Playing with Prejudice:

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Retracing Ethnic Shows in Early 20th-Century German Art

Anne Fleur Kolkman

Anne Fleur Elyne Kolkman Student number: S2357747

Master Thesis Arts & Culture: Early Modern Art First reader: prof. dr. Ann-Sophie Lehmann Second reader: Merel van Tilburg

Alkmaar, 12th of March 2021 Word count: 20.517

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3.1 Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and his work as archetype for the imagined worlds ……… 3. 2 Die Sudanesen-Karawanne, 1909 ……… 3. 3 Das Samoanerdorf, 1910 ……….. 3. 4 Das Afrikanische Dorf, 1910 ……… 3. 5 Das Größten Indienschau der Welt, 1912 ………

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4.1 Concluding remarks ………

Bibliography ………

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Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all the people and institutions who helped me this last year by sharing their knowledge. Many people helped me in gathering information for this thesis. I was allowed to question them, they sent me material, or after a single e-mail they spontaneously investigated for me. I am very grateful to all of them for their valuable input.

Dorthe Aagesen (chief curator, Statens Museum for Kunst), Daniela Bystron (curator of outreach, Brücke Museum Berlin), Emma Harjadi Herman (Head Education and Inclusion, Stedelijk), Nora-Saida Hogrefe (assistant curator, Brücke Museum Berlin) Nancy Jouwe (cultural historian, co-founder framer-framed, lecturer at Willem de Kooning Academie, Amsterdam University College, CIEE), Birgit Meyer (cultural anthropologist, prof. at Research Institute for Philosophy & Religious Studies), Wayne Modest (head of the Research Center for Material Culture, Amsterdam), Lisa Marei Schmidt (director Brücke Museum Berlin), Sophie Tates (head of

publications, Stedelijk), Wonu Veys (curator Oceania, Museum for World Cultures, NL), Ann-Sophie Lehmann (Thesis advisor, Rijks University Groningen), Anna Vestergaard Jørgensen (PhD researcher, Statens Museum for Kunst), Mette Houlberg (Interpreter, Statens Museum for Kunst), Silvia Dolz (curator Africa, Museum für Volkerkunde, Dresden), Mariska ter Horst (independent researcher and freelance curator Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam), Clemens Radauer (independent researcher and private collector), Hilke Thode-Arora (Head of Department Oceania / Provenance Research Officer, Museum five continents), Berg, Tuja van den Berg (projectmedewerker

Circuscollectie Allard Pierson), Parveen Kanhai (independent researcher ethnic shows in Holland), Gonneke Janssen (informationspecialist performing arts, Allard Pierson), Albrecht Wiedmann (Phonogramm Archiv, Berlin).

A special thanks goes to my tutor and (former) colleagues, Beatrice von Bormann (curator, Stedelijk) and Laetitia Lai (curator-in-training, Stedelijk). You provided me with the tools that I needed to choose the right direction and encouraged me to successfully complete my dissertation.

I would also like to thank my tutor, Ann-Sophie Lehmann (Professor of Art History & Material Culture at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), and second reader Merel van Tilburg

(Professor of Art History & Material Culture at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen) for their valuable guidance and patience.

But far from least, ever without fail, my mother Jolande Winters and my dear friend René Huizinga.

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Personal Statement

We are living in a time in which the society is screaming for the recognition of her diversity, screams for acknowledgement, recognition and celebration of her many truths. The white art-historical field is detached from our multi-ethnical society. This is visible on all levels within the cultural field. It is time for recognition of what ‘is’ and what ‘was’ and what will be.

I will not claim to have an answer, I will say am aware of my white privilege, now more than ever. I will work to ‘spend’ my privilege towards a lasting change. For this project I have tried to become intrinsically aware of whom I am talking about, what these people were doing and why these people were doing it. With the help of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, I got the change to get into contact with several specialists in the field of anthropology and ethnographic art for which I am very grateful.

In the past, I have graduated in literature on the post-colonial discourse. In this Masters thesis, I have researched and recollected stories that recognise and celebrate the multi-cultural society and tried to include the voices of some non-white specialists. To their voices, I have listened, at their accomplishments, I have looked, and from their knowledge, I have learned. Indigenous culture has been appropriated for the legacy of the white 20th-century artists of this thesis. However, this seems to have been forgotten, as if these people never existed. As South-African political commentator Trevor Noah has compellingly said, society is a contract, but as society neglects to recognise their multi-ethnical past, and her colonial crimes, at the hands of, institutions like, in this case, museums, what part of the contract is that? I hope to enlighten at least 1

the multi-ethnical and colonial past that formed the contemporary misrepresentations of non-white culture today.

Trigger warning

The following thesis contains sensitive and alarming content that most should consider disturbing. For those who have not experienced racism first hand, I implore you to do not look away.

