Panel discussion on the colonial heritage of Frankfurt

The current debate about the repatriation of colonial looted goods to their countries of origin makes it clear that colonialism is not a closed chapter. Rather, its material traces in museums still confront us today with the question of how we can deal appropriately with our colonial heritage and what responsibility we derive from it. Formerly colonised societies, on the other hand, are reminded of the colonial disenfranchisement they experienced, the theft of their own cultural heritage and the voids it leaves behind to this day.

The panel discussion will now ask about the current state of the debate and what this means for the city of Erfurt. What expectations and recommendations for action do representatives of formerly colonised societies have for museum managers in Europe? And how can European museums respond responsibly to the expectations and demands placed on them?

Flower Manase will be joined on the panel for this evening's discussion:

• Dr Ulf Häder (Member of the Board of the Museums Association of Thuringia and Director of the State Book and Engraving Collection with Satiricum in Greiz)
• Charlotte M. Hoes (University of Göttingen)
• Dr Tobias Knoblich (Councillor for Culture, Urban Development and World Heritage of the City of Erfurt)
• and Dr Birgit Scheps-Bretschneider (Curator of the Oceania Collection, GRASSI Museum of Ethnology in Leipzig).

The discussion will be moderated by PD Dr Silvan Niedermeier (University of Erfurt, DFG Research Group Voluntarism) and Dr Sahra Rausch (University of Jena, Scientific Coordination Office "Colonial Heritage in Thuringia").

The panel discussion is part of a two-day international workshop at the University of Erfurt, in which researchers from Erfurt and Jena, together with guests from Africa and Europe, will examine the postcolonial debate on restitution and repatriation from various academic perspectives.

The idea for this event was based on the subproject "Voluntariness and the Repatriation of Human Remains from Colonial Contexts (1970–2021)" of the "Voluntariness" research group at the University of Erfurt and is now being implemented as a collaborative workshop together with the Collaborative Research Centre "Structural Change of Property" of the Universities of Erfurt and Jena and the "Scientific Coordination Office Colonial Heritage in Thuringia" (KET).