Felix von Luschan (1854-1924) and the Berlin 'Ethnological Museum'

As long-time director of the Africa and Oceania Department of the Berlin “Museum of Ethnology” and chair of physical anthropology at Berlin University, Felix von Luschan was responsible for the appropriation of numerous objects and human remains from colonial contexts. Without his actions, objects such as the Benin bronzes and the Luf Boat would not have been included in the Berlin collection. For good reasons, he is therefore the focus of today's debates about restitution and the critical examination of colonial and racist scientific traditions. Felix von Luschan was, however, a contradictory figure: He was immediately a staunch opponent of ethnic anti-Semitic racial theories and questioned central paradigms of contemporary “racial science.” On the basis of selected objects and photographs, historians Felix Wiedemann and Patrick Helber not only shed light on the complex figure Felix von Luschan, but also on the ambivalences of “scientific anti-racism” in the early 20th century.