Trevor Noah reflects on the death of George Floyd’s death on The Daily Show ‘’Society’s Broken Contract

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1.1 Introduction

The western European romanticisation of the ‘primitive’, ranging from ‘exotic’ dance, and idyllic hunting scenes to nudism, took decades to ferment. It was, however, in the late 19th- and early 20th-century that these myths reached their zenith. Gauguin was held up as the inspiration for the

immersion in, and appropriation of, other cultures that set the example for many expressionist artists (Thomson, 23). Gauguin played a critical role in the creation of the idealisation of Polynesia and popularising the illusion of the ‘primitive’. The idealisation of the ‘primitive’ cultures moved into the 21st-century without entirely losing its influence. Nowadays, in our postcolonial present, the concept and history of ‘primitivism’ has become more problematic than ever. For it signifies not only the romanticisation and appreciation of non-European cultures, but also exploitation, belittlement and abuse of cultures other than their own. This idea is inextricably linked with German imperialism of the beginning of the 20th-century. Nonetheless, even today people from outside of western Europe remain the romanticised ‘primitive’ subjects of display in film and tv . 2

Before the invention of film and long-distance travel, this popularisation took form in the display of people from places all over the world in zoos and circuses in western Europe for the sake of

entertainment. In a recursive ‘’cycle of stereotypes’’, these ethnical displays contributed through to the uncivilised and ‘primitive’ myth (Dreesbach, 1). This myth was used to justify harsh social measures of the colonial government and for the satisfaction of the need for escapism of the

growing modernity. In these ‘’exotic spectacles’’, people were invariable put on display as ‘exotic’ people who lived isolated and under ‘primitive’ conditions (Zimmermann, 8). These people were represented as if they had not been in contact with - nor influenced by the ‘western’ modernity. Contradictory, it was the colonial force and influence which made it possible for the Europeans to see performances in the ethnic shows , to go on expeditions and to see ethnographic objects in the 3

newly build Ethnographic museum in Dresden and the Museum für Völkerkunde in Berlin. The construct of ‘primitivism’ has demanded a revision over the years. We have neglected to recognise that ever since European imperialism emerged in the 16th-century, the West European history has

In the present, this still exists in the form of ‘’reality’’- TV. For example in the Dutch series Groeten uit de

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Rimboe and Afrika! Afrika!. For ‘’primitivism’’ in reality - TV a comprehensive study is written by Marijn Kraak.

The indiscriminate use of the concept of ‘’human zoos’’ sometimes called ‘’Völkerschauen’’, ‘’exotic

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been inextricably intertwined with the history of its (former) colonies and therefore the notion of European modernity could not exist (Zimmermann, 173 - 176). The western inherent notion of the ‘savage’, ‘exotic’ and the ‘primitive’ has been questioned and criticised by academics as well as museums (for example the exhibition Gauguin: Maker of Myth). These notions have to be addressed to achieve a shift in perception and public discourse.

While the fascination with the myth of ‘primitivism’ emerged in France in the late 19th-century, early 20th-century Germany presents us with a unique opportunity to trace the motif of the ethnic shows and the role of expressionist artists in the debate of colonialism for three reasons. First, it was in Germany with Carl Hagenbeck in 1874 that ‘Völkerschauen’ was introduced to the 4

Western public. Due to the great success of the show, Hagenbeck continued to organise ethnic shows and started to send the groups on tour around Europe. He professionalised the organisation and marketing of ethnic shows.

Second, Germany has played a significant role in the establishment of the pseudo-scientific classification of human populations into human races, that were allegedly asserted to be inferior or superior hierarchies. The epicentre of German anthropology with the broadest international contacts within and outside of Europe was found in Berlin (Zimmermann, 4-5).

Third, when the German expressionists became taken with all aspects of the imagined non-European cultures, it was in the ethnic shows that they ascertained their models and found their inspiration. German expressionist artists from the early 20th-century conveyed meanings through and engaged with the colonial apparatus by attending expeditions, visiting ethnographic museums and observing people in ‘exotic’ spectacles.

This thesis endeavours to retrace the motif of the ‘ethnic show’ in early 20th-century

expressionist art; a series that goes somewhat unnoticed by both critics and the public. The primary focus will be on the provision of an insightful account of the modes of representation of the ethnic shows at the beginning of the 20th-century. To further support this analysis, the little-known interfaces between the expressionists and the community of people in the ethnic shows will be indicated. This to provide a clear understanding of the vital role of the non-western muse and to reveal how the artists’ visual language took part in the colonial discourse that resulted in social control and abuse. This analysis can expose the profound structure of the relations of power and

Later called ‘ethnic show’.

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inequality the artists of the early 20th-century engaged with. Which, in turn, led to a deeper study of ‘primitivism’ by both anthropologists and art-historians.

In order to critically present the modes of representation of the ethnic shows, there will be a careful analysis of literature, ego documents and visual sources. These will be compared to the works of early 20th-century German artists. To reach a valuable conclusion, the historical context has to be considered. Therefore, the research will proceed by a critical review of the German colonial context at the beginning of the 20th-century and the history of the ethnic shows. This chapter specifically will analyse the literature on four central figures in the organisation of exotic spectacles, Carl Hagenbeck and Carl, Fritz and Gustav Marquardt and Nayo Bruce, the act of giving out of certificates of supposed authenticity by means of scientific racism, the process of recruitment and the modes of representation in advertisement and colonial propaganda through visual sources.

