1826) and Karl Friedrich

Philipp von Martius (1794–1868).

However, while the text speaks

extensively about this ‘prestigious

project’ of the Bavarian Academy of

the sciences and somewhat about the

the short time the children spent in

Munich, it fails to paint the complete

colonial picture.

The language used in the text itself

represents the unwillingness of the

author to lay down the facts that

might point towards the other side of

the story. It is ambiguous enough to

give the illusion of facts being told,

but once you delve into the details

the contortion of the story becomes

clear. The undertone favors the

scientists rather than Miranha and

Juri. Even in this text it was felt

important to mention that both came

from a cannibal tribe (which is not

correct) and that Juri was a beautiful

boy even in European eyes. 1 This is

what started the quest into finding

the voice of these two children in

order to tell their story through my

project, two collages entitled

‘Telling a nameless tale.’

My project title stems from the

realization that Miranha and Juri are

scientific names given to them by

Martius who had acquired them, as a

reference to the tribes the children

were obtained from. Their original

names were never deemed important

enough to be written down by

Martius or Spix. This is testament to

their disregard of the identity and

sense of self of the children, as they

• 42 •

wanted to instil ‘European’ values

into them. Starting on June 14th,

1817 in Rio de Janeiro, both Miranha

and Juri were bought and taken with

them to Munich in 1820.

Most of the information about the

time spent in Brazil is from Spix’s

and Martius’ reports and diaries.

However, it is important to note that

Martius is not a reliable narrator, as

he changes his statements

throughout the years and given that

he is the only source that gives us any

information about the children it is

almost impossible to discern the

truth from his colonial gaze. For

Miranha there are two different

stories he tells. According to these

Miranha was bought first. One story

that Martius published in 1821

mentions the chief ‘Tuxana’ at the

Porto dos Miranhas who was

commissioned with the task of

capturing children for him.

At the time it was common for the

head of the Miranha tribe to selling

imprisoned enemies, their own

• 43 •

• 44 •

children and rival tribe members to

white visitors. Ten years later he

changed the story saying that

Miranha, together with another girl

and three boys, were ‘gifted’ to

them, because the Tuxana thought

the amount of axes and knives the

generous Martius had offered was

‘too much’, so he added the

children. He referred to them as

‘unlucky creatures’, who would have

died without him, yet he would give

some children away and the others

would die on the voyage, with

Miranha and Juri being the only to

survive.

How Martius acquired Juri is more

ambiguous. In the initial report he

would not mention anything about

how he got to Juri, only saying that

he joined their group. In his diary in

1862 he mentioned that he was

offered to pick a child out of a line

up, to educate him on ‘European

Humanity’. The decision came down

to Juri, because of his pleasant

features. Yet, in a letter to her

mother Queen Caroline mentioned

that Juri had been bought for two

axes. There was also the rumor that

he was from noble descendant, his

father being the head of his tribe. He

had a prominent face tattoo, which

was indicative of his tribe. On the

other hand Miranha was often

described as coming from a

cannibalistic tribe and she had the

typical nose piercing that people

from her tribe adorned. 2

Both children were brought to

Munich in 1820. They could not

communicate with each other as they

spoke different languages. So

although both children went

through the same trauma they were

unable to share it with each other.

There, Miranha and Juri were

baptized and their names were yet

again changed to Isabella and

Johannes respectively - names that

are not related to their origins in the

slightest.

Living in the Max Herzog Burg

everything the children did was

observed and recorded closely.

Those who could not contain their

curiosities could put their names in

lists in order to visit to stare at the

children and ask the scientist

questions about their habits. Several

hundred residents of Munich took

this opportunity. Paris was hoping

that Martius and Spix would visit and

take Miranha and Juri with them.

The children were measured and

drawn to document them. They

would also model to make drawings

of other tribes and artifacts appear

more authentic. Yet apart from two

sketches of each child no more

drawings can be found.

Between the children there was a

clear public favor towards Juri, who

was said to be from a tribe that served

whites. He was seen as the noble

savage and when he died in June of

1821 due to pneumonia his death was

spoken of widely, with beautiful

eulogies describing him as gentle,

whereas Miranha was described as

apathetic and stupid, even though

she was said to be good at learning

Portuguese and skilled in making

crafts. When she died in May 1822

from an intestinal infection, there

were no mentions in any journal or

newspaper. The interest in the

children had died with Juri. 3

But even in death the children were

not spared from prying eyes, with

Juri being dissected to study him.

There are varying accounts about his

head being exhibited in the

University’s Institute of Anatomy,

while others claim it was a wax

replica.

When we return to the bronze tablet

that was commissioned by Queen

Caroline, it is clear that the depicted

children do not resemble Miranha

and Juri in the slightest. Not only are

they posed very suggestively, but

their notable features were also

erased, such as Juri’s face tattoo and

Miranha’s piercing. Even in the

attempt of honoring them in their

death they could not escape the

colonial gaze they had been subject

to the last years of their lives. In their

grave now lies a Bavarian culture

minister, while the scientists Spix

and Martius still rest peacefully in

their burial sites.

• 45 •

My collages entitled ‘Telling a

nameless tale’ are designed to share

the tale of Miranha and Juri through

simple language. The objects

depicted are all part of their story,

from the knives Miranha was bought

for to the bronze tablet itself.

