Breast ornament; plant fibres, sea snail shells (nassa, ovulids), woven red leaves, Job’s tears plant seeds; acquisition: Hans Höllerer 1906; collection: Weltkulturen Museum. Photo: Wolfgang Günzel
Necklaces. Collector: Hans Meier 1904/1905, acquisition from Hans Höllerer 1906, Collection Weltkulturen Museum. Photo: Wolfgang Günzel
Bag with stones for love magic; plant fibres, stones; north-east coast of New Guinea; collector: Hans Meier 1904-05; acquired: Hans Höllerer 1906; collection: Weltkulturen Museum
Title image: Hermann Rönninger: Der Luluwai; Amboß-Verlag, No. 88, n. d.
Kulabol Village, Dampier Island, New Guinea. Photo: Hans Meier, 1904-1911. City archive Passau
The ‘Höllerer Collection’
Tracing the origins of a collection from the colonial era
The Weltkulturen Museum holds a collection of objects from New Guinea. This collection was acquired in 1906, dating back to the museum’s early years, and is among the oldest holdings of the Oceania Department. Today, 95 inventory numbers from this ‘Höllerer Collection’ remain. They originate from the north-eastern part of what is now Papua New Guinea, which was then a German colony known as Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. The collection comprises many everyday objects, such as bowls, net bags, wooden decorative combs and jewellery, as well as various stone clubs and wooden swords. In addition, there are a large number of ritual artefacts such as mourning clothes and bullroarers, as well as all kinds of magical objects.
During the bombing of Frankfurt in 1944, the museum was destroyed along with all the objects still housed there – including 41 items from the ‘Höllerer Collection’ – and the collection records. With the loss of the acquisition files, information about the history of this collection was almost entirely lost. Through extensive research into the surviving documents (inventory book, inventory cards) and investigations in other archives, the curator of the Oceania Collection, Matthias Claudius Hofmann, was able to partially reconstruct the provenance history of the collection despite these difficult circumstances.
The investigation into the provenance of this collection offers a new perspective on New Guinea in the early 20th century, the history of missionary work during the German colonial era, and, through the biography of Hans Meier, an exemplary insight into a colonial figure of that era. The collection itself once again becomes a witness to this history.
