What about Leipzig?

Written by Helga Rathjen

Reinvention—that’s how the Grassi Museum describes its contribution to the decolonization of ethnological museums. Dr. Birgit Scheps-Bretschneider (Head of Provenance Research and Restitution), Kevin Breß (Project Leader of REINVENTING), and Christine Fischer (Research Assistant to the Director) gave us a powerful sense of how the museum is implementing the necessary shift in perspective.

For instance their handling of “sensitive collection items,” particularly the unspeakable collections of bones from victims of unimaginable colonial violence and their descendants. Today, these descendants confidently demand the return of their community members, who have been missing and mourned for over a hundred years. Through collaborations initiated by Dr. Scheps-Bretschneider with source communities (primarily in Australia), the museum is now carrying out restitutions that acknowledge the social significance of these items. When it comes to human remains, the transfer within the museum is ceremonially organized as repatriation, a return home. The background to these actions, as explained by Dr. Scheps-Bretschneider, vividly illustrates the extent and atrocity of colonial violence. In the exhibitions, this is staged with the tools of the museum, employing artistic interventions through estrangement, symbolism, and amplification, which are also applied in other exhibition areas. This makes the change in perspective not just factual information, but a touching experience: thus, an engagement with our colonial heritage can become effective, and this could also shape the future of ethnographic museums.

The museum’s self-critical approach to its colonial collection histories and presentation methods is another aspect of this shift in perspective, which Mr. Breß presented to us in the already reconfigured exhibition areas. Here, too, the exhibitions employ artistic interventions to disrupt familiar ways of seeing.

Written by Dr. Bettina Kaemena

I had already taken a look beforehand at the magnificent and stylish Mädler Passage to orient myself. From Grimmaische Straße, it’s only a few steps to our destination: the historically and literarily rich Auerbachs Keller, famous worldwide from Goethe’s Faust. The larger-than-life bronze figures by Mathieu Molitor point us directly to the restaurant.

In the aftermath of the reunification, Jürgen Schneider (you might remember him as the creator of the inconsequential Peanuts) purchased the Mädler Passage for just 80 million DM and partially renovated it. Following Schneider's bankruptcy, Commerzbank took over large sections of the passage, which were later sold off. A small part still belongs to the granddaughter of the builder Mädler.

In any case, I found myself sitting with a very nice lady who spoke with a strong Saxon accent, smoking a previously unknown East German cigarette brand called Duett, while enjoying an espresso in front of Café Mephisto, with a view of Auerbachs Keller.

She told me that it could be quite exhausting down there. I would see for myself… And so I did. Our Bremen alumni group saw what was happening in the cellar beneath the world: a large, beautifully painted, and richly decorated vaulted hall filled with many guests enjoying themselves, attended by very friendly and notably attentive staff.

All the tables were reserved, and there was a constant coming and going of groups, which we jokingly referred to as crusaders throughout the evening. The food was fantastic, definitely not your typical Leipzig dish.

And as it is in a vaulted hall, it echoes. It simply has to echo. It was quite loud…