Who owns what?

Who owns what? And what does belonging mean? Mission archives are the records of Christian missionary societies that were founded since the late 18th century and especially in the 19th century. They were created as administrative documents. The missionaries owed regular reports to the leadership back home, and the companies kept personnel files, minutes, and correspondence. There were also photographs, sound recordings, maps, language and translation work, ethnographic objects and missionary magazines, which were used to attract donations and support back home. Today, they are scattered, and property and custody often fall apart. A specific example of such a mission would be the so-called North German Mission in the Ewe area in present-day Togo. The image collection and library were handed over to the Bremen State Archives as a deposit on November 18, 2005. The mission remains the owner, but since 2001 it has had equal rights with Togolese and Ghanaian Protestant churches. So you have the mixed constellation of ecclesiastical property, supported by South-North cooperation, kept by the state.