The Oceania Collection of Antonie and Eugen Brandeis

The Ethnological Collection of the Museum Natur und Mensch contains ca. 2,600 objects from Oceania, the majority of which hales from former German colonial areas. A significant part of this is constituted by two donations that the Imperial Governor of the Marshall Islands, Eugen Brandeis, made to the then Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde in 1900/1901. Although his wife Antonie Brandeis was responsible for collecting the approx. 300 objects, Eugen Brandeis went down in the city's annals as the benefactor. The provenance of this collection and the history of its collector were researched in 2020-2022 in a project funded by the German Lost Art Foundation. 

Historical Background

In November 1898, the Lord Mayor of Freiburg, Otto Winterer (1846–1915), contacted selected colonial officials and military personnel abroad who had a personal connection to the city, asking them to contribute to the collections of the Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde, which had been founded three years earlier.

Among those contacted was the then Imperial Governor of the Marshall Islands, Eugen Brandeis (1846‒1930). He came from Geisingen in southern Baden, had studied in Karlsruhe and Freiburg and was a member of the Suevia Corps in Freiburg at the same time as Winterer.

As can be seen from letters in the museum files in the Freiburg City Archives, Brandeis responded positively to Winterer's request in April 1899 and announced that he had a collection. This took the form of two shipments comprising ca. 300 objects from Oceania, which arrived in Freiburg in April 1900 and November 1901 respectively.

In the museum's inventory and donation records, as well as in the public’s perception, the collection has henceforward been closely associated with the person of Eugen Brandeis. The Governor was honored for his donation with an entry on the donors' plaque at the Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde, which is now on display in the foyer of the Museum Natur und Mensch

This is problematic for two reasons. First, Eugen Brandeis’ name is associated with accusations of abuse of power and the use of force in connection with his administration in the Marshall Islands. Among other things, he was accused of using corporal punishment during his term of office, which was banned in the colony at the time. This was also the subject of a much-publicised debate in the Reichstag in 1905/1906 about acts of violence in the colonies. On the other hand, the tribute sidelines his wife's contribution in the assembly of the collection.

Research into the history of the Oceania Collection for the museum's centenary in 1995 already revealed that although Eugen Brandeis was responsible for the donation, he was by no means the collector. This was the individual achievement of his wife, Antonie Brandeis (1868–1945), who had accompanied him to the Jaluit Atoll and, whilst there, assembled an extensive collection from the Marshall Islands and Nauru. In addition, she taught herself photography and made ethnographic observations that she published in ethnological and colonial journals. Despite these diverse activities, little was publicly known about the life of the actual collector, Antonie Brandeis.

From 1 July 2020 to 30 September, 2022, the Brandeis Collection was processed and documented by the ethnologist, Godwin Kornes. The focus was not only on researching its provenance from the colonial era, but also, and in particular, on reconstructing the biography and collecting activities of Antonie Brandeis. In addition, one of the project's stated goals was to involve representatives of the societies of origin in the research process. The current online album is therefore also based on the wishes, interests and questions that cooperation partners from the Marshall Islands contributed to the Ethnological Collection.

Antonie Brandeis: Collector, Ethnographer and Colonial Activist

Antonie Thawka Brandeis was born in Hamburg on 25 March 1868 as the oldest daughter of the merchant Rudolph Heinrich Ruete (1839-1870) and the Zanzibari princess, Emily Ruete, Sayyida Salme bint Said bin Sultan Al Busaidi (1844-1924), a daughter of the Sultan of Oman and Zanzibar. She spent a cosmopolitan youth between Hamburg, Berlin, Zanzibar, London, Jaffa and Beirut, where she grew up in the upper-class circles of her famous mother.

In 1898, she married Eugen Brandeis, with whom she travelled to Jaluit in the Marshall Islands during the same year, where he took up his post as Imperial Governor. There she began collecting ethnographic objects, taught herself photography and conducted ethnographic research. During a home leave in 1901/02, she studied ethnology under Felix von Luschan (1854–1924) in Berlin, for whom she subsequently gathered a larger collection from the island of Nauru. In addition to her representative function as the wife of the Governor of the island, she worked as a nurse for the European inhabitants of the colony. The couple's two daughters, Margarethe and Johanna, were born on Jaluit.

