S.M.S. Cormoran, German 'punitive expeditions' in Oceania and the ethnological collection of the Museum Natur und Mensch. On the connection between colonialism and ethnographic collecting

The ethnological collection of the Museum Natur und Mensch of the Städtische Museen Freiburg i. Br. (STM) preserves over 20,000 objects from Asia, Oceania, the Americas, and Africa, which have been collected since the museum was founded in 1895. This makes it one of the largest municipal ethnological collections in Germany and a central institution in Baden-Württemberg. In order to promote its transparency, a digitization project was implemented in 2017/2018 to publish the Oceania collection in the STM’s online collection. During the project, the entire Oceania collection (2,952 objects) was physically assessed in the depot for the first time, the database entries were revised, and potential approaches for primary research of the collection’s provenances were determined. The inspection of the collection and its available documentation showed that more than 1,200 objects came to the museum between 1895 and 1918, i.e. during the era of German colonial rule in Oceania. From July 2020 to September 2022, a first provenance research project was carried out at the MNM, funded by the German Lost Art Foundation. The focus was on a colonial-era Oceania collection that was donated to his hometown by the former governor of the Marshall Islands Eugen Brandeis in 1900 and 1901. Research into the collection, which was brought together and very well documented by the governor’s wife, Antonie Brandeis, revealed many references to the role of the Imperial Navy in Oceania and to other Oceania collections in Freiburg. This preliminary work formed the starting point for the project presented here, which consists of two parts. The first deals with Paul Werber and Walther Brandt, two crew members of the S.M.S. Cormoran, who collected ethnographic objects. The second part provides basic and contextual research on the voyages of the S.M.S. Cormoran, its participation in punitive expeditions and other military actions, and on the collecting activities of her crew members. Regarding the first project area: The collection donated by Paul Werber in 1911 and 1912 to the then Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde (Museum of Natural History and Ethnology), includes 63 objects originating from Melanesia and Micronesia. Walter Brandt collected around 1901 in various regions of the Pacific. 18 objects by Brandt are in the Ethnological Collection. For both collections, a focus is on the objects and the specific contexts from which they originated as well as the circumstances of their acquisition. The second section illuminates the voyages of the S.M.S. Cormoran, which includes – next to the routes to be reconstructed – also the crew members, their networks and connections to other museums. The project contributes to the historical reconstruction of German colonialism in Oceania, the specific colonial measures on the ground as well as their effects up to the present.

(c) Museum Natur und Mensch