Scriptures, newspaper clippings and

drawings of and mentioning the

children are used, as all the

information about them can only be

found from third parties and through

the colonial gaze.

Their names have been lost forever,

together with their voice. It is a small

attempt to create yet another

subjective view that focuses on the

children and takes away the

glorifying language used by the

colonial sources. Especially for the

events in Brazil we have to rely on

Martius’ testimony only, which is not

enough to give a concrete

recollection of events, especially

with his constantly changing

statements.

Most of colonial history faces this

very dilemma. With people being

taken from their home countries

under the umbrella of ‘science’,

their voices drown in the sea of

reports, measurements and dehumanization.

In order to fully grasp

this part of history we need accounts

of every ‘participant’ to create a

somewhat objective recollection of

events. 3 In the process of decolonization

it is therefore important to

find ways to tell these lost tales and

make the ghosts of colonialism

visible.

DECOLONISE!

ROSA SCHUSTER

09.

Terrible nearness of

distant places

Despite decades of interventions in

the field of art, the decolonization of

art and its institutions remains

contested as a consequence of the

continuing effects of epistemic

violence in the complexities of the

postcolonial present.

Quite contrary to the concept of

“l‘art pour l’art” as described by

Walter Benjamin as a theology of art

that „gave rise to what might be

called a negative theology in the

form of the idea of ‚pure‘ art, which

[...] denies any social function of

art“, I believe that art and its

discourse plays an integral part in

the shaping of knowledge and

history and society. The museum is

an instrument of education and

knowledge-dissemination.

For example, an exhibition provides

a forum for the presentation and

reconditioning of experiences other

than one’s own. The curatorial

process serves as a way of

storytelling and furthermore has the

power to give certain, selected

positions a voice. As Ivan Karp puts

it „The mode of installation, the

subtle messages communicated

through design, arrangement, and

assemblage, can either aid or impede

our appreciation and understanding

of the visual, cultural, social, and

political interest of the objects and

stories exhibited in museums.“ 1

It is not to be overlooked that the

museum as an institution is morally

neutral in theory but inevitably

biased in practice. Art history and art

criticism were written from neither a

universal nor objective perspective.

This raises the fundamental question

of how stories are told and who is

allowed to speak. Its function and

effect can not be detached from the

social and cultural complexities it is

embedded in. Therefore the

museum has a political dimension

that is not to be underestimated.

This raises an important question:

In what way can we contribute to the

unlearning of learned colonial and

• 46 •

racist forms of knowledge, and to the

acquisition of decolonial tactics?

We have to be careful with the

phrasing post-colonial since the

prefix “post-” suggests that colonialism

is a situation of the past,

therefore hiding the ongoing relevance

of the matter. The aim of

decolonial theory is to de-construct

the predominant perception of

artistic production in order to reinscribe

histories and perspectives.

Few were as ambitious as the curator

Okwui Enwezor in pursuing to

change the view of history and the

present, including and above all of

colonialism and its consequences,

using the full visual and emotional

power of art. From the beginning of

his career, he worked on expanding

and changing the Western

perception of art, which frequently

focused solely on Europe and the

United States. Enwezor was

constantly on the quest to create a

redefinition of the understanding

and structure of art institutions,

broadening the boundaries of our

understanding of art.Taking into

account all the political, scientific

and cultural dynamics underlying

our perception of art was a method

applying to all of Enwezor‘s

curatorial approaches. It was

inconceivable for him to detach

artistic creation from its production

context. The careful reading and

understanding of this context is what

allows the development of another

history.

An ever-present theme that is

essential for all of Okwui Enwezor’s

ambitions as an curator is the

‘terrible nearness of distant places’

as an effect of globalization that has

„effectively abolished the temporal

and spatial distance that previously

separated cultures. (…) While the

compression of time and space is

understood as one of the great

aspects of this phenomenon of

modernity, there still appears within

globalization of art and culture a

great unevenness for many artists in

terms of access.“ 2

Inspired by Enwezor‘s thought and

ambition to „address the contradictory

logic of distance and

proximity that represents the

dialectical structure of many artistic

procedures of the last decade“ 3 , I

created a fabric badge, reading

‘terrible nearness of distant places.’

For my intervention, every visitor of

the museum would be gifted with

this badge, and asked to think on the

question ‘what is your place? …your

place of origin…your place of

home…your place of heart…your

place of thought…your place of

fear…your place of love…your place

of tension…your place of

distance…your place of nearness…’

You could then write one or various

words on your badge, pin it to your

chest and carry it with you for

everyone to see. At random you

would encounter and be confronted

with the terrible nearness of distant

places of your own and of others.

This would result in many

individuals orbiting the museum

space, occasionally colliding,

watching from afar, surveying from

close up, engaging with each other,

moving away from each other,

learning from each other. It would

be an invitation to see and to be seen.

Distance, irritation, and nearness

would coexist in a noticeable

tension.

Following the thought of crossing

borders and accessibility, this simple

and quite intervention needs little

effort and expense. It could take

place anywhere but as a starting

point for this intervention I choose

Haus der Kunst in Munich which

Okwui Enwezor directed for seven

years, as an homage to his life‘s work

and legacy.

ROSA SCHUSTER

“The museum as an institution is

morally neutral in theory but

inevitably biased in practice.”

• 47 •

• 48 •

• 49 •

DECOLONISE!

SAROLTA SZATMÁRI

10.

