Colonialism

The Deutsches Historisches Museum is dealing for the first time with various aspects of German colonialism in an exhibition with more than 500 objects. Although the German Empire was one of the major European colonial powers, only in recent years has Germany‘s colonial past found its way into public consciousness to a significant degree. The exhibition of the Deutsches Historisches Museum examines the colonial ideology, which was founded in the belief of a European superiority.

The exhibition focuses on a forgotten aspect of the colonial war in the Dutch East Indies: the influence of the Dutch military intelligence services on how the Dutch media reported on the conflict. The exhibition casts a different light on the colonial war and shows the power and impact of photography and film. The official image of the war on Java and Sumatra aimed at manipulating public opinion. Without images of violence there seemed to be no war.

Tate Britain presents a major exhibition of art associated with the British Empire from the 16th century to the present day. Featuring a vast array of objects from collections across Britain, including maps, flags, paintings, photographs, sculptures and artefacts, the exhibition examines how the histories of the British Empire have shaped art past and present. Contemporary works within the exhibition suggest that the ramifications of the Empire are far from over.

The museum is jointly administered by the French Ministry of Culture and Communication and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and serves as both a museum and a center for research.The museum contains the collections of the now-closed Musée national des Arts d'Afrique et d'Océanie and the ethnographic department of the Musée de l'Homme, plus ten thousand recently acquired objects. The permanent collection has 300,000 works, 700,000 photographs, 320,000 documents, 10,000 musical instruments, and 25,000 pieces of textile or clothing.