New launch of online portal “Collections from colonial contexts“

Karlsruhe, July 9, 2024 – Many German museums and archives contain ethnological, natural history, historical, art and cultural objects from formal colonial rule and from areas where informal colonial structures prevailed. The full version of the portal "Collections from colonial contexts", which has now been launched, makes many of these objects and their history available online through one single point of access for the first time, and transparently documents the whereabouts of these items in various German cultural and knowledge institutions. It is accessible worldwide and primarily addresses the societies of origin. Together with them, a standard was developed for the uniform indexing of the objects presented.

At the launch of the portal, more than 100,000 objects from partner organizations are searchable and accessible. The range of digitized items includes cultural assets, artefacts, jewelry, tools, weapons, musical instruments and botanical specimens. FIZ Karlsruhe has implemented the portal technically and operates it as part of the German Digital Library.

[Access to the portal]