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.
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”.
Since October 2023 the PhD program “A Doctorate in the Museum: The Local and Global Dimensions of Objects in Anthropological Museums in Baden-Württemberg Today” (DIMA), has been running. DIMA is an innovative scholarship program for doctoral studies in the research field of “Museums and Collections”. The program funds three scholarships for research into the ethnographic collections of the University of Tübingen and/or the Linden-Museum Stuttgart. The three funded doctoral projects are anchored within the disciplines of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Historical and Cultural Anthropology, and History. The program is funded jointly by the Ministry of Science, Research and Arts of Baden-Württemberg, the Linden-Museum Stuttgart and the University of Tübingen and provides three scholarships running for three years from October 2023 to September 2026.
The three current scholarship holders are Sophie Eckhardt, Katharina Nowak and Judith Zweck.
Sophie Eckhardt’s project has the working title of “Exhibition-making in the 21st century. A process-accompanying research of an exhibition of the Linden-Museum Stuttgart”. It ties in with current debates on renegotiating the role and relevance of ethnographic museums in the 21st century.
Katharina Nowak’s PhD project, entitled “The Decolonial Knowledge Production of Ethnographic Collections: Rethinking Museums”, focuses on ethnographic objects that were taken from the Pacific Ocean island states to Stuttgart and Tübingen during the colonial period.
Judith Zweck’s thesis, entitled “Blank Spaces in the Museum: Purchases and Sales of Museum Holdings to the Art Trade in the Period from 1945 to 1973 at the Linden-Museum Stuttgart”, examines the collections of the Linden-Museum that were acquired in that particular time period, as well as the museum’s relations with various art dealers.
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With Tangible Hearing (Fühlbar hören), we are opening up new avenues for cultural participation. The project combines hearing and touch to create an inclusive museum experience that reduces barriers and connects the senses. In the permanent exhibition Oceania – Continent of Islands, three stations invite visitors to touch selected objects and discover them via audio tours – a gable mask, a traditional tattooing tool, and a Māori meeting house. These objects represent themes that extend far beyond the museum context: community, identity, and protection.
What makes it special is that Tangible Hearing (Fühlbar hören) was developed in collaboration with blind and visually impaired people as well as people with learning difficulties. Their experiences, ideas, and perspectives shaped the project from the very beginning. The museum was supported by inclusion experts Matthias Nagel and Carolin Schütz as well as the studio finster3000, which combines architecture, game design, and digital technologies.
Funded by the Ferry Porsche Foundation, Tangible Hearing (Fühlbar hören) stands for innovation, collaboration, and a clear change of perspective: away from developing for, and toward designing with the people for whom accessibility is crucial.
Reappraisal of colonial heritage: The Linden Museum in Stuttgart has been confronting its colonial past for many years. Since 2016, employees have been examining the Linden Museum’s collection of objects from Namibia. With the project “With Namibia: Engaging the Past, Sharing the Future,” we were partners in the Namibia Initiative of the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Born from the idea of a transnational dialogue, this multi-part project deals with the reappraisal of the Linden Museum’s Namibia collections.
As part of the first phase of the project, several research residencies were held by community representatives of the Nama and Ovaherero. Between April and May 2019, Nzila Marina Mubusisi from the National Museum of Namibia and Steven Hendrik Isaack from Heritage Watch visited the Linden Museum. This was followed by two-week residencies in March 2020 by Steven Isaack and Petrina Haigomas from Heritage Watch, Usiel Seuakouje Kandjii from the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation, and Ebson Urbans Hiruke Ruuna Kaapama from the Maharero Royal Traditional Authority.
During their stays, they explored the origins, significance, presentation, and possible future of the collections at the Linden Museum.
For the second part of the project, a two-part summer school took place from July 11 to 23, 2022, in Germany and from October 3 to 14 in Namibia. Ten students from the University of Tübingen and ten from the University of Namibia (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences) were able to exchange ideas over a period of two weeks in Germany and Namibia, as well as in the digital space. The summer school was led and supervised by Dr. Fiona Siegenthaler (Africa Department, Linden Museum), Prof. Dr. Ines de Castro (Director of the Linden Museum), Dr. Goodman Gwasira (Senior Lecturer in Geography, History and Environmental Studies, UNAM), Prof. Dr. Bernhard Grewe (Institute for History Didactics and Public History, University of Tübingen), Dr. Martha Akawa-Shikuwa (Associate Dean, School of Humanities, Society & Development; Faculty of Education and Human Sciences, UNAM), Aaron Nambadi (Curator Windhoek City Museum, Board Member of the Museums Association of Namibia), and Dr. Johannes Grossmann (Private Lecturer, Institute for Contemporary History, University of Tübingen).
The cooperation focused primarily on dealing with remembrance culture and the genesis, significance, and presentation of the collections of the Linden Museum and the Owela National Museum. Learning from, with, and about each other was at the heart of the students’ exchange – and will continue to be at the heart of their joint work. This intensive dialogue is an important building block for shaping future cooperation between Baden-Württemberg and Namibia.
Following the summer school, a joint publication with contributions from students, lecturers, and guest speakers was published, summarizing the results and experiences. It can be downloaded as a PDF file via the following link:
Publication: With Namibia: Engaging the Past, Sharing the Future (pdf)
With the Namibia Initiative, the State of Baden-Württemberg is facing up to its historical responsibility in connection with German colonialism and acknowledging the injustices that occurred during this period. The Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts of the State of Baden-Württemberg is supporting this reappraisal with 2.25 million euros as part of the Namibia Initiative.
More Information regarding the Namibia Initiative of the State of Baden-Württemberg (German only)
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.
Publication (pdf)
“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.
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.
In a two-year research project entitled “Difficult Heritage,” the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the Linden-Museum Stuttgart examined the museological and scientific treatment of colonial-era objects in anthropological museums.
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.
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.
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.
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.