After her return to Berlin in 1906, she was highly active as an author of ethnological and pro-colonial writings, participated in numerous colonial exhibitions and was involved in the colonial women's movement for decades. Among other things, she was a board member of the Women's League of the German Colonial Society, founded in 1907, and co-founder of the League of Germans Abroad. After her divorce in 1913, she lived in Berlin for several years before returning to her hometown in 1920, where she continued to devote herself to the colonial cause. Among other things, she played a key role in the founding of the Colonial Women's School in Rendsburg in 1926, and sat on the school's supervisory board as a representative of the Women's Federation until 1933.

Antonie Brandeis died on 24 April 1945 during an air raid on Bad Oldesloe and is buried in the Ruete family crypt in the Ohlsdorf Cemetery. The donation to the Freiburg Museum für Natur- und Völkerkunde from the years 1900/1901 is her most extensive collection. Other collections she made can be found in the ethnological museums in Hamburg, Berlin, Stuttgart and Cambridge (USA), as well as in the Palace Museum Zanzibar.

The Oceania Collection of Antonie Brandeis

Antonie Brandeis' collection is exceptional for a number of reasons. First, because the majority of the objects hale from the Marshall Islands in Micronesia and, to a lesser extent, from the neighboring island of Nauru, lending the collection a distinct regional focus. Secondly, the collection is characterised by a very deliberate and extensive selection of objects that primarily document everyday artisanal and artistic practices, such as boatbuilding, mat weaving and food production. 

In addition to the objects, Antonie Brandeis also described the associated cultural practices in detail in her written comments on the collection and documented them in photographs. Furthermore, her collection particularly illustrates the working and living conditions of Micronesian women ca. 1900. At the time, a female collector taking an interest in material culture was still a decidedly rare occurrence for the German museum world.

It also contains the raw materials and tools needed for weaving. These include, for example, braiding needles (ar or ie), underlay boards (mōnakjān in wōjlā), dyed and rolled leaf fibres (maan) and a so-called dreke in nin, a heavy pestle made of shell limestone (Muschelkalk = shell-bearing limestone), which was used to soften the pandanus fibres.

Particularly finely woven mats (neided) were valuable status objects and had an important significance as offerings and gifts. The long plaited belts (kanūr in nin), with which the clothing mats were fastened by being wrapped around the waist several times, were also of great value. In addition to the clothing mats, fans, baskets and bags are further important products that demonstrate the women's weaving skills. Antonie Brandeis captured the work of the women in her photographs, some of which she added to her Freiburg collection.

Boat-building and Navigation

The people of the Marshall Islands have a cultural history of boat-building and navigation that goes back thousands of years. They are particularly well known for their outrigger canoes, which were built from wood, rope and tree resin, without the use of nails. These boats came in a variety of sizes: simple canoes (kōrkōr) for one to two people for paddling in the lagoon, small and manoeuvrable sailing boats (tibnōl) for up to ten people for fishing near the coast, or large ocean-going vessels (walap) for thirty to fifty people for travelling to other atolls. The Brandeis Collection includes several models of Marshallese boats, as well as tools for boatbuilding and equipment for seafaring. Particularly prestigious boats were decorated with special  prows.

The construction of the boats was usually supervised by influential men and chieftains and carried out by families or entire village communities. Here, too, the work of women played an important role, for example, in weaving the durable sails out of pandanus fibres. Antonie Brandeis also documented this photographically.

The so-called stick charts from the Marshall Islands are particularly renowned. They are navigational aids made of branches and shells, imparting information on the location of islands and atolls, as well as the prevailing conditions in the respective sea areas in terms of sea swell, wind and currents . They were not nautical charts in the European sense, but rather tools for training and imparting nautical knowledge. 

The production and use of stick charts was a form of knowledge that was traditionally kept secret by specialists. At the same time, however, stick charts were also being produced serially for sale to collectors around 1900. The charts can be divided into three types: 

1. rebbelib, which show large island areas as an overview 

2. Meddo, which show individual islands or atolls and the sea conditions between them

3. Mattang, which do not show any specific geographical content but were used primarily for educational purposes. 

Antonie Brandeis' donation included three stick maps, one of which was part of an exchange with the Ethnological Museum in Basel in 1904.

