Episode 1: The Kidnapped Dead

Episode 1 of Dig Where You Stand was just published. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the web, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Peter wrote the cover story about this topic for the current issue of The Berliner. It’s on newsstands now and at The Berliner online later in the month.

What’s in Episode 1?

We start with the story of Mangi Meli, a leader of a community in German East Africa - today’s Tanzania. He was murdered by German colonial forces in March 1900. According to oral tradition, his head was removed and sent back to Germany. We follow Mangi Meli’s head in the context of the imperial loot that was flowing from the colonies back to Germany - where it would end up as one of thousands of examples of ancestral remains stolen from colonies and held, still, in Berlin.

Then we ask where these ancestral remains are held exactly in Berlin, and the context of colonialism and imperialism under which they were collected. What was the founding idea behind these museums and why it was sometimes the agents with the most humanistic motives that were able to carry out the most ruthless, violent exploitation.

Finally, we look at the way this history is still with us through the lasting impact on the communities and families of victims. 

In his book Dig Where You Stand, the Swedish author Sven Lindqvist writes about how history pays dividends. His example is of companies that saved money by failing to introduce safety measures around asbestos: he reminds us that children who breathed in asbestos fibers in the 1920s were still dying from that exposure 50 years later: “The profits from those days still endow some people with power and dividends. Just as the workers’ children inherited the fibers, other children inherited the shares.”

In our story, too, some children inherited the fibers, while others inherited the shares. This history is far from buried, and the dividends of the colonial period are still paying out. 

Palaces of bones

One of the most strange and disturbing ideas in this story is also one of the most basic: Why are these Museums filled with human body parts? Why did European scientists from 100 years ago steal so many ancestral remains?

It was the actor turned activist Konradin Kunze who first spoke to us about an “ancestral remains trafficking network” - and it is when you begin to look at the network of interests behind the establishment of these imperial museums that you can recognise the scope of the subject. 

While researching this episode, there was one incident which brought this home. We were in the Museum für Naturkunde (Museum of Natural History) in Berlin when we saw one of the dinosaurs had a strange latin name: Dicraeosaurus hansemanni. 

We knew that the major backers of the scientific expeditions liked to attach their names to their discoveries, but who, we wondered, was this Hansemann? Adolph von Hansemann was a German imperial banker who funded the collection of zoological, botanical and ethnographic items from across the globe, including many human remains. He also funded the construction of a railway in Namibia at a time when the Germans were conducting a genocide there. In 1929, the bank he managed merged with Deutsche Bank. The dividends are still paying out. 

One of the things about looking into anything is you find more than you expect. This episode is full of surprising and distressing ideas, events, and people from colonization, ethnology, anthropology, museums, empire, and more. 

We’ll do another newsletter with some recommended reading / viewing so you can dive even deeper into this topic. 

Episode 2

Episode 2 will come out in a month and focus on repatriation - what happens when Berlin tries to return ancestral remains to their communities?

We appreciate your help in launching this new show. If this newsletter and the trailer pique your interest, please share it with others you think would be interested. 

What is Kollo Media?

Kollo Media is a new publishing entity based in Berlin. It works with other publishers to establish multimedia formats with audiences inspired by curiosity, conscientiousness, and quality. You can reach us at [email protected] or @kollomedia.