………………………

[Remembering the

Herero and Nama

genocide]

“Within the German borders every

Herero, with or without a gun, with

or without cattle, will be shot. I will

no longer accept women and

children, I will drive them back to

their people or I will let them be shot

at. These are my words to the Herero

people. The great General of

the mighty German Kaiser.” (Lothar

von Trotha, 02/10/1904)

Between 1904 -1908, on the territory

of current Namibia, 80%

of the Herero people and 50%

of the Nama were exterminated by

the Second German Reich. These

intended killings, which occurred

through battle, starvation and thirst

in the Omaheke desert, but also

through forced labor, malnutrition,

medical experiments, sexual

violence and disease in

concentration camps, lead to the

death of approximately 65.000

Herero and 20.000 Nama victims.

In the beginning, influenced by

Ellen Lupton and her take on

breaking down the binary norms and

structures in Western typography, I

chose to work on paper and

typography for this intervention.

The idea of also working with names

was strongly motivated by the artist

Matt Kenyon and his work on

infiltrating the US National Archives

in his project “Notepad”. It is a

commemoration to the Iraqi

civilians, who died due to the US

invasion of Iraq in 2003, by printing

their names in the lines on what

appears to be average legal pads.

This prompted me to think of the

concept of collateral damage and

how the identity of these victims

mostly remains unknown, just as the

names of these 85.000 Nama and

Herero victims.

Finally, the idea of binding a book

with the names of the victims of t h e

Herero and Nama genocide was

inspired by a book I saw in the Anne

Frank House in Amsterdam. The

massive book contains the names of

the victims of the Holocaust and I

• 50 •

find that it is a very beautiful way to

keep the victims in our collective

memory in a more individual way.

A long process of looking for these

names began. In a rather naive

approach, I initially hoped to find

lists with names of Herero and Nama

victims at the German Federal

Archives (online) or other archives

such as the Staatsbibliothek

München. The failure of that lead to

the idea of getting in contact with the

descendants of the victims and finding

out the names from them,

instead of looking at the

perpetrators’ sources.

I contacted the Namibian embassy

by Facebook and per email,

alongside several organizations such

as the Ovaherero Genocide

Foundation and the National

Archives of Namibia. Unfortunately,

I did not receive an answer.

Eventually, after a lot of research and

contacting the Museum Treptow in

Berlin, which we visited with the

• 51 •

seminar, I had found out the names

of 8 victims:

Samuel Maharero,

Hendrik Witbooi,

Friedrich Maharero,

Jakob Morenga,

Cornelius Frederiks,

Simon Kooper,

Josaphat Kamatoto and

Petrus Jod.

During my research, I almost only

came across the names of Samuel

Maharero, chief of the Herero

population, and Hendrik Witbooi,

leader of the Nama. To avoid

personified views of history, I

decided not to prioritize their names

over the ones of the other victims

and therefore to leave the book

blank. Not only is the empty book a

stronger statement, but it also

symbolizes the lack of information

and knowledge regarding the

genocide of the Nama and the

Herero.

Depending on their cultural origin,

the length of names varies. Hence, I

decided to only use the ones of

actual Herero and Nama

victims for the creation of the layout

of the book. These eight names

fitted 22 times on a DIN A5 page,

resulting in a total of

176 names per page.

Ensuing from 85.000 victims, the

book would have at least 483 pages

to fit all their names. Each dotted

line represents a victim since I did

not want to work with enumerations

to avoid reducing the people to

numbers.

To break Western typography‘s

strongest binary contrast, t h e

Black and white contrast, I chose to

print my book on natural white paper

instead of the typical ultra-white

one. Natural white paper has a light

cream color, which resembles more

to the natural brown color of

unbleached paper.

Moreover, I experimented with

creating paper on my own.

Initially, I wanted to create it out of

old papers stating the names of the

German perpetrators, aiming to give

justification to the victims rather

than to them.

However, I decided that printing out

articles just to make paper out of

them would be unecological. Hence,

I upcycled paper waste. Nowadays,

the world is extremely

interconnected. I believe that as

artists, we need to respect the

planet’s resources in our practice

and therefore sometimes change our

ideas a little.

I bound the book myself using the

perfect binding method and used my

self-made paper for the cover.

Unfortunately, the Herero and Nama

genocide is almost inexistent in

collective memory. It is either not

mentioned in history class, or in a

way that it is very unclear that it was

committed by the German Empire.

Especially since this first genocide

of the twentieth century can be seen

as a prelude to the Holocaust in both

the ideology of racial hierarchy that

justified the genocide and in the

methods employed. This linkage is

called the “continuity thesis”. This

intervention should raise awareness

about the topic by commemorating

the Herero and Nama people.

The project is not about my journey

as an artist trying to find the

information but about the fact of

how extremely hard it is to find

information regarding this

genocide. While standing for the

lack of information, the empty book

also symbolizes the fact that the

German government still has not

given any official apologies and has

not paid any reparations.

I first chose the Bayerische Staats-

Bibliothek as the place of this

intervention, where I wanted to

place the book as an “act of

• 52 •

rebellion”. However, after our visit

to the Museum Treptow, I decided

that I would like to offer the book to

the museum.

I want to invite visitors who know the

names of some victims to write them

into the book, hence interactively

collecting these.