From this introduction, this thesis will specifically draw on ego documents and paintings, photographs and sketchbooks of the artists who studied the non-European ‘other’ in early 20th-century ethnic show in this context of European colonialism. This chapter will unfold itself around German artist Gabriele Münter who was addressing the topic of the ethnic shows simultaneously with Die Brücke members Heckel and Pechstein who visited the ethnic shows in 1910. The next chapter will zoom in into the work of Kirchner, which will set Kirchner’s oeuvre in the globalised colonial world, his particular pursuit of cross-cultural ‘exchange' being unimaginable in an other time.

Additionally, this thesis will ask how the artist conformed to the current attitudes of ‘otherness’ and the racial while confronting it with the narrative of his subject. This chapter

constitutes a survey of works related to the subject matter: works analysing the image of the other in ethnic shows, press features, various advertisement material and a discussion of the results. The goal is to investigate how Kirchner and his contemporaries played on the prejudice of non-European people that took part at the beginning of the 20th-century.

The research will be concluded in the final chapter, including the discussion about the implications of the results, suggestions for future research and limitations.

There has not been significant academic research and literature produced regarding the motif of the ethnic shows in German expressionist art, as well as concerning the art world in general. However, the work that has been done in art historical writing marginalises the influence of

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dr. Hilke Thode-Arora, and other historical thinkers such as Anne Dreesbach and Andrew Zimmerman as well as art historians like Jill Lloyd and Isabelle Janssen. This multidisciplinary approach will attempt to contribute to a deeper understanding of the motives the ethnic shows and with that the impact of colonial discourse was on these artists as well as lifting the tip of the veil on the lives of the people in the ethnic shows.

1. 2 German colonial context in the beginning of the 20th-century

The German colonial context of the beginning of the 20th-century is key to understanding the complex dynamics between society and the work of the artists. As anthropologist and artist Susan Hiller perceptibly points out; ‘’artists are fully taking part in their society and their work always expresses certain beliefs and values of that society, carrying them forward in time’’ (3). Hence, the artists of this thesis are both influenced by, and producers of, the spirit, ideas and beliefs of their time. Simultaneously, these artists are also actively implicated in the unfolding of this society. This reflexive chapter will try to uncover and analyse the problem of German colonialism in the early 20th-century as a force that underlays the pre-World War period. Luis Ángel Sánchez Gómez is a full professor of Cultural Anthropology in the Prehistory Department of the Complutense

University of Madrid. In his publication on ‘’Human zoos’’, he wrote, ’’The expansion and

configuration of ethnic shows are directly linked to two historical phenomena which lie at the very basis of modernity: exhibitions and colonialism’’ (Sánchez-Gómez, 3).In this regard, the sphere of the ethnic show is a place which boar witness to the European Zeitgeist of the fascination and admiration for the ‘’Other’’. The ethnic show seemed to be the epitome of the distorted

‘primitivizing’ tradition that was interrogated in the process of creating the western ‘self’ (Hiller, 3). The end of the 19th- and beginning of the 20th-century indicates a period in history when western-Europeans deemed themselves superior over the what was used to be called the

‘’lesser[…]races of the world’’ based on the pseudoscience of scientific racism (David, 1). At the fin de siécle, German professor of ethnology, Johann Blumenbach was the first man who refuted the theory that all people of Europe originated from the Caucasus, hence belonged to one white race called Caucasian. Not long thereafter, Blumenbach postulated classification of races through

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colour-coding. French ethnologist Joseph-Arthur Gobineau later redefined this classification completing the racial hierarchy which set the tone for the European Zeitgeist of the early 20th-century . 5

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, which was also known as ‘’the scramble for Africa’’, was a climax of negotiations at Berlin (Heath, 1). At the request of Portugal, most of the major European nations met at the request of German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, to decide on the devision of African territories. Fourteen countries were represented at the Berlin Conference at November 15, 1884. These included the four mayor players in Africa at the time France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal. For Germany, this moment was a crucial opportunity to expand their sphere of influence; since up to the 1870s they did not have oversees territories, colonies and dependencies. The initial task of the meeting was to establish common ground that the basins and mouth of the Niger and Congo River were a neutral and free trading zone. At the time of the

conference, 80 percent of Africa’s territories were ruled under local and traditional control. For over a time of three months these European powers haggled over territory without consultancy of people of the continent. Germany’s hope to stand up to their rivalries worked; they managed to become one of the third-largest colonial empire after the French and the British at the cost local balance and organic regions. Germany took among others Tanzania and Namibia. France agreed on a large share of western Africa, stretching from Chad to Mauritania as well as Gambon and the Republic of Congo. Despite the agreement over the neutrality over the river basin in Congo, King Leopold II from Belgium seized power killing over half a population under his rule. Africa was divided up into 50 geometric countries, disregarding with the existing rhyme and reason by breaking up indigenous cultures and merging the ones who were in conflict. The Scramble for Africa legitimised and formalised the process of colonisation and sparked a new interest in the continent (Heath, 1).

The late expansion of the German empire prompted Bismarck to secure German influence. He encouraged missionaries, tradesmen and scientists to go on expedition which enabled the 20th-century artists to visit oversees countries and expanded the road to world markets.