Food Production

Another area vividly documented by Antonie Brandeis’ collection is the production and preservation of food. The Marshall Islands, being flat and nutrient-poor coral limestone islands, do not provide particularly favourable conditions for agriculture. As a result, fishing has always been the main source of food, leading to a wide variety of techniques and tools. The islanders fished on foot in the reef with spears, with fish traps, on boats in the lagoons and on the high seas. Even today, fishing is of great importance for the people of the Marshall Islands, although they now work with imported (and thus often expensive) industrial fishing tools.

The food crops cultivated included coconut and pandanus palms, arrowroot, bananas and breadfruit, which were processed in a variety of ways. Preserving and fermenting pandanus and breadfruit (bwiro) was important for providing provisions during times of food scarcity. In the form of longish preservation vessels fastened with coconut fibre string, this was also an important food supply for long sea voyages. Fruit was dried on wooden racks and prepared with special scrapers. Halved coconuts and shells were used as cooking utensils. Wooden bowls and flat shells were used as plates. Drinking water and tree sap were collected and transported in hollowed-out, sealable coconuts, which were also indispensable companions on sea voyages.

Collecting

In her published texts, Antonie Brandeis imparted few clues as to how and according to which criteria she collected the artefacts. However, a lot of information was found in the collector's estate, which was discovered and evaluated in the course of the project in the private collection of her descendants in the USA. In her extensive private notes, Antonie Brandeis describes in detail how exchanging gifts with local women was her preferred way of obtaining objects. She received an abundance of gifts, particularly from women from socially higher-standing families, with whom she was in regular contact due to her status as the wife of the provincial governor.

Her collection in Freiburg includes a large number of “fine mats” (neided), fans (drel or ral) and valuable necklaces (marmar) made of spondylus shells, which were typical gifts. According to her notes, she tried to reciprocate with appropriate gifts, based on the wishes and interests of the women. This is significant because thus the local women made an important contribution to her collection, giving it a feminine touch.

In addition to exchanging gifts with women, she also commissioned older island residents to make objects and models in return for payment. Examples of this could be the “chieftain's house” (II/0648), a “rack to dry pandanus” (II/1406) or various boat models (II/0645, II/0649). The skin of a shark's stomach to cover the aje drum (AI/2163) was missing, which, according to the collector, would be obtained at a later date.

The origin of a small number of objects in her collection that did not come from the Marshall Islands or Nauru is still poorly understood. She repeatedly mentions that she received objects from European visitors to Jaluit as gifts, including some that came from more distant areas, such as the Caroline Islands or Polynesia. It is still unclear how a small number of wooden bowls and shark hooks from New Guinea came into her possession. She may have received them from a trader from the Hernsheim company on Matupi.

It is not known exactly when and why Antonie Brandeis began collecting, or whether the request from Freiburg triggered the process. The letter from Winterer mentioned by Eugen Brandeis was sent on 15 November 1898, and arrived at some point in the first months of 1899. In his reply of 6 April 1899, Eugen Brandeis emphasised that his wife was already “eagerly” collecting. She herself first mentioned collecting as an activity in her notes in January 1899, and from April onwards she repeatedly mentioned her collection for Freiburg. In her posthumous memoirs, it emerges how much value she placed on collecting professionally and how much work she invested in documenting the collection. 

Provenance research has contributed new insights into many aspects of Antonie Brandeis' collection and collecting activities. Two of these will be briefly presented here: the Brandeis couple's relationship with Mata'afa Iosefo, the Samoan chief, and the origin of Antonie Brandeis' Nauru collection.

Relationship with Mata'afa Iosefo

The most famous object in the Brandeis Collection is a model of a double-hulled war canoe (`alia), which was given to the Brandeis’ by the Samoan chief Mata'afa Iosefo (1832-1912) in September 1898. They entrusted it to the Freiburg Museum in 1900 as a particularly prestigious object within their donation. The story of this object is a particularly vivid example of the intertwined colonial history between Germany, Freiburg, Samoa and the Marshall Islands, and of the people who were affected by it as actors.

