Academic and public debates surrounding colonialism and its continued significance have intensified in the last twenty years yet colonialism remains a neglected topic in history teaching in Germany. In history books and curricula European colonial rule is generally treated as an aspect of imperialism and as a closed period of European history from which the perspective of the colonised peoples is frequently excluded. The dynamic between Europe and the non-European world and especially the significance of the colonised ‘other’ for European self-perception is generally not covered either. The danger of this position is the perpetuation of the well-documented amnesia surrounding the colonial past. Museums, as extracurricular places of learning, can bring a new impetus into such situations, acting as catalysts as they condense controversial topics and allow the subject matter to be developed through other media constellations. The project examines the ways in which the Humboldt Forum encourages students to engage with colonialism, colonial history and colonization and to what extent it fulfils its mandate of providing a place in which multi-perspective debates can take place within a society characterised by diversity.
The project is associated with the international joint research project 'Making Histories', which develops comparative perspectives using case studies from museums in a number of other countries (e.g. Italy, Belgium and Spain).
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Aims
The aim of the project is to examine the depiction, communication and appropriation of colonial history in the Humboldt Forum. At the centre of the project is research into appropriation practices of students who experience the Humboldt Forum as an extracurricular learning place with specific media constellations and where they can address colonialism, colonial history and colonialization. The central question of the examination is the extent to which the Humbolt Forum, can be a catalyst for social debate and a place of learning that can generate impetus through specific media constellations that contribute to the deconstruction of colonial thinking and perception.
The research is guided by the assumption that the Humboldt Forum develops various innovative approaches in educational work that facilitate the deconstruction of colonial thinking and patterns of perception. At the same time, the persistence of colonial museum structures, which frame the relationship between Europe and the non-European world as one of subject versus object, currently still hinders any far-reaching decolonization of the institution. It is therefore an open question as to whether the contradictory nature of the location inhibits learning processes or can even have a productive effect.
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Methodology
In order to ascertain the potential of the Humboldt Forum as a place of learning, selected depictions of colonial history in the rooms, exhibitions and media will be analysed and the practices of representation, mediation and appropriation in the exhibitions and events, especially in workshops for students, will be reconstructed with the help of participative observation and interviews. The Humboldt Forum will therefore function both as a concrete place of learning that complements school teaching and as a laboratory in which approaches are tested that could be transferred to schools. The research questions examined in this study relate on the one hand to the levels of representation and mediation and to appropriation on the other:
- How does the Humboldt Forum address the many aspects of colonial history, colonialism and colonialization in its exhibitions and educational material and how does it position itself?
- What do students take away from the Humboldt Forum's exhibitions and educational materials, especially with regard to the topics of colonial history, colonialism and decolonization, in terms of their complexity, controversy and inconsistency?
The project places particular focus on the tension between (1) the guiding ideas of multi-perspectivity, diversity and dialogue, (2) the depictions of violence and (3) the media and pedagogical strategies that use moments of surprise, confusion and dissonance.
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Results