Consequently, more and more geographers and physical anthropologists but also artists started to join expeditions to the German colonies. German field anthropologist and tradesmen Leo Frobenius was one of these man who went along one of the expeditions to, for instance, southern Nigeria. The inhabitants of the Ifé (the secret capital of the Yoruba, Nigeria) reported the brutal

Gobineau his theories had an important influence on the German Nazi theorists and the justification for

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robbery by Frobenius of secret objects without consent (Penny, 115 - 118). However, he was able to continue his work in the field by legitimising and rationalising his actions by relating them to the greater good of his success as a collector and ethnographic science. This is only one example of the way these expeditions were enabled for the looting of objects.

These kind of African sculptures were purchased on a large scale from auctions in Paris and Hamburg by collectors like Adolf Bastian, ethnologist and director of Museum für Volkerkunde in Berlin and Karl Ernst Osthaus, founding director of the Osthaus Museum Folkwang in Hagen in 1902. The latest was also an important early collector of works by Kirchner and Nolde. Once the objects ended up in the ethnographic museums, Kirchner, Nolde, Münter and Pechstein drew hundreds of the ethnographic objects of a wide range of geographical types, of which some were ‘collected’ by Frobenius, between 1911 - 1912 . Some examples of these works can be found on 6

figure 1; a sketch by Kirchner possibly referring to the Opferschale on figure 2. In the ethnographic still-life, Kirchner is juxtaposing an ethnographic object from Kongo together with objects like a vase with flowers from his own studio. In the same way, Nolde juxtaposes the sculptures in his work. For example in his painting Man, Fisch und Frau (1912) on figure 3, figure 4 and figure 5 possibly referring to the Yoruba sculptures visible on figure 6 and figure 7. Taking into

consideration the implication of the travelling objects, these examples show the strong dynamics between imperial Germany and the work of these artists.

The fascination of ethnographic art and the roots of anthropological thinking in early 20th-century Berlin and Dresden can be traced back to Adolf Bastian. The ethnographic museum director Bastian surpassed most of his 19th-century colleagues in the social sciences by delineating carefully the concept of ‘’psychic unity of mankind’’. He argued for the idea that certain human ideas were elementary to all people, only varying little due to regional differences. Other than most of his predecessors, he performed world-wide practical field-work himself and used cross-cultural data for his analysis. In order to collect ethnographic objects, Bastian was involved with the violent

exploitation of indigenous property by participating in imperialist opportunities like the Boxer

Kirchner must have been fairly well aquatinted with Frobenius ethnographic (field) work; he owned several

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books on his expeditions to Africa and his art historical research according to the book inventory which was established after the death of Erna Kirchner. See Gujer, L. Burcher-Inventar von der Herrn und Frau E.L. Kirchner. Wildboden-Davos, 1946.

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rebellion . Bastian prioritised the acquisition of new objects over the creation of a comprehensive 7

museum display (Penny, 163). As a result of the ideas of Bastian, the museum display of the

ethnographic collection had been separated from European art, culture and antiquities. The Society of Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory supported Bastian in his ambition to establish a entirely separate building for the ethnographic collection and with the help of Wilhelm II’s funding, Bastian was able to open a separate building solely for this collection. In this building, Bastian had the desire to present an impression of the entirety of human culture in a birds eye view (Zimmerman, 177).

This idea was envisaged by the nowadays well known glass cases which were supposed to give the impression of being able to see myriad objects at once. Objects of ethnic groups who were completely unrelated were presented in the museum as neighbours. This was the curatorial method of the museum presentation in which the artists of the early 20th-century saw the ethnographic objects. As we could see in the previously mentioned example (fig. 1), Kirchner referenced to characteristics from unrelated cultures, which was possibly influenced by the curatorial method of Bastian.

In the context of this thesis it is worth reminding ourselves that Bastian regularly donated for ethnic shows as he regarded the ethnic show the perfect opportunity to for acquiring ethnographic objects for his collection (Penny, 104). Additionally, the people in the ethnic show, in this thesis called ’travellers’, themselves were sometimes invited to the ethnographic museums to provide the ethnologists with their knowledge on certain objects which ended up in the German ethnographic museums (Penny, 104). The expressionists of the early 20th-century visited the ethnographic museums in Dresden, Hamburg and Berlin, visited cabaret and circus acts, read illustrated newspapers and received objects from non-European countries from friends which played an important role in their daily lives (Lloyd, 5). These different implications of colonialism illustrate that by the early 20th-century the colonies had become an integral part of the daily life in Imperial Germany.

In the summer of 1900, a military expedition left for China. Many ethnologists, dealers and other collectors

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seized this opportunity of the Boxer Rebellion to ‘collect’ (or plunder) rare valuables from the Kingdom. Bastian initiated a plea to the General Administration of the Royal Museums for the benefit of museum acquisitions by the exploitation of the military occupation (Penny, 107 - 112).

