History

Background – The Württemberg Association for Trade Geography

The history of the Linden-Museum begins with the founding of the ” Württemberg Association for Trade Geography and the Promotion of German Interests Abroad” on February 27, 1882. When the economic crisis hit Germany in the 1870s and domestic markets threatened to collapse, the Association felt compelled to open up new markets overseas. When the German Empire acquired its own colonies in 1884, the Stuttgart Association also saw itself as an information platform for Württemberg merchants and industrialists. For this reason, the “Museum of Trade Geography” was founded in 1884. Here, the focus was still on imported and exported goods,...

“Our museum should serve on the one hand to make known the export articles of foreign countries here, and on the other hand to show our industrialists which products are in demand and purchased on overseas markets […]”.

Paul Zilling (Vice-President of the Association), 1888

The museum was housed in a room of the so-called industrial hall, where the first temporary exhibition of South American natural and cultural products was inaugurated on April 19, 1885. An essential part of the Association was its self-imposed educational mission, which it sought to fulfill through an extensive lecture program. It was not uncommon for these lectures to include the presentation of anthropological objects, as well as colonial and even racial ideologies.

Karl Graf von Linden – Foundation and construction of the Linden-Museum

Karl Graf von Linden (1838 – 1910), a lawyer and later Lord Chamberlain at the Royal Court of Württemberg, took over the chairmanship of the Württemberg Association for Trade Geography in 1889 and advocated an anthropological orientation for the museum, which would collect and document the various cultures as they existed at the time. In line with the widespread belief at the time that the societies referred to as “primitive peoples” would gradually disappear under the influence of European expansion, von Linden saw the central task of the museum as collecting evidence of their material culture and thus preserving it for the future. For ethnology, which was in the process of establishing itself as a scientific discipline, this assumption, which combined evolutionary ideas of development and culture with the idea of European cultural superiority, was essential. Count von Linden proceeded with great zeal, and by the time of his death in 1910 he had increased the museum’s collection to over 60,000 objects. He was able to do this only by exploiting the colonial system, which was based on inequalities of power – the actual circumstances of acquisition played only a minor role for him. His contacts provided him with objects from all regions of the world, often without financial consideration. In the case of paricularly deserving donors, he initiated the awarding of the ROyla Württemberg Order of Friedrich by the King of Württemberg, Wilhelm II.

The new direction was also reflected in the museum’s name. From the end of the 1890s, the name ” Museum of Ethnology and Regional Geography” became established. However, little had happened in terms of exhibitions since the opening of the museum. It was not until June 1, 1889 that the museum was reopened in the gallery of the industrial hall. The rapidly growing collection made it necessary to look for a new location. It was decided to build a separate building at the current location, Hegelplatz. The cornerstone of the new museum was laid on January 10, 1910, a few days before Count von Linden’s death. On May 28, 1911, Count von Linden’s birthday, the building was inaugurated by King Wilhelm II and named the Linden-Museum.

Anthropology in Stuttgart

While Count von Linden personally managed both the association and the museum, these positions were separated after his death. Dr. Augustin Krämer was the first director of the Museum under the Association. Following von Linden’s instructions, he tried to build up an ethnological museum of world renown. In doing so, he continued von Linden’s efforts to save the life testimonies of indigenous cultures from extinction and to document them. For Theodor Wanner, however, colonial interests remained paramount. As a result, Augustin Krämer was dismissed. Formally, Duke Wilhelm von Urach, Count of Württemberg, was chairman of the association, but it was...

The First World War brought the end of the colonies in 1918, which led to a sharp decline in the growth of objects in the following period. The financial situation of the Association deteriorated from the 1920s. Nevertheless, financial independence was to be maintained. This period of colonial revisionism also saw the large colonial exhibition in Stuttgart (1928), which was largely organized by the Association and Wanner. On the other hand, little is known about the role of the Association during the National Socialist era, and there is still a need for research in this area. However, the association and the museum were not taken over by the National Socialists and were able to maintain their independence. There were no personnel changes in the management, and there was no anticipatory “self-equalization”. Heinrich Fischer remained director of the museum and Theodor Wanner was chairman of the association until 1953. Attempts to transform the Linden-Museum into a folklore museum in the sense of Nazi racial ideology were resisted in 1934.