I believe that the integration of this

intervention into their exhibition,

which aspires to be flexible and everevolving,

would enhance public

education and the interaction

between the museum and its visitors.

Therefore, placing the book in this

institution would have a much bigger

impact. The offer stands, I am

hoping for a positive response from

the museum.

• 53 •

DECOLONISE!

SEBASTIAN HABERL

11.

Geranium journey

The flowers colloquially called

Geraniums are mainly found in

German-speaking countries on

suburban balconies and in hobby

gardens. An alpine windowsill would

be almost unthinkable in summer

without them. Its popularity and

meanwhile cultural importance as a

“native plant” extend over large

parts of Europe. In Germany it is

even the best-selling flower in

supermarkets and nurseries.

However, the controversial colonial

history and problematic breeding of

Pelargonium, as the plant genus is

botanically called, is largely

unknown to most people.

The misnomer “Geranium” comes

from the botanical genus Geranium,

which means hardy cranesbill.

However, the plants on the

windowsill do not belong to the

Geranium genus; they are not

winter-proof and in fact belong to

the Pelargonium genus.

Both plants come from the same

Geraniaceae plant family. 1 The name

Pelargonium was coined in 1738 by

the Dutch doctor and botanist

Johannes Burman. The truly original

names of the 220 to 280 different

species native to Africa have

unfortunately been superseded by

Western taxonomy. 2

The first isolated plants of their

genus were probably brought to

Europe by seafarers before the 14th

century. In 1672, the ship's doctor

and botanist Paul Hermann

collected the first Pelargoniums on

an expedition to what is now South

Africa and in 1678 sent them for

illustration purposes to the Danzig

merchant and botanist Jacob Breyne,

who published them among others in

one work.

Hermann also shipped the plants to

the Netherlands, where various

varieties of Pelargonium have since

blossomed in the Leiden Botanical

Garden. Even at this time, the main

motive was to satisfy the newly won

curiosity about the foreign. In the

• 54 •

middle of the 18th century, the

Schönbrunn Gardens in Vienna

were laid out by gardeners from

Leiden. Based on their model, it also

included the cultivation of some

Pelargoniums.

At the end of the 18th century more

and more people, mainly rich

merchants and botanists from Great

Britain, went on exploratory trips to

Africa. The aim of these expeditions

was to gather Pelargonium seeds and

plants and bring them back to their

home country. The clients were

mostly nobles who discovered the

plant for themselves.

Owning exotic plants served to show

one's own prosperity. But there was

no interest in an exchange with

locals in the expedition areas since

they were regarded as inferior due to

the attitude prevailing in Europe.

The botanists, too, were primarily

concerned with their personal fame

and successes in distant Europe.

However, collecting Geraniums on

the African continent did not remain

a source for raising young plants for

long.

A supply station was set up by the

Netherlands at the Cape of Good

Hope in the mid-17th century. The

colony grew steadily in the decades

that followed, as the location was an

important station on the trade route

from Europe to Southeast Asia.

Around 1800, the British laid claim

to this colony, which led to ongoing

tensions and changing rulers in the

colony. Due to the uncertain

political conditions in southern

Africa, hybridization of Pelargonium

began to become popular in Europe

and numerous specialized nurseries

sprung up in London at first.

Hybrids were soon so widespread

that the original plants became rare.

As a result, several nurseries were

established in Europe where only

Pelargonium was cultivated,

including the nursery of the botanist

Robert Sweet in Chelsea, editor of

the five volumes “Geraniceae”. 3

Since most of the original plants

came from travels and expeditions to

the East, the routes of which always

involved a short stay in Africa,

Pelargoniums were thought to be

plants with Indian roots for a long

time. During the spread in the

Viennese gardens, the interest in

Geraniums shifted to the general

population.

Due to its wide distribution,

Pelargonium has already become

native as a neophyte in European

countries with a suitable climate. In

Bavaria it has been adorning the

• 55 •

windowsills for around 100 years. 4

Apart from Germany, Pelargoniums

are also culturally anchored in Italy,

France, Austria and Switzerland. 5

However, the complex production

and consumption chain of modern

breeds in particular is similar in all

these countries. In a first step,

laboratories in Germany grow the

mother plants of the Pelargonium,

which are then flown to high-tech

laboratories, like one on the Canary

Islands. The best plants (so-called

elite plants) are used in these

laboratories and further improved by

means of artificial fertilization. In

this process, each flower is

pollinated by hand.

The seeds of the elite plants are now

flown on to Kenya or Ethiopia, some

of the poorest countries in the world,

where the seeds are further grown in

simple greenhouses. The seeds grow

into cuttings here under suitable

(very warm) climatic conditions.

They are then taken to cold stores in

simple wheelbarrows until the time

of the flight, when they are flown to

Europe by refrigerated air transport.

Cooling in hot countries is very

energy-intensive and consumes

resources that are lacking in these

countries anyway.

For the employed farmers, this

means an income above the national

average, but at the same time the sale

of their urgently needed soil

resources just for balcony plants.

The profits of Western companies

are made on the shoulders of the

farmers, who have to sell their labor

to the highest bidder due to their

disastrous financial situation. It is, in

a milder form, a new brand of

colonialism under the guise of freemarket

economics that further shifts

the imbalance of power towards the

privileged Western entrepreneurs.