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1. 3 Ethnic shows in the early 20th-century

Several terms have been used to describe the public display of human being for the sole purpose of showing their ethnic or phenotypic variance. This event can be described as the watching people in from outside the European continent perform in richly decorated spectacles. This was either called ethnic show, ‘Völkerschauen’, ‘exotic spectacles’ or, the most common in both academic and media circles in recent years, ‘human zoos’. The term ‘human zoos?’ originates from a conference held in 2001 entitled Mémoire colonial: zoos humains? Corps Exotiques, corps enfermés, corps mesurés to encourage academic research into the animalisation mechanisms of (at most times) the colonised people. In an article by professor of ancient history at the University of Madrid, Luis Angel Sánchez-Gómez, the removal of the question-mark behind ‘human zoos’ is problematised. ‘’By calling the object of study ‘human zoos’, would seem to define that these were well documented events, as well as well established’’ (Sánchez-Gómez, 1). However non of the academic sources had clearly defined the indiscriminate concept of the ‘human zoo’. The ethnic shows organised by Hagenbeck and later also by the Marquardt brothers took sometimes place in zoos where people were combined with animals. Many scholars therefore take these examples as the principal example for the ‘human zoo’. As Sánchez-Gómez elucidates, ‘’the performances of the exhibited peoples were limited to songs, dances and rituals, and for the most part their activities consisted of little more than day-to-day tasks and activities. Therefore, little importance was attached to their knowledge or skills, but rather to the scrutiny of their gestures, their distinctive bodies and

behaviours, which were invariably exotic but not always wild’’(Sánchez-Gómez, 4). These images of these animalisation practices seem to be reenforced by the use of the term ‘human zoo’. The cages, the groaning, mooing and whining and the smell associated with the zoo may draws a beastial or savage picture; it invites the recreation of the passive savage. This idea is dismissive of the agency and role that the individual travellers may have played. Most research barely considered the motivation and context in which these people decided to take part in these shows. Although, the 8

term ‘human zoo’ in the exhibition following the conference (L’invention du sauvage, 2012, Quai

Most participants participated voluntarily, under a legal contract. Possibly, or even likely these people were

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not aware of the implications of their contractual relation with their employer. However there are some cases known which included kidnapping, which were not voluntarily (Sánchez-Gómez, 6). Whilst it is true that the exhibited peoples’ own voice is the hardest to record in any of these shows, greater effort could have been made in identifying and mapping them, as, when this happens, the results obtained are truly interesting (Dreesbach 2005, 78)

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Branly Museum in Paris) was meant to scrutinise the savagery of the construction (Bancel, 17); this does not come across at most exhibitions about these dehumanising events. Simultaneously, the term of the ‘human zoo’ should not imply that ethnic shows that took place in other locations like colonial exhibitions or missionary exhibitions were in any way less exploitative. Therefore, in this thesis, we will use the name of ethnic show rather than the more commonly used term of the ‘human zoo’.

Rainer Erich Lotz, a German expert on black entertainers in Europe, wrote that the African element in Imperial Germany also included the entertainers (247). The majority of black entertainers who appeared in theatres, varieté and circuses in Germany in the late 19th- and early 20th-century were Americans. These performances by black people can be traced back in the German weekly Der

Artist. Other black entertainers were exploited by the organisation of around 60 commercial ethnic

shows by Carl Hagenbeck and other show impresarios like the Marquardt brothers and Nayo Bruce. At the end of the 19th-century, the practice of showing people from outside of western-Europe changed. For instance, in 1874 an ethnic show with people in the context of objects belonging to the culture of the people on display was produced by Carl Hagenbeck. ‘’This is understood as the first major Völkerschauen which would formulate the model for those that

followed’’ (Dreesbach 2012, 1). However, the practice of ‘showing’ human beings started already in the early modern period when Europeans first started doing long-distance travel. During these early times, people, objects and stories were brought from places new to the Europeans to public fairs and royal courts to show the wealth and exoticism the Europeans saw for the first time. It was around the 19th-century that the term ‘Völkerschau’ became common in academic research to distinguish exotic spectacles that represented particular commercial, affirmative and stereotypical presentation model from those that came before 1874 (Dreesbach 2012, 1).

This new model of Hagenbeck's ‘Völkerschauen’ or ethnic shows was created to play on an already existing cycle of bias stereotypes and played a part in the encouragement to form new ones. It was this new form entertainment, which created the illusion on the primitive’’, which, historian of imperial Germany, Andrew Zimmermann calls the ‘’exotic spectacle’’(8). This formulation; the ‘’exotic spectacle’’, is a strictly western-perspective upon the events of commercialisation of putting non-europeans people on display. That is to say, many indigenous travellers were invited under false pretences, which will be addressed in the chapter of recruitment. The ethnic shows

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consisted of elaborate reconstructions of settlements from nations all over the non-European world. These reconstructions often were shipped together with natives who were to be featured in these model villages.