In the face of imminent air raids during the Second World War, large parts of the collection were moved to the Kochendorf salt mine and to Schaubeck and Erbach castles in the autumn of 1942. Unfortunately, large objects such as original boats or large masks could not be removed and fell victim to the war. The Linden-Museum was slightly damaged during an air raid on September 12, 1944. . Much more serious was the destruction of the building by the ensuing fire, which spread quickly due to the storage of furniture by the city government in the museum’s rooms. Only the basement of the museum was preserved.

The museum – from the post-war period to nationalization

Immediately after the end of the war, Theodor Wanner set about rebuilding the museum. The Linden-Museum was one of the first destroyed buildings in Stuttgart to be restored. By 1949, the Linden-Museum building was rebuilt, but most of it was given to the Ministry of Culture of Württemberg-Baden, which used the rooms as the Pedagogical Institute of the State Institute for Education and Instruction. The first permanent exhibitions were set up on the South Seas and Africa, and later on America. The reconstruction of the museum had exhausted the assets of the association. In 1953, the city of Stuttgart agreed to pay for the museum, and in 1964, the state began to pay a third of the museum’s expenses. Finally, on October 15, 1973, a contract was signed under which the state of Baden-Württemberg assumed responsibility for the museum. The Linden-Museum thus became a state museum, jointly funded by the city and the state. Especially in the period after the Second World War until the nationalization of the museum, the association sold and exchanged numerous museum objects. Many of them were given to ethnographic dealers, which is why former Linden-Museum objects are still circulating on the art market today.

The museum since the nationalization

The museum after nationalization At the end of the 1970s, the museum was finally able to use the entire building again. In the summer of 1985, after extensive renovations, the new permanent exhibitions for Ancient Peru, North America, Africa, the Orient and the South Seas were opened. A year later, the permanent exhibition for South and East Asia opened. Experience areas were created in all areas, such as the Japanese Tea House, the Afghan Bazaar, the Tibetan Altar Room, and the Cameroon House, which are still preserved today. At the turn of the millennium, the areas of South and East Asia (2002) recorded modernizing changes, followed by Latin America (2003) and North America (2004). Most recently, the exhibitons on Africa (Wo ist Afrika?, 2019) and Oceania (Ozeanien – Kontinent der Inseln, 2022) were redesigned. The special exhibition“Difficult Heritage. The Linden-Museum and Württemberg in Colonialism”(2021 – 2022) critically examined the history of the museum and the Friends of the Linden-Museum. The booklet for the exhibition can be downloaded free of charge here.

The Linden-Museum has evolved since its founding. Not only the coming to terms with colonial history has changed the view of anthropological museums. Today, the focus is on a dynamic understanding of culture and new forms of encounter and dialogue. We no longer decide alone which story(s) to tell. Together with representatives of the societies of origin, with scholars from all over the world and with interested people from Stuttgart, we work on, research and reconstruct the knowledge contexts around our collections and conduct provenance research. We develop ways to make this collaboration transparent in our exhibitions and events. In numerous projects, we are testing how we can place participation at the core of our work and make the collections even more accessible. As we look to a future new building, we are asking ourselves: What are the tasks of an anthropological museum in the future?

Museum Directors

1911 – 1915 Augustin Krämer
1915 – 1924 Theodor Koch-Grünberg
1932 – 1945 Heinrich Fischer
1953 J. F. Glück (Kommissarischer Leiter)
1955 W. Stöckle (Beauftragter des Vorstands für das Museum )
1957 – 1970 Hans Rhotert
1971 – 1986 Friedrich Kußmaul
1986 – 2000 Peter Thiele
2001 – 2009 Thomas Michel
Seit 2010 Inés de Castro

Background – The Württemberg Association for Trade Geography

Karl Graf von Linden – Foundation and construction of the Linden-Museum

Anthropology in Stuttgart

The museum – from the post-war period to nationalization

The museum since the nationalization

Museum Directors

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