After their flight, the cuttings arrive

back in European nurseries and are

further grown here into young

plants. This step is also done

manually, mostly by guest workers

from other European countries for a

German minimum wage. As soon as

the plants are big enough, they are

sold in Germany, e.g., in hardware

stores or supermarkets.

The packaging of the Pelargoniums

for sale in the supermarkets is fully

automated in Germany. The popular

plant is now ready for being bought

by many customers as a balcony

• 56 •

plant because of its alleged

homeland character. The flowering

Pelargonium thus preserves the

colonial heritage on the Bavarian

windowsill.

The asking price for a ready-to-plant

single Pelargonium in retail is just

1.69 Euros. A worker in Ethiopian

greenhouses earns 70 Euros a

month. The production facilities in

South Africa are managed by

German companies, among others,

who only have to pay this small wage

to their employees. 6

In this way, the inexpensive plant,

acquired under these precarious

circumstances, finds its way into our

homes.

Pelargonium is only suitable for the

Central European climate in the

summer months, and hibernation

sometimes fails because the plant is

sensitive to frost.

Due to the low prices, the flower is

often simply composted at the onset

of winter and bought again the next

year. This increases the demand and

the adverse effect on the climate.

The consumer behavior of a

throwaway society leads to higher

demand for new plants, the effort for

which is enormous to grow.

Ultimately, this also leads to higher

emissions due to the complex work

steps and transport and thus also has

negative climatic effects. In this

context, the use of “Geranium soil”

must also be criticized, which

massively destroys raised bogs in

Eastern European countries

through the necessary peat

extraction. 7

Pelargoniums are actually perennial

plants that can bloom for up to

twenty years. Since most

Pelargoniums are cultivated in pots

or window boxes on the balcony,

overwintering the plants takes

relatively little effort.

When the temperature drops, the

flowers are cut back sharply and

stored in a cool place of around ten

degrees, such as on the basement

stairs or in the garage. When

pruning, even cuttings can be easily

removed, and new plants can be

grown from them. The Geraniums

do not need fertilization over the

winter and the substrate should be

kept finger-moist, this only requires

infrequent watering. 8

This natural cycle is opposed to the

production chain, which is spread

over several continents, but loses

out in most cases. The vast majority

of Pelargonium owners do without

overwintering and buy new plants

from retailers year after year. The

still young flowers are simply thrown

away.

The flowers fade, but by purchasing

a new plant for the windowsill, one

unknowingly keeps the colonial

legacy and its continuing economic

impact alive.

Manufacturers and distributors are

obviously not interested in clarifying

the lack of knowledge about the

dubious production processes.

Instead, the Pelargonium is used

successfully as a profitable product

in the form of the best-selling flower

for Germany”s gardens under the

guise of the native plant.

SEBASTIAN HABERL

“The flowers fade, but by purchasing a new

plant for the windowsill, one unknowingly

keeps the colonial legacy and its continuing

economic impact alive.”

• 57 •

DECOLONISE!

APPENDIX

i.

End notes

01. Remembering Bismarck: One book at a time by

Abdé Batchati

1. Zimmerer, Jürgen, Bismarck und der Kolonialismus,

in: Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte,

Bismarck, 2015

2. Gatter, Frank Thomas (Ed.), Protokolle und

Generalakte der Berliner Afrika-Konferenz 1884–

1885, Bremen, 1984

3. Timalsina, Tarun, Why Rhodes Must Fall,

https://harvardpolitics.com/rhodes-must-fall/,last

accessed: [28.02.2022]

4. Bismarck Nationaldenkmal, https://bildhau- ereiin-berlin.de/bildwerk/bismarck-denkmal-4617/,

last

accessed: [27.02.2022]

5. Ayim, May, weitergehen. gedichte, Orlanda

Frauenverlag, Berlin, 2020

6. Arndt, Susan, Ofuatey-Alazard, Nadja (Eds.),

(K)Erben des Kolonialismus im Wissens- archiv

deutscher Sprache. Ein kritisches Nachschlagewerk,

Unrast Verlag, Münster, 2019

Image: Bismarck Nationaldenkmal by Wladyslaw Sojka

/ www.sojka.photo

www.afrika-hamburg.de/PDF/

bismarckdekolonisieren.pdf, last accessed

:[15.01.2022]

4. Davies, Dominic, Urban Comics: Infrastructures

and the global city in contemporary graphic narrative,

Routledge, New York, 2019

5. Harb, Samir, Fairy Tales of Other Cities, https://

samir-harb.tumblr.com/, last accessed: [23.02.2022]

6. Schwarzer, Anke, Moderne Nostalgie: Die neue

HafenCity in Hamburg würdigt den Geist des

Kolonialismus, https://www.iz3w.org/zeitschrift/

ausgaben/318_grenzen_und_migration/fab, last

accessed: [24.02.2022]

7. Nasr, Aude, Kawkab of Immigrants, https://

www.architectural-review.com/essays/graphic-novelarchives-of-distant-homes,

last accessed: [23.02.2022]

8. Arbeitskreis Hamburg Postkolonial, Fehlstart in der

Erinnerungskultur, http://www.hamburgpostkolonial.de/PDF/

PMkolonialeVergangenheit.pdf, last accessed:

[15.01.2022]

02. Hamburg, a gate to the world by Chiara Kuijpers

1. Assner, Manuel, Colonial roots and current roots,

https://www.eurozine.com/colonial-roots-andcurrent-routes/,


2. Kawlath, Jan, Das Hamburger “Tor nach Afrika”,

https://www.hamburg-global.de/v1.0/

placemarks/115, last accessed: [24.02.2022]