Generally speaking his ethnic shows consisted out of three elements in order to be

commercially successful (Dreesbach 2012, 3). First it had to play in on pre-existing prejudice, the audience wanted to see an extension of their preexisting image of other cultures in the ‘’exotic spectacles’’. It became popular to show human being that was considered ‘’savage’’ in an imagined ‘’natural state’’. However, this state was sometimes far from natural. This is ascertained by an interview accommodated by one of the inhabitants of Das Samoaner Dorf. ‘’These clothes (with a shrug of her shoulders) make us look awkward and ungainly’’ (Thode-Arora, 198). By her critical comment that the costume she had to wear during the performance were uncomfortable, we can understand that this was not her usual way for her to dress. Often this closeness-to-nature was all too well suited to picturesque depiction, and stimulated the feeling of excitement among the

audience (Dreesbach 2005, 151). Second it had to convey the quality of being genuine by recruiting, for example, a kind of textbook looking family, known to Europeans. Third it had to have an

exciting element which was unique for that particular performance. This element was often

demonstrated by exhibiting people of royalty, chaperoned by their royal households as in the story of Tapua Tamasese Lealofi in Das Samoanerdorf (1910). Correspondingly the nobility of the indigenous groups were often stressed, sometimes even enforced upon them with terrible

consequences in the case of Fai Atanoa. Fai Atanoa came to Germany in the Samoan ethnic show of 1895-97. The producer wanted her in the show because of her beauty. She had to play the role of the “princess” in the performance of the royal “Kava ceremony”. This Samoan ceremony came from a long tradition, and was usually performed by royalty. She was attended by women with far higher ranks in the Samoan tradition. This had very serious consequences for Fai Atanoa during the rest of her life. As a result, she was threatened by other Samoan travellers to be attacked and hung from a pole like a pig (Thode-Arora, 99)

Ethnic shows, like the ones by Hagnebeck, became an essential part of the 1889 Paris World

Exhibition, but also other circuses, varité shows and zoos. The German expressionist artists of this

thesis attended to these shows. People in these ‘’exotic spectacles’’ frequently were featured in ‘exoticised' tribal acts and shows taken advantage of for their entertainment value. Yet, on the contrary, abused for their educational value and exploited for anthropological science. The purpose

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of Marquardt’s exhibitions, according to one of the newspapers, clearly states the goal of the ethnic show was ‘’[to] increase understanding of country and people [(]of Samoa [)]’’ (‘’Samoa in

Dresden’’. Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten, August 25, 1910. P.3.). This was a design with

tremendous colonial implications. Social Darwinism and scientific racism formed the foundation for the ethnographic shows, which meant that indigenous communities, particularly those with black skin colour, were placed on a scale between white western-Europeans and great apes. These kinds of spectacles became a commonplace for the early 20th-century people with an amateur interest in ethnography and ethnographic photography.

Today we can still see and feel the effects in the aftermath of these ‘exotic spectacles’. Contrary to the notion of Anne Dreesbach ‘’The increasing criticism of the exhibition of 'exotic' people and the Europeans' changed attitude toward non-European cultures caused the 'Völkerschau' concept to eventually become obsolete and disappear altogether’’ (7), there is nowadays a new format for the same cultural exploitation through reality-tv and unmindful tourism. Moreover, the fact that these people in the ethnic show were sometimes stripped of their names, to wear German or other European names instead, denied the right to learn, to speak or to understand the German language, is directly responsible for constructing the convention of black inferiority in return.

1. 3. 1 Carl Hagenbeck, Fritz, Carl and Gustav Marquardt and Nayo Bruce

The complex phenomena of the ethnic show, whereby people where most often brought from non-European countries to Germany to be exhibited, all demonstrated their own signature of the show impresario who produced the ‘exotic spectacle’. Leaving aside the fact that all of them derived from the same principle of the emerging modernist (superficial) passion for non-European cultures, their intentions and approach seems to differ. There is an important difference between the most famous zoo owner Carl Hagenbeck, who hired recruiters all over the world to create a spectacle, the Marquardt brothers who each lived in the specific place of recruitment and therefore had a more political agenda, and the example of Nayo Bruce, a man from Togo who took matters into his own hands. These grey areas play a significant role in the though, practice and product of the ethnic show.

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Carl Hagenbeck

The trend of the ethnic show can be traced back to zoo owner and merchant in wild animals Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913). He started showing people in outdoor enclosures in many

Western-European zoos from 1874 onwards. The popularity of the ethnic show began to grow tremendously when he decided to bring a group of Sami from Lapland together with their pets, houses and clothing to his zoo in Hamburg. From this point on Hagenbeck began to professionalise the

organisation and marketing of his exotic spectacles and send his groups on tour around Europe. The Sami were followed by ethnic shows on Nubians, Inuit from Labrador, Somali people, Birmese (nowadays called Myanmar), Senegalese, India and so on. Hagenbeck searched for legitimation in anthropological science and saw his exotic spectacles as ethnically comparative education. In reality, the indigenous people were often put on display in the same way as exotic animals, thereby playing with the prejudice of ethnocentrism. After some news came out about the death of a

complete group of Inuit, Hagenbeck instructed his tradesmen to only recruit those individuals who did not speak a European language (Seck, 37). This, among other elements such as the placement of a fence for the audience, prohibited the possibility of a contact zone. With this confinement,

Hagenbeck was, for the most part, able to prevent discontent of the audience because the indigenous could not easily communicate with the visitors. Additionally, as tradesmen, Hagenbeck also made valuable and interesting donations to the ethnographic museums in Berlin, Leipzig and Hamburg.

