Cultural Goods from Cameroon in German Museums

The Linden-Museum Stuttgart and the German Lost Art Foundation will begin a research project on cultural heritage from Cameroon on 1 November 2025. The subject of the research are important holdings in Germany’s five largest ethnographic collections: the Linden-Museum Stuttgart, the Ethnologisches Museum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen (SES) with its museums in Leipzig and Dresden as well as the Museum am Rothenbaum – Kulturen und Künste der Welt (MARKK).

The main focus is on cultural belongings from four Cameroonian communities, the Bakoko, Bamum, Duala, and Maka, whose heritage was absorbed by these institutions during the German colonial era (1884-1919). The objective of the research project is to identify related objects across the different institutions and trace their history accordingly. This should also become a basis for future restitutions.

The project is funded by the German Lost Art Foundation with a sum of almost 1 million Euro. It will run for three years and focus on circa five hundred royal or power objects such as thrones, sceptres, or swords – symbols of sovereignty which the German colonisers had removed from the source communities. In cooperation with experts from the Cameroonian communities and researchers from the university of Dschang, the university of Bertoua, and the National Museum of Cameroon, the reconstruction of the provenance of the objects will be attempted. In the process, perspectives and narratives from the people of Cameroon will play an important part: In “community hubs”, that is local meeting points in Duala, Fumban, Edea, and Atok, permanent locations for dialogue are planned so that descendants of non-royal families can also have their say. At the end of the project, the findings will also not be presented in Stuttgart to begin with but in Cameroon, so that access is given to the local population.

This community-oriented approach does not take the activities of (European) “collectors” as its starting point but the source communities, focusing on their experiences. The project is intended to result in an image database and a multi-language publication accompanying the objects. Research results and images will be published online. The results form the basis for the content of a large exhibition which is subsequently planned for display at the Linden-Museum and in Cameroon.

The period of German colonialism in the area of today’s Cameroon lasted from 1884 to 1919 and was marked by oppression and excessive violence against the population, which also led to plunder. Overall, more than 40,000 objects from Cameroon are held by German museums today, with a large part acquired by violent appropriation during the colonial era. Most of these collections have never been the subject of scholarly research. The Linden-Museum in Stuttgart has the largest collection of cultural goods from Cameroon in Germany. It still retains over 8,000 objects, even though half of these collections were destroyed in World War II.

Michael Franz, deputy chair of the German Lost Art Foundation: “As a funding institution, we embark on a new venture with this project: Not only are Germany’s largest ethnological museums involved, but above all, a large number of stakeholders from Cameroon, including representatives of important governmental institutions and local authorities. It is our objective to encourage widespread participation by those whose cultural heritage has been taken in the past and thus facilitate future restitution processes. From our perspective, this is a pilot project and we hope that it will also inspire other institutions in Germany and abroad.”

Inés de Castro, director of the Linden-Museum Stuttgart: “As the museum with the largest collection from Cameroon in Germany, we are delighted about the generous funding of this innovative and community-orientated research project which combines provenance research in Germany and in Cameroon and will be based on the extensive knowledge of Cameroonian societies. We are embarking on a new kind of partnership in revisiting the colonial era, also with a view towards building bridges for the future.”

Arne Braun, state secretary in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and Arts: “With this project, we put cultural goods from Cameroon centre stage. Close cooperation with source communities and scholarly research will help us to better understand the colonial-era ties between Germany and Cameroon. In addition, the project creates a basis for potential restitutions and a dialogue at eye level about our relations today. I am grateful to the German Lost Art Foundation as well as all those involved in the Linden-Museum, in Germany, in Cameroon, for their tremendous commitment in realizing this project.”