Exhibiting colonial consumption? The musealisation of former ‘Kolonialwarenläden’ (trans. colonial goods shops)

The debates of the last two decades have reminded many European countries of their own colonial past. In Germany, the anniversaries of the genocide of the Herero and Nama are particularly noteworthy. In many cities, citizens and initiatives are also addressing street names, thus contributing to the decolonisation of public spaces. The debate about the provenance of ethnological collections has also brought the museum into focus, raising questions about the post-colonial continuities of museums. Building on this problematisation of ethnological collections, other types of museums and collections are now increasingly being studied, such as urban history, natural history and industrial history, to name but a few. However, the multiple traces of the colonial past in German everyday culture and their reflection in collections and exhibitions have only been studied to a limited extent.

This dissertation addresses this gap using the case study of ‘Kolonialwarenläden’ (colonial goods shops) in museums. Mostly established in the 19th century, they were part of a rapidly growing number of retailing shops that sold overseas commodities such as sugar, coffee and chocolate at increasingly affordable prices. The raw materials for these goods came mainly from European colonies. The second half of the 19th century in particular saw a real boom in these shops, which enabled more and more Germans to consume these goods. The development of retail trade towards self-service and supermarkets, especially in the 1970s, meant the end of many of these shops sooner or later. With the disappearance of shops in urban areas, their musealisation began. In exhibitions, the shops usually filled an entire room, giving the illusion of entering the shop in its original state. Most importantly, the shops evoked a bygone shopping experience, sometimes creating a nostalgic reception. Although the term ‘Kolonialwarenladen’ was the title of many of the presentations, the implications of the term were rarely explained in detail.

The project analyses the history of these shops in urban spaces, their transfer to the museum and their methods of display. Some of these shops' exhibitions can still be seen today and, on the one hand, are still popular. On the other hand, they have come under increasing criticism in recent years. A number of activists, postcolonial initiatives, artistic interventions and redesigned exhibitions have critiqued their former mode of display and offer a new contextualisation of these shops within a colonial history. The analysis of these changing attitudes towards ‘Kolonialwarenläden’ and their mode of memory and display is the focal point of the project.


Project supervision: Until 12/2023 Prof. Dr. Rebekka Habermas (†), Seminar für Mittlere und Neuere Geschichte, since 02/2024 Prof Dr. Margarete Vöhringer, Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
Prof. Dr. Anja Laukötter, Seminar für Volkskunde/Kulturgeschichte, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
Prof. Dr. Daniela Döring, Forschungskolleg "Wissen | Ausstellen", Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Museum: Research Centre for Material Culture, Leiden