The ‘’Marquardt Brothers’’: Carl, Fritz and Gustav Marquardt

The Marquardt Brother’s, as they profiled themselves as show impresarios, lived in three different continents for some time. Friedrich (‘’Fritz’’) Marquardt went to Samoa in 1887 to work as a shipping clerk for the Deutsche Handels- und Plantagen Gesellschaft. From there on he was send off to look after a station on Tongan Island. Tapua Tamasese Lealofi, King of Samoa, hired

Marquardt as a military instructor and as a consequence, Marquardt fought for the duration of three months alongside Tapua Tamasese’s warriors. From the 1890s on the Marquardt brother became actively involved in the organisation of social events for the colonial community in Apia, Samoa. Here he organised several balls and festivities (Thode-Arora, 47). In these years he was appointed

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customs official in Apia. Half a decade later he was appointed chief of police. However, he resigned before he could finish his first year in order to organise an ethnic show together with his Germany-based brother Carl. It must have been somewhere before 1899 that Fritz acquired a plantation in Samoa and married his wife Marie Denise Devere who was the daughter of a Samoan woman and a Frenchman. In 1899 he set off for Germany again with an ethnic show troupe. In 1910-1911 the Marquardt brothers organised their third ethnic show. This show emerged under exceptional circumstances because the Colonial Government in Berlin had banned ethnic shows from German colonies as early as 1901.

Fritz older brother Carl was born in 1860. According to Thode-Arora, he was ‘’perhaps a journalist’’ (53). Most likely his first visit to Samoa was in 1897, with the return of a troupe of Samoans. From this moment on, Carl starts trading in Samoan ethnographic objects. Substantial Samoan and New Guinean collections of Carl can be found in several ethnographic museums in Germany like Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich but also in Dresden, Cologne and Frankfurt. Furthermore, Carl became famous for a publication Die Tatowierung beider Geschlecher in Samoa which is in demand in Samoa up to today. Carl expanded his ethnic-show-business from around 1900 onwards, even after the governmental ban. Until the First World War, his name is seen on several ethnic shows from Africa and the Middle East like Das Beduinen Dorf (1910) and Das

Afrikanische Dorf (1910).

This last ethnic show Das Beduinen Dorf was most probably made with the help of African-based Marquardt-brother Gustav - a third Marquardt brother (his name is mentioned in the brochure

Das afrikanischer Dorf in Stadtmuseum Berlin (fig. 8)). After the death of German-based Carl,

Gustav was the one who got into contact with the ethnographic museum in Munich about the necklaces worn in Das Afrikanische Dorf in, amongst others, Dresden (1910) (fig. 9). This necklace was possibly painted by Kirchner during his visit in 1910, which will be addressed later in the case study on Das Afrikanische Dorf.

Nayo Bruce

Next to these four European ethnic show impresarios there were also some travellers who took matter into their own hands. One example is an African man called Nayo Bruce, who is also known

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as John Calvert Bruce, from Aného (Togo). The story of this Togolese traditional leader and trader is addressed in this thesis in order to restore a degree of the agency of the people who are otherwise portrayed as victims of colonial crime and exploitation by white privileged man.

From an extensive study by Swiss journalist and writer Rea Brände, we know that he first came to Germany in 1888 together with three other Togolese man to vouch for a plantation project in order to secure investment. Not long thereafter Nayo Bruce got a job at the German colonial administration where he was informed about a colonial exhibition to be staged in Germany. This event supposedly would celebrate the colonies of Germany. Nayo Bruce took this change to play a key role in the Togolese organisation. Before he became a show impresario himself, Nayo Bruce was acting in the First German Colonial Exhibition in Berlin in 1896. After having been ‘exhibited’ like an animal by a German impresario, Nayo Bruce managed to free himself and run the ethnic show independently. Nayo Bruce travelled together with his four wives and a show troupe around Europe for twenty years. Nayo Bruce was a member of the Togo elite who saw the financial opportunities that these performances brought. In the following years Nayo Bruce and his troupe visited at least 222 show locations in more than a dozen European countries. From these locations around a hundred were in Germany, like the Munich Oktoberfest, the Vogelwiese in Dresden and the Panopticum in Berlin. During these two decades thirteen children were born; most of them grew up in Germany and Russia, fostered by wealthy foster parents or in Christian homes (Brändle, 22). On march the 3rd, 1919 Nayo Bruce dies in the Caucasus.

1. 3. 2

Scientific racism

One of the marketing tools which Hagenbeck and other the Marquardt brothers used was the implication of authenticity. Before the opening of the ‘exotic spectacle', they would invite leading anthropologists and other scientists to visit their show, deliver speeches and write reports and reviews for local newspapers in order to validate the authenticity of the indigenous people who were to perform. It was in 1869 that Rudolf Virchow from the Berliner Gesellschaft fur

Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte initiated this co-operation to study the exhibited

people (Dreesbach 2005, 303). In return for the invite, the show impresario received a certificate of authenticity. Hagenbeck gave the scientists permission to carry out (physical) examinations. These

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were often combined with exclusive shows and meetings. With the help of the guarantee of

authenticity through these scientific certificates, Hagenbeck was able to raise the scientific value of the performance. Some of the voice recordings off for example Das Sudanesendorf, 1909, made by a linguist are still in possession of the Berlin sound archive. The satirical cartoon Die

Mohrenwasche (fig. 10) illustrates that there was also scepticism towards ethnic shows and the way

in which field anthropologists used to validate authenticity. This very stereotypical ad racist illustration tells a story of an African man who is to leave for Europe where he meets the producer of the ethnic show. In the exotic spectacle the man is to perform as a ‘’Wilder Mann’’ until police enforcement questions the man’s authenticity. The man of African descent undergoes ‘’three days and nights of washing’’ by three scientists. When the man ‘’doesn’t turn white’’ he is declared authentic. Because of this disgracing experience, the man is forced to return to Africa.