3. Afrika-hamburg.de, Dekolonisierung des

öffentlichen Raums: Das Hamburger Bismarck-

Denkmal ist auch ein Kolonialdenkmal, http://

03. Munich atelier of murdered animals by David

Lachermeier

1. Wolf, Georg Jacob, Atelier des Künstlers, München

1928

2. Zeller, Joachim, Wilde Moderne. Der Bildhauer

Fritz Behn (1878-1970), Berlin, 2016

3. Behn, Fritz, Haizuru. Ein Bildhauer in Afrika,

Verlag Georg Müller, München, 1918

4. Behn, Fritz, Naturabgüsse selbsterlegter Tiere von

den afrikanischen Reisen Behns, in: Vaterstädtische

Blätter, Nr. 51, Lübeck, 1910

• 58 •

5. Zellner, Joachim, Münchener Kolonialkunst: Der

Bildhauer Fritz Behn, http://muc.postkolonial.net/

muenchener-kolonialkunst-der-bildhauer-fritz-behn,


6. Rebel, Ernst, Herrenmensch mit Wildheitswünschen,

in: Journal für Kunstgeschichte 20, Band 2,

Regensburg, 2016

04. Decolonized imaginaries - flip the scene! by Ece

Tamer

1. Ananthavinayagan, Thamil, Robert Koch,

research and experiment in the colonial space, https://

voelkerrechtsblog.org/robert-koch-rese-arch-andexperiment-in-the-colonial-space-or/,

last accessed:

[10.06.2020]

2. Amberger, Julia, MenschenexperimenteRobert

Koch und die Verbrechen von Ärzten in Afrika,

https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/menschenexperimente-robert-koch-und-die-verbrechenvon-100.html,


3. Stoecker, Schnalke and Winkelmann, Sam-meln,

Erforschen, Zurückgeben? Menschliche Gebeine aus

der Kolonialzeit in akademischen und musealen

Sammlungen, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin, 2013

4. de Klerk, Khensani, Blueprint for Decoloni-ation:

Collectivising, https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=deqKMiEZ5DY, last accessed [11.04.2021]

5. Robert Koch Institute Website, https://www.

rki.de/EN/Content/Institute/History/history_

node_en.html;jsessionid=938D4B68A45EA8C-

81C02E500862C0D27.internet081, last accessed:

[28.02.2022]

6. Bernhard Gessler: Eugen Fischer (1874–1967). Leben

und Werk des Freiburger Anatomen, Anthropologen

und Rassehygienikers bis 1927. Lang, Frankfurt 2000

7. Human Zoos photographs, https://

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Human_zoos?uselang=de,

last accessed:

[28.02.2022]

05. Did you know? Some untold links between

modernism and colonialism by Luis Eduardo Arteaga

Salazar

1. Klotz, Heinrich, Von der Urhütte zum

Wolkenkratzer, Prestel-Verlag, Germany, 1991

2. Klee, H., Die Germanisierung der polischpreußischen

Landestheile, in: Neueste Mitteilungen,

Volume 5, 1886, https://zefys.staatsbibliothekberlin.de/list/title/zdb/11614109/-/1886/#feb,

last

accessed: [28.02.2022]

• 59 •

3. - 7. Klee, H., Die Germanisierung der polischpreußischen

Landestheile, in: Neueste Mitteilungen,

Volume 5, 1886, https://zefys.staatsbibliothekberlin.de/list/title/zdb/11614109/-/1886/#feb,

last

accessed: [28.02.2022]

8. In German: Jedermann ein Garten! in: Leberecht,

Migge, Deutsche Binnenkoloniesation, Deutsche

Komunal Verlag, Berlin, 1926, https://

digitalesammlungen.uni-weimar.de/viewer/fulltext/

PPN638862817/9/ , last accessed: [20.02.2022]

9. - 12. Osayimwese, Itohan, Colonialism and modern

architecture in Germany, University of Pittsburgh Press,

USA, 2017

13. Cupers, Kenny, On the Coloniality of Architectural

Modernism in Germany, in: Kritische Bereichte,

Volume 49, 3.2021

14. Osayimwese, Itohan, Colonialism and modern

architecture in Germany, University of Pittsburgh Press,

USA, 2017

06. …Typically? by Marc-Thomas Zettler

1. - 2. Die Geschichte der Tomate, https://

www.oekokiste-schwarzach.de/aktuell/die-geschichteder-tomate/,


3. Woher kommt eigentlich der Spargel?, in: Nordwest

Zeitung, 19.04.2012, https://www.nwzonline.de/

spargel/woher-kommt-eigentlich-derspargel_a_1,0,512641044.html#,

last accessed:

[28.02.2022]

4. Köster, Georg: Zur Geschichte des Spargels, http://

www.spargelseiten.de/

geschichtliches_zum_spargel.html, last accessed:

[28.02.2022]

5. 4000 Jahre Spargel Geschichte, https://

www.spargeltreff.de/4000-jahre-spargelgeschichte/,


6. Verberne, Alice, Move Over, Pablo Escobar: How

asparagus got caught up in South American drug

dealing, https://dispatcheseurope.com/move-overpablo-escobar-how-asparagus-got-caught-up-in-southamerican-drug-dealing/,

in: Dispatches Europe, 04.