When the Brandeis’ arrived at the Jaluit Atoll in August 1898 for Eugen Brandeis’ inauguration as Imperial Governor of the Marshall Islands, they also met Chieftain Mata'afa Iosefo there. He had been living on Jaluit with a few followers as a political prisoner since 1893. 

He had been exiled there after rebelling violently against King Tamasese Titimaea (1830-1891), who was sponsored by the German Empire. Mata'afa Iosefo and Eugen Brandeis knew each other from Samoa, where the latter had worked as a political advisor to King Tamasese from 1886 to 1889 on behalf of the German consulate in Sydney.

Antonie Brandeis wrote about the Samoans in several published texts and private letters. In these accounts, she conveys the impression that a relationship of mutual respect obtained between her and Mata'afa and that she took an interest in the plight of the prisoners. However, in order to evaluate this fully, the viewpoint of the Samoans is required. 

A few weeks after the Brandeis' arrival, one of the first significant official acts of the Governor was to release Chief Mata'afa after his pardon and to oblige him to loyalty to the German Empire. 

After his return to Samoa, Mata'afa Iosefo became king – now with German support. Before his departure, he wrote a dedication in Antonie Brandeis's guest book, underlining his friendship with her: 

“To the wife of His Excellency Judge Brandeis of the Great Government of Germany, Antonie is her name. My love for you both is great, may the life/health of you both last for many years. I am your both true friend, J. Mataafa.”

The model of the boat embodies this special relationship, but at the same time it also stands for the ambivalence of colonial rule: Chief Mata'afa Iosefo was a prisoner of the German colonial administration, but at the same time he benefited from it. Eugen and Antonie Brandeis were representatives of the oppressive colonial rule, but simultaneously they built social relationships and even friendships with the local people.

The History of the Nauru Collection

At the beginning of the project, the origin of the Nauru objects in the collection of Antonie and Eugen Brandeis was shrouded in mystery. The museum's collection files did not indicate that Antonie Brandeis had been to Nauru. Instead, in a letter dated 15 December 1899, which he sent to the museum from Jaluit, Eugen Brandeis mentioned that Ludwig Kaiser (1862-1906), the district administrator of Nauru, was collecting objects for Freiburg on behalf of the couple. Who Kaiser was and what criteria he used to collect was completely unclear. In the course of provenance research, the collector's biography has now been more or less reconstructed. 

Ludwig Kaiser was born on 21 May 1862 in Obergebisbach, southern Baden. After a commercial apprenticeship in Säckingen and several jobs in southwestern Germany, he emigrated to the United States in 1893. From March 1895, he worked as secretary of the Imperial Consulate in Sydney and from August 1897 as a junior clerk at the General Consulate in Australia. He also worked for the Jaluit Company. In 1899, he was appointed District Officer in Nauru, a position he held until 1905. As documents in the German Federal Archives show, Eugen Brandeis was instrumental in Kaiser's career, which apparently paid off: in 1903, Kaiser was promoted to Deputy Imperial Governor of the Marshall Islands at the side of Eugen Brandeis, and after the latter's resignation, he was also appointed Acting Governor in Jaluit. Only five months later, on May 27, 1906, Kaiser took his own life in Jaluit and was also buried there.

During a visit to his homeland in 1905, Kaiser visited the Freiburg Museum and, in this context, he helped in an advisory capacity on the production of a figurine for a Nauru warrior by the sculptor August Müßle (1871-1935). Kaiser was interested in ornithology and also collected in this field, including items for the Berlin Museum of Natural History. Nothing is known about any other ethnographic collections. His Nauru collection consists of everyday objects, weapons and tools, but also numerous important items of jewellery and ceremonial objects. The criteria according to which he collected on Nauru and whether he was following instructions from Antonie Brandeis have yet to be clarified.

