Germany s new museum, the Humboldt Forum has ignited a colonial controversy. The edifice is dedicated to the two 8th century Humboldt brothers. One was a philosopher and the other a naturalist who collected specimens and artifacts from across the world. The Forum is located in the reconstruction of the ‘’Berlin Palace , a symbol of the German colonial empire.
The Forum is housing nearly 20,000 artefacts from Africa, Asia and Oceania, mostly former colonies. Due to the pandemic, its inauguration was held online with many of the experts from all over the world attending via video link. Of course it also about difficult and complex themes like colonialism and the impact of colonialism until today. It’s also about the future of ethnological collections. Here, we will argue and dispute about this. But out basic principle is: we don t want to talk about the others, we want to discuss with others and that s why we need urgently a place like the Humboldt Forum , Hartmut Dorgerloh,