April 2021, last accessed: [28.02.2022]

7. Geschichte der Kartoffel, https://www.agropa.de/

deutsch/geschichte-der-kartoffel/index.html, last

accessed: [28.02.2022]

8. Reis - Mehr als nur ein Korn, https://

mandalingua.com/de/china-guide/chinesische-kultur/

highlights/reis/, last accessed: [28.02.2022]

9. Reis, https://historyoffood.sodi.de/reis/, last

accessed: [28.02.2022]

10. Taseer, Aatish, Tracing Mexico’s complicated

relationship with rice, 11.11.2021, in: The New York

Times Style Magazine, 2021

Two indigenous children brought back to Germany by

Johann Baptist Spix and Carl Friedrich Martius, in:

Journal Fünf Kontinente Bd. 1, 78 – 105, 2021

3. Bahl, Eva, Juri und Miranha - begierigen Blicken

ausgesetzt, vermessen und vergessen, in: Infoblatt.

Zeitung für internationalistische und emanzipatorische

Perspektiven, 2013

07.Curating Ignorance by Minna Radakovits

1. Bryan, Sarah. M, African Imagery and Blacks in

German Expressionist Art from the Early Twentieth

Century, Master's Thesis, Kent State University College

of the Arts, Ohio, USA, 2012

2. Young,James O.,Cultural Appropriation and the Arts,

John Wiley § Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, USA, 2010

3. Hilli, Lisa, Looking Twice: The Presence of Absence

in Die Brücke Art Histories. A Critical Reflection on the

exhibition Kirchner and Nolde: Expressionism,

Colonialism, https://stedelijkstudies.com/lookingtwice-die-brucke-art-histories/#av_section_2

, last

accessed: [28.02.2022]

4. Sidén, Karin, Nolde. Färgstormar: Prins Eugens

Waldemarsudde 7 Mars - 30 Augusti 2015, Göteborgs

Konstmuseum, Carlsson Bokförlag AB, Stockholm,

Sweden, 2015

5. Whose Expression? The Brücke Artists and

Colonialism, Die Brücke-Museum, https://

www.bruecke- museum.de/en/programm/

ausstellungen/1424/whose- expression-the-brckeartists-and-colonialism

, last accessed: [28.02.2022]

6. Aagesen, Dorthe, von Bormann, Beatrice, Penny, H.

Glenn, Soika, Aya, Kelly, Natasha A., Kirchner and

Nolde. Expressionism. Colonialism., Catalogue,

Hirmer, Munich, Germany, 2021

8. Pictured: Botchway, Kwesi, Becoming as well as

being, (Exhibition), Gallery 1957, London, England

08. Telling a nameless tale by Mogheesa Hasnain

1. Johann Baptist Stiglmaier, Grabrelief der

Indianerkinder Juri und Miranha, um 1824, K-67/509

2. Johann Baptist Stiglmaier, Grabrelief der

Indianerkinder Juri und Miranha, um 1824, Bronze, 40

cm x 48 cm, Münchner Stadtmuseum, https://

sammlungonline.muenchner-stadtmuseum.de/objekt/

grabrelief-der-indianerkinder-juri-undmiranha-10010234.html,

last accessed: [01/03/2022]

2. Schönitzer, Klaus, From the New to the Old World.

09. Terrible nearness of distant places by Rosa

Schuster

1. Karp, Ivan, Exhibiting Cultures, Smithsonian Books,

1991, Washington

2. Enwezor, Okwui, The Postcolonial Constellation,

Indiana University Press, 2003

3. Enwezor, Okwui, The Unhomely: Phantom Scenes in

Global Society, Biacs, 2006

11. Geranium journey by Sebastian Haberl

1. Busch, Ingo, Geranien oder Pelargonien, https://

www.geranien-pflanzen.de/geranien-oderpelargonien.html,


2. Species, https://www.gbif.org/species/100425532,


3. Strlic, Matija, Brief History of the genus, http://

Pelargonium.si/history.html, last accessed:

[28.02.2022]

4. Bayrischer Geranien-Sommer, https://

www.miesbach-tourismus.de/bayrischer-geraniensommer,


5. Eicker, Gerrit, Geranien [Pelargonium], https://

www.gartentechnik.de/pflanzen/sommerblumen/

geranien/geranien/, last accessed: [28.02.2022]

6. Bauer, Patrik, Blühendes Geschäft, Süddeutsche

Zeitung, 24.03.2015, sz-magazin.sueddeutsche.de/

wirtschaft-finanzen/bluehendes-geschaeft-81055, last

accessed: [28.02.2022]

7. Umweltbundesamt, Kein Torf in den Topf,

19.03.2021, https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/

themen/kein-torf-in-den-topf, last accessed:

[28.02.2022]

8. Koch, Bernd, Geranien überwintern - 4 Schritte zum

Erfolg, https://www.baldur-garten.de/onion/content/

pflege-tipps/sommerblumen/geranien-überwintern,


• 60 •

• 61 •

DECOLONISE!

APPENDIX

ii.

Glossary

BIPoC

Diversity

Short for Black, Indigenous and People of Color. It is

an attempt to describe a common horizon of experience

shared by people who are not white. Sometimes only the

term POC is used to describe these groups, but

especially in the US, Black and Indigenous groups are

emphasized due to the history of the discrimination they

experience.

