Skulls and skeletons from Namibia in Berlin: Results of the Charité Human Remains Project

Abstract

From 2010 to 2013 the Charité Human Remains Project researched the provenance of the remains of fifty-seven men and women from the then colony of German South West Africa. They were collected during German colonial rule, especially but not only during the colonial war 1904–8. The remains were identified in anthropological collections of academic institutions in Berlin. The article describes the history of these collections, the aims, methods and interdisciplinary format of provenance research as well as its results and finally the restitutions of the remains to Namibia in 2011 and 2014.

Keywords

• namibia
• charité berlin
• provenance research
• colonial contexts
• restitution
• remains of colonial war and genocide