The German Colonial Museum – Germany
Institutions
Joachim Zeller, 2024
The German Colonial Museum was opened in 1899 at what is now Berlin's main train station, formerly known as Lehrter Bahnhof. The aim of the museum, supported by the colonial lobby, was to inspire the "broad masses" for German colonialism.
The museum closed in 1915, shortly after the outbreak of the First World War, for financial reasons.
This text is an edited excerpt from the book "Berlin. A Postcolonial Metropolis."
References:
Schneider, Gerhard: Das Deutsche Kolonialmuseum in Berlin und seine Bedeutung im Rahmen der preußischen Schulreform um die Jahrhundertwende, in: Historisches Museum der Stadt Frankfurt/Main (Hrsg.) Die Zukunft beginnt in der Vergangenheit: Museumsgeschichte und Geschichtsmuseum, Gießen 1982, S. 155-199
Essner, Cornelia: Berlins Völkerkundemuseum in der Kolonialära. Anmerkungen zum Verhältnis von Ethnologie und Kolonialismus in Deutschland, in: Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Jahrbuch des Landesarchivs Berlin, 1986, S. 65-94.
Stationen
Idea of a German Colonial Museum
Design of the German Colonial Museum
A museum of the colonial lobby
Reception of the German Colonial Museum
The end of the German Colonial Museum