Colonisation

Colonisation is the act of violent domination of a people

or an area by a foreign power, such as a state or nation,

in order to exploit it for its resources of any kind and to

impose a foreign political, cultural or economic system

on it.

Cultural Appropriation

Cultural appropriation refers to the enrichment from

the achievements of marginalised minorities by the

majority society. Someone takes something

that doesn‘t belong to them without asking and

makes money with it or gets prestige, without

experiencing the structural and historical

disadvantages that are associated with this for people of

the minority.

The concept of diversity is based on the fact that anyone

is different from others and aims for equal treatment of

all people and the abolition of any discrimination. It

means to consciously recognise and bring together the

different and various experiences and achievements of

people of any ethnic origin, social background, gender

identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental

disability, age, religion (etc.), to consider them as a

potential and make use of it for individual and social

thriving.

Equity

Equity refers to the fair and respectful treatment of all

people. This means that we do everything to identify

and eliminate unfair biases, stereotypes or barriers that

may limit full participation in all aspects of society. It is

about creating fair access, opportunity and

advancement for all different individuals. But it is not

about treating all people equally in general. Every single

individual should be given individual help and support

(empowered) to have the same opportunities and

chances as other people with different background.

Equity is therefore not equal with Equality. Equality

means a formal and legal equal treatment of people and

groups. But treating all people equally would also

manifest existing inequalities (“one-size-fits-it-all”).

Decolonisation

This term describes a shift of power (political,

economic, educational, cultural) from the colonizer to

the colonized, and implies action against the colonizer,

as well as resistance against and/or dismantling of the

colonial system.

Inclusion

Inclusion is about authentically bringing traditionally

excluded individuals and/or groups into processes,

activities, and decision- and policy-making in a way that

shares power. This includes making them part of the

decisions made in the community, giving them the same

rights, but also listening to them and their concerns and

trying to understand their perspective.

• 62 •

Inclusion, however, is not the same as assimilation.

Assimilation is the process of adopting the language and

culture of a dominant social group, the ‘included group’.

Inclusion is a social contract allowing for diversity.

Marginalised

By definition, the word marginalised means located at the

edge, beyond boundaries or on the outside. Being

marginalised means to be put or kept in a powerless or

unimportant position within a group or society.

Marginalised communities are excluded from

mainstream social, economic, educational and/or

cultural life. This can include (but is not limited to)

groups being excluded because of race, gender, identity,

sexual orientation, physical ability, language,

immigration status, class.

Othering

Othering is treating people from another group as

essentially different from and generally inferior to the

group you personally identify with. The identity of one

self is based on Characteristics, like Aesthetics, political

believes and social identity. Othering can often lead to

exclusion of certain groups in a society.

Reparations

Reparations can mean the act of making amends or

offering expiation for a wrong or an injury. Moreover, it

can also mean the payment of damages (indemnification).

Finally, it also refers to reparations for slavery.

Reparations can be given through numerous forms, e.g.

ranging from affirmative actions, individual monetary

payments, settlements, scholarships, waiving of fees,

acknowledgment of injuries, symbolic measures, removal

of monuments, renaming streets/buildings/institutions

that honor perpetrators or supporters of slavery etc.

Restitution

The act of returning something that has been forcibly

taken or lost to the original owner. It can also mean to

give something to the ‘victim’ in an attempt to make

amends for damages or loss. The ‘taker’ returns to the

‘owner’ something they took by force or that had been

lost because of them. It is the act of giving something, be

it something taken, lost or something to compensate.

White Gaze

The meaning of this expression is the white

ethnocentricity implied by literary or artistic production

aimed at a white audience. It is also the assumption that

the default reader or observer is coming from a

perspective of someone who identifies as white.

Privilege

A privilege is a special right or benefit claimed by

someone to his own benefit. This can be based on race,

sex, age, social background or a disability. You might say

it's the opposite to social equality. There is also a

privilege given to people by a organization like a

government e.g. only German citizens are able to vote in

the German federal elections

Race

Race is a method of categorizing a group of people based

on their physical traits that are selected by the majority

society at a given point in time. People from different

places or times have defined race differently. Frequently,

attempts to hierarchize different alleged human groups

are made in order to justify discrimination and even war.

Today, race is a socio-cultural term that is primarily

shaped by its own historical past and is therefore never

objective, but rather associated with additional

underlying attributions and evaluations.

White Supremacy

The ideology that white people and their ideas, thoughts,

beliefs, and actions are superior to People of Colour. Not

just found in extremist groups, but also ingrained in

systems; in our institutional and cultural assumptions

that assign value, morality, goodness, and humanity to

the white group while casting people and communities of

colour as worth less, immoral, and/or undeserving. The

term also refers to a political or socio-economic system

where white people enjoy structural advantages or rights

that other racial and ethnic groups do not.

Xenophobia

The meaning of xenophobia based on the etymology of

the word is “fear of what is strange, foreign or alien.”

Xenophobia can be divided into: (sing.) Xenos, (pl.)

Xenoi from ancient Greek (ξένος) for stranger, Phobia

(φόβος) for fear. When talking about racial equality,

the word xenophobia refers to an attitude that explicitly

or implicitly reflects the belief that immigrants are

inferior to the dominant group of people.

• 63 •

• 64 •

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