Municipal Museum Braunschweig
General information about the institution
The Municipal Museum Braunschweig was founded in 1861 by committed Braunschweig citizens with the aim of establishing collections relating to the art and cultural history of the city. Today the museum contains about 270,000 objects from all areas, such as painting, graphics, sculptures, handicrafts, technology, musical instruments, numismatics, textiles as well as European and non-European ethnography.
General information on collections from colonial contexts in the respective institution
In accordance with the general orientation of the museum, the department of non-European ethnology was founded by gifts and purchases from Braunschweig citizens who were travellers, merchants, soldiers, seafarers, researchers or emigrants in non-European countries and brought objects from there. Therefore, the individual collections are usually small and marked by personal fates, interests or inclinations. Relatively large is as well the share of so-called "early tourist art".
The collection comprises about 8,000 objects and is considered to be largely closed, i.e. it is no longer actively collected. Possible new additions should clearly show a connection of the collectors to the city of Braunschweig. Regional focuses are Africa, Oceania and Indonesia. Smaller, partly also significant collections come from all parts of the world. These include above all the relatively small, but very old and high-quality collection from North America.
Information on the sub-collections to be researched in PAESE
The Strümpell collection of the Municipal Museum Braunschweig, which is the focus of the investigation within the PAESE project, comprises about 700 objects. Its acquisition took place in Cameroon, when the country was a German colony.
