Museum fur Volkerkunde

The Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig (Museum of Ethnology) is a major state-run ethnological museum and part of the Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsens (State Ethnographic Collections of Saxony). With a collection of more than 200,000 objects, it is one of the largest of its kind in Germany. The museum's history goes back to 1869, when it acquired the cultural-history collection of Gustav Friedrich Klemm, a court councilor from Dresden. After several moves and expansions of its holdings, the museum relocated in 1927 to the newly built Grassimuseum on Johannisplatz, where it remains today. World War II brought heavy losses: air raids struck the building in 1943 and destroyed numerous exhibits. After reconstruction and a comprehensive renovation in the early 21st century, the museum began presenting new permanent exhibitions again in 2005.

In the exhibition rooms, you'll encounter a rich variety of world cultures, ranging from Africa and Southeast Asia to Oceania. The collection includes more than 20,000 objects from China, Japan, and Korea, among them rare pieces such as Tibetan thangka paintings and Japanese sword-hilt ornaments. The holdings from Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia, Thailand, and Burma, are also extensive. One of the museum's special strengths is its Oceania collection, which houses around 20,000 objects from the former German protectorates in Melanesia as well as from Fiji and Australia. Valuable collections from North Asia, such as a complete Evenki shaman costume, and from the Middle East round out the displays.

The museum is actively engaged in confronting its colonial past. It plans to return objects looted during the colonial era, especially from Cameroon, where it holds one of the largest collections in Germany. This process is being carried out in close cooperation with the communities of origin. Since 2021, the museum has also been running the program "REINVENTING GRASSI.SKD," which aims at a modern reorientation of the institution. Since October 2025, the ethnology museums in Leipzig, Dresden, and Herrnhut have been led by Lars-Christian Koch.