Berliner Museum will fast 600 Schädel zurückgeben
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin has announced plans to repatriate hundreds of human skulls to West African nations following a multi-year provenance investigation. The research identified the origins of 574 skulls, with 336 linked to present-day Cameroon, 151 to Togo, 23 to Ghana, and one to Nigeria, while 63 could not be precisely located. The skulls were part of a historical anthropological collection transferred from Berlin's Charité university hospital in 2011.
This restitution effort is a significant step in Germany's reckoning with its colonial past, as many of the remains were taken from graves, battlefields, or belonged to workers who died during German railway construction in Cameroon. The process highlights the ongoing complexities of repatriation, as logistical and governmental hurdles in countries like Tanzania have stalled returns of other remains. The foundation's project is viewed as a model for provenance research and the ethical return of human remains acquired under colonial rule.