Historical Classification of the Brandeis Collection and Its Collector

Even if many questions remain unanswered regarding the specific contexts in which transactions took place and the identities of the previous owners of her collection, the sources researched in the course of the project enable a better assessment of Antonie Brandeis’ motivation and approach as a collector. This also enables a better, more nuanced classification of her ambivalent status as a collector, ethnographer, colonial activist and woman with an Arab family background in the history of German ethnology. Overall, it can therefore be estimated that a large proportion of the Freiburg Brandeis objects came from the Marshall Islands as a result of, on the whole, consensual transactions – mainly gifts, gift exchanges or even acquisitions by the collector.

This is, of course, to be judged in the context of the given colonial power relations of the time, which, due to their inherent power asymmetries, did not allow for transactions among equals. Nevertheless, the fact that Antonie Brandeis, as a representative of the European elite, was closely integrated into the social networks of high-ranking families in the Marshall Islands should be taken into account when evaluating the context of acquisition. Without the support and influence of the local chieftain families, and especially the women, her collection could not have come about in this form.

The aforementioned accusations against Eugen Brandeis were known at the beginning of the project, but poorly documented. Above all, no first-hand accounts by Eugen Brandeis and his wife about the events were known. The research project was able to gain new insights here that helped to confirm and better contextualise the allegations. Due to the role of Eugen Brandeis as the founder of the collection, it is therefore also burdened by the history of violence associated with him. At the same time, there is no evidence that Eugen Brandeis himself actively contributed to the Freiburg collection or even had an interest in collecting. This was solely the work of his wife.

Cooperation

Collaboration with people and institutions from the societies of origin is essential for provenance research on ethnographic collections from the colonial era. A research trip to the Marshall Islands and Samoa planned for this purpose could not be carried out due to the travel restrictions in place throughout the Covid 19 pandemic. Nevertheless, it was possible to work with experts from the Marshall Islands.

Even before the project began, the museum was in contact with the Jaki-ed Revival Program in Majuro, which is dedicated to reviving the traditional art of mat weaving. The museum's director, Dr. Irene Taafaki, and the programme's director, Dr. Irene Taafaki, were in constant contact. Records from the Brandeis collection were sent to the project in Majuro on multiple occasions. The purchase of two new mats by the museum in 2022, made by women artists of the group, is a visible expression of this cooperation, as well as the historical connection between Freiburg and the Marshall Islands.

The Alele Museum in Majuro was approached as a further contact in the Marshall Islands. It owns historically significant collections and is one of the most important stakeholders in the field of national cultural heritage in the Marshall Islands. In this context, information on the Brandeis Collection was provided, along with images of specific object categories, in which the Alele Museum has expressed a particular interest. These included woven baskets, carved bowls and necklaces.

The most successful and sustainable collaborative relationship for the project arose from contact with Meitaka Kendall-Lekka of the College of the Marshall Islands (CMI), who held a visiting professorship at the Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin in 2021/2022. She was recruited to work with the Freiburg project and provided important information for the historical and cultural contextualisation of the objects. She visited the collection in June and December 2021, which enabled a detailed inspections of objects.

She discussed three particularly significant objects in the form of short videos, which were published in the STM online collection.

Inv. II/0780, Necklace | marmar

Inv. II/1271, Rudder | kiped

Inv. II/1397, Pestle | dreke in nin

The collaboration with Meitaka Kendall-Lekka on provenance research into the Brandeis Collection was also the subject of the exhibition “Handle with care – Sensitive Objects in the Ethnological Collection” (June 1, 2022 to January 22, 2023, curator: Stefanie Schien).

The three special objects were shown there, along with an interview that Godwin Kornes conducted with Meitaka Kendall-Lekka at the Ethnological Collection. In the interview, she emphasised the great importance of Antonie Brandeis's collection, which, according to her, is not only about responsibility for dealing with shared history. Rather, she also sees the collections as a storehouse of knowledge that can be beneficial when addressing existential threats and challenges that are of growing importance for the people of the Marshall Islands in the face of anthropogenic climate change and rising sea levels. This particular example impressively demonstrates how ethnographic collections can raise new questions and make valuable connections.

Further literature and information:

Provenienzforschung zur Ozeanien-Sammlung Eugen und Antonie Brandeis.

Author: Godwin Kornes
Translator: Tim Connell