Ethnologisches Museum

The Ethnological Museum of the Berlin State Museums is now housed in the Humboldt Forum in the Berlin Palace and holds one of the most important ethnological collections in the world. The museum's roots go back to the 17th century, when the first objects from Asia and Africa were kept in the Great Elector's cabinet of curiosities in the palace. This early collection became the Royal Museum of Ethnology in 1873, which opened in 1886 in a purpose-built showpiece building in the city center. After heavy war damage and the division of Germany, the collection was moved to Dahlem in the 1960s, where it was displayed in the museum complex there until 2017. Since reopening in September 2021 in the reconstructed Berlin Palace, the museum has been a central place for world cultures in the capital.

The collection includes around 500,000 objects from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Australia, supplemented by an extensive archive of photographs, films, sound recordings, and documents. In the permanent exhibitions, you can explore the cultural treasures of these regions, including entire houses, boats, and a complete outrigger boat from the Pacific. A special focus is placed on the archaeology of the Americas and the cultures of the South Seas, East Asia, and Africa. As the only ethnology museum in Germany, it has its own department of musical ethnology, which includes the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv. The presentation aims to show the objects in their respective cultural contexts and to offer insights into the lifeworlds of the peoples concerned.

Beyond the museum displays, scientific research plays a central role. The holdings that are not on display are stored at the Dahlem research campus and in a new central depot in Berlin-Friedrichshagen, where international scholars study them. The museum is also actively engaged with the colonial history of its holdings. For example, agreements have been concluded for the return of Benin objects to Nigeria in order to restore ownership rights to that nation. These steps underscore the museum's current importance as a place for engaging with questions of provenance and restitution.