Research and collaboration projects

Research and collaboration are central to our work. We conduct research on collections, their contents and contexts, as well as on questions of the social relevance of an anthropological museum.

Networking and interdisciplinary exchange with other academic institutions, scholars, and representatives of indigenous societies worldwide play an important role.

Further content

Eleven German museums of world cultures, delegates from the Interministerial Committee for the Return of Illegally Removed Cultural Property and representatives of traditional royal houses from Cameroon spoke at the “Dialogue Meeting: Cameroon and Germany” at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart from January 14 to 16, 2024, on possible ways of returning cultural property to Cameroon and on sustainable cooperation. The meeting was attended by German representatives from museums in Berlin, Bremen, Braunschweig, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Leipzig, Mannheim, Munich and Stuttgart. Joint intentions were agreed in the “Stuttgart Communiqué”.

Stuttgart Communiqué (pdf)


Press Release Dialogue Meeting Cameroon and Germany (pdf)

From October 2023, the state of Baden-Württemberg will be funding three doctoral scholarships that will address museum and collection-related research topics in a collaboration between the University of Tübingen and the Linden-Museum Stuttgart.

By establishing this innovative graduate program, the state is actively participating in the current debate about ethnological museums and their repositioning. It enables the scholarship holders to bring socially relevant academic discourse to the public. The research results of the doctorates are presented during or after the end of the scholarship in exhibitions and in the museum’s “Collection online”. The program also strengthens closer networking between one of the country’s cultural institutions and one of its most important universities.

The scholarship holders Sophie Eckhardt, Katharina Nowak and Judith Zweck will be supported for three years. Sophie Eckhardt examines the construction and communication of knowledge in ethnological museums using the example of a major temporary exhibition. Katharina Nowak deals with the knowledge production of ethnographic Pacific collections of the Linden-Museum and the Tübingen University Collection, while Judith Zweck researches the purchase and sale of museum holdings to the art trade in the period from 1945 to 1973 at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart. Prof. Dr. Gabriele Alex (Asia-Orient Institute) and Prof. Dr. Bernd-Stefan Grewe (History Didactics and Public History) are supervising the work with the involvement of museum advisors.

Sponsored by:

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Dealing with colonial heritage: With the project “With Namibia – Engaging the Past, Sharing the Future” we are a partner of the Namibia Initiative of the State of Baden-Württemberg.

More Information: https://mwk.baden-wuerttemberg.de/de/kunst-kultur/namibia-initiative

Sponsored by:

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The aim of the project is to develop a guidance system through the museum’s permanent exhibitions that enables interaction with the exhibitions, the exhibits and the museum space. A particular focus is on accessibility for people with mental and physical disabilities.


A hands-on replica of an exhibit will be available at several stations, serving as an anchor for further content. However, our concept should above all be adapted to the needs and requirements of the intended visitor groups, which is why we are initially keeping the result, which is worked out in workshops, flexible.


Through this project, we hope to make our museum more accessible to people with inclusion needs. At the same time, we want to gather experience in order to develop more inclusive offers in cooperation in the future.

Sponsored by:

Past projects

The Linden-Museum, like many anthropological museums, is undergoing change. In an increasingly diverse society, we need to renegotiate the social role and relevance of anthropological museums. The LABs allow us to experimentally develop the basis for a new orientation. In eight LindenLABs, we develop and test new forms of museum knowledge production, mediation, and presentation. The project is funded by the Initiative for Ethnological Collections of the German Federal Cultural Foundation.

More about the project

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“Taking Care – Ethnographic and World Cultures Museums as Spaces of Care”: The four-year EU collaborative project with 13 European partners started in October 2019. Together, they explore the connections between ethnographic collections and issues related to the climate crisis and the anthropocene. One focus is on the aftermath of colonialism in this context.

More about the project

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Restoration of a splendor coran, 2019/20

The restoration of a precious Koran by the 16th-century Persian master calligrapher Abd al-Qadir al-Husaini by graduate restorer Regina Schneller was funded by the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation’s Corona program for independent artists working in museums and collections.

Learn more

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A cultural landscape as a core area for the formation of the material culture of the Islamic world and its location in collections and museum presentations: Research project of the Otto-Friedrich-Universität Bamberg, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Preußischer Kulturbesitz/Museum für Islamische Kunst and the Linden-Museum Stuttgart, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

Learn more: https://www.uni-bamberg.de/islamart/forschung/projekte-abgeschlossen/khurasan-land-des-sonnenaufgangs-bundesministerium-fuer-bildung-und-forschung/

Logos:

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in indigenous societies in the Guyanas, 2015 - 2018

Research on intra- and transcultural processes of object-based knowledge exchange in the Guyanas: The Linden-Museum was a partner in the project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the auspices of the Department of Ancient American Studies with the Bonn Ancient American Collection (Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Anthropology) of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.

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2016/2017

From April 2016 to March 2017, the Linden-Museum had established a provenance research position to work on acquisitions that entered the museum’s holdings between 1933 and 1945. With funding from the German Lost Art Foundation, the state of Baden-Württemberg, and the city of Stuttgart, Shammua Mohr was able to research the provenance of 1082 objects.

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The Art Chamber of the Dukes of Württemberg, 2012 - 2015

The German Research Foundation funded the project “The Art Chamber of the Dukes of Württemberg. Research on the Collection, History and Context”. A large part of the original collection is housed in the Württemberg State Museum. Other objects are distributed among eight institutions, including ethnographic objects in the Linden-Museum Stuttgart.

Learn more: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/OCTOPUS/;jsessionid=4C93A8B8D4948CABE741AF8B6647970F?module=gepris&task=showDetail&context=projekt&id=222274939

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2015

Der Sonderband des Tribus beinhaltet die Beiträge des Internationalen Symposiums (3. bis 5. März 2014) im Rahmen der Großen Landesausstellung “Inka – Könige der Anden”. In Kooperation mit: Universität Bonn, Abteilung für Altamerikanistik. Gefördert von: Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung
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