From Collection to Collaboration: Revisiting the Colonial Philippine Collection of Heinrich Rothdauscher

For centuries, European scholars, so-called explorers and tourists travelled the world in search of unfamiliar landscapes, peoples and cultures. During the colonial period, plundering human remains and acquiring everyday objects and ritual artefacts became common practice, often to demonstrate perceived dif- ferences between Europeans and the peoples they encountered. Many of these were taken without the consent of their original communities and brought to Europe for scientific or educatio- nal purposes. Today, these objects to shape how non-European cultures are represented in museums. Developing decolonial perspectives therefore requires placing these objects within their local, colonial and transnational contexts.

The Spring School at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is part of the research project “From Collection to Collaboration: Revisiting the Colonial Philippine Collection of Heinrich Rothdauscher (1851–1937) at the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich.” Between 1873 and 1883, the German pharmacist Heinrich Rothdauscher lived in the Philippines and collected numerous artefacts. After returning to Germany, he donated 112 objects to the Royal Ethnographic Collection in Munich, forming one of the earliest Philippine collections in Germany. The Spring School explores how colonial collections can be interpreted and presented today, addressing questions of historical violence, cultural significance and innovative approaches to museum exhibitions.