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The process of recruitment

Between 1875 and 1930 around 400 groups of human beings were shown throughout Germany. One out of four of the ethnic shows was organised by Hagenbeck. Most of these ethnic groups

supposedly originated from Asia (mostly Sri Lanka (‘Ceylon’) and India) but also from polynesia (Samoa) (Dreesbach 2012, 4). In the case of Hagenbeck, the process of recruitment and selection started about six months prior to the exotic spectacle (Dreesbach 2012, 3). Merchants who were formerly assigned to arrange for exotic animals to come to Hagenbeck’s zoo would now recruit groups of human beings instead. They were instructed to collect a range of different people, from young to old, men to women in order to create a coherent heterogeneous illusion of a family. The groups were put together coincide with the European standard of beauty or in accordance with the prejudice of the ‘primitive man’. Often these groups included a person or family of royal decent or people with special abilities like playing a musical instrument or the charming of a snake. These commercial exhibitions could be divided into three categories: the native village, which supposedly displayed the real-life of the villagers, the circus-like display which included acrobatic acts and the ‘freak show’ which mainly focused on the otherness of the performers.

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One of the main draws for many of the participants to take part in the ethnic show was because of the financial promises. However, they ultimately were paid no more than a fraction of the show’s revenues (Rothfels, 139-141). Under the eyes of the local authorities, a contract was set up that stated that the people under his care would be well provided for and that they expected safe return, this included working hours, pay, tasks and medical care (Dreesbach 2012, 4). After their contracts had been signed, the participants had to be provided with a passport and vaccinated. This happened only after quite a few participants in the ethnic shows had died of diseases uncommon in their home countries, such as measles, smallpox and tuberculosis. Being vaccinated did however not prevent them from bringing these European diseases back home. Although legal contract were written up between the traveller and the show impresario, it is unclear if the participants were aware of the implications of being in an ethnological exposition. Because there are only little to no first eye references by the participants this knowledge is unknown to us in most cases. One famous example of a traveller who did write in his diary about his travel with the ethnic show was of the 35 year old Labrador Inuit, Abraham Ulrikab . During their travels, all died of smallpox due to the 9

neglect of the show impresario to vaccinate the travellers. After their deaths, the museum of natural history created laser casts of their bodies. His skeleton, together with 5 other travellers, was

uncovered in the depot of the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle in Paris and have not yet been repatriated.

Another draw towards participation in the ethnic show was for political reasons. Many high ranking officials were brought to Germany and Holland expecting to meet the royal family or politicians. Although some did meet with chancellor Kaiser Wilhelm, these pretences were sometimes false. In 1883 a colonial exposition named Exposition Universelle Coloniale

etd’Exportation Générale, including an ethnic show was held on the grounds of the Stedelijk

Museum Amsterdam, 12 years before it was build. This was the only world fair on Dutch grounds, and had a focus on the colonial territories. In the case of the 26 Surinamese at the fair, some left Surinam assuming to have been invited to a state visit. However, King Willem II refused to meet the travellers (Stokkom, 77). These kind of false pretences and neglect were part of the exploitation that the travellers had to deal with during their time in an ethnic show.

A translation of Ulrikab’s diary was published in 2005 under the title The Diary of Abraham Ulrikab: Text

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and Context (2005). Their story resulted in the documentary Trapped in a Human Zoo (2016) and several other books like Voyage with the Labrador Eskimos, 1880-1881 (2019).

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1. 3. 4

Advertisement & colonial propaganda

Colonial propaganda

In the years between 1896 and 1940, around 50 colonial exhibitions took place. Nevertheless, aside from non-European art, ‘solely’ two of those had human beings on display. These two did not resemble the same features of an ethnic show because they did conform to the existing stereotypes. Instead, they would have to reflect the need for colonisation. The performers themselves were not too pleased with this concept, as they were expected to act like savages and their performance served colonial propaganda. As a result, these colonial exhibitions tended to resemble trade shows.

In 1900 the Colonial Council prohibited the ‘export of natives of the colonies for the purpose of exhibition’(Hohlenlohe-Schillingsfurst, Ruderlass, 73). Admiral Franz Stauch criticised these kinds of presentations because there was no educational aim in ‘Völkerschauen. According to him, ‘’Völkerschauen had a detrimental effect on the exhibited people. Because they could do serious harm to the delicate relationship of the “natives” to the colonialists, they were to be avoided’’ (Deutsche Kolonialzeitung from 12.04.1913, 247). After all, people in the colonies were considered German citizens and were to be ‘educated’ according to German and Christian

standards, not put on display as ‘savages’. It was a different matter where people from non-colonised countries were concerned; they continued to appear in ethnic shows.

Publicity for the ethnic shows

The ethnic shows were advertised through different media such as posters and photographs as well as flyers (for example fig. 8, fig. 27 and fig. 