A Trail of Artefacts – Franz and Marie Pauline Thorbecke (2/2) // English Version

The two-part podcast miniseries "A Trail of Artefacts" tells the
stories of some objects from the former African colonies of the
German Empire and the people who brought them to Mannheim. It
also sheds light on how these objects became part of the
collection "World Cultures and Natural History" of the
Reiss-Engelhorn Museen. The second episode is about Franz and
Marie Pauline Thorbecke, who undertook an expedition to Cameroon
from 1911 to 1913.





Part 1 of A Trail of Artefacts – Theodor Bumiller
(1/2)





We areaware that the focus here is on the perspective of the
conquering societies. Due to the limited time available for the
implementation of the project, we had to resort to those
perspectives for which there is a sufficiently good source
material. We have endeavored to be as critical as possible in our
presentation of the various biographies.  


This podcast is a project of kulturweit tandems of the German
UNESCO Commission in cooperation with the Reiss-Engelhorn Museen.


The aim of the kulturweit tandem program is to bring people from
Germany and Africa together. Within three months, teams of two
develop projects that deal with the history of colonialism and
our postcolonial present.


Special thanks to Oussounou Abdel-Aziz Sandja and Lucia
Stockinger for their input and support. 





Information on the Reiss-Engelhorn Museums' handling of
collection items from colonial contexts:
⁠https://www.rem-mannheim.de/sammlungen/kolonialzeit/ ⁠


 


About the authors:


Cheruto Valentine and Lara Wendel are a Kenyan-German tandem
team. As part of the kulturweit tandem program, they implemented
a three-month project at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen. Cheruto is
based in Nairobi where documents African culture and history
through storytelling, and Lara comes from Rhineland-Palatinate
and studied cultural studies.


 


Literature:


Horstmann, Anne-Kathrin: Koloniale Geographie – das Ehepaar Franz
und Marie Pauline Thorbecke. In: Dies. und Bechhaus-Gerst,
Marianne (Hrsg.): Köln und der deutsche Kolonialismus. Eine
Spurensuche. Köln u.a. 2013, S. 101-106.


Kulturamt der Stadt Mannheim (Hrsg.): Franz Thorbecke,
Afrika-Forscher oder: Was tut ein Mannheimer Professor in
Kamerun? Mannheim 1980.


Pytlik, Anna: Träume im Tropenlicht. Forscherinnen auf Reisen.
Elisabeth Krämer-Bannow in Ozeanien 1906 - 1910, Marie Pauline
Thorbecke in Kamerun 1911 – 1913. Reutlingen 1997.


Skulpturen aus Kamerun. Sammlung Thorbecke 1911/12.
Zusammengestellt und bearbeitet von Klaus Born. Herausgegeben vom
Städtischen Reiss-Museum Mannheim in Verbindung mit dem
Fördererkreis für das Reiss-Museum E.V. Mannheim 1981.


 


Musik: 


Guinea Wedding by Balafola Suedi Vatnajökull by Martin Landh


Late Night Sketches by Gavin Luke


Pensive Gaze by Amber Glow


 


Music sourced from https://www.epidemicsound.com/