The results of this research in military conquest and the seizure of cultural heritage will be published next year in the ATLAS OF PLUNDER: Tracing Cultural Heritage from Togoland, Kamerun and German East-Africa, together with Philippe Rekacewicz at transcript Verlag.
Earlier in 2026, Yann LeGall found that the Linden Museum Stuttgart holds 7,368 inventory entries acquired between 1882 and 1961 connected to former German East Africa (today’s Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi). Around 60% of these cultural assets originate from former members of the colonial military.
In 1922, Felix von Luschan, former assistant director of the Royal Museum of Ethnography in Berlin, described the museum’s African collections as “the greatest and most beautiful monument to our colonial troops.” While this was certainly true for Berlin, privileged by a Bundesrat decree of 1889, Stuttgart too acquired large quantities of colonial loot and cultural belongings taken under coercive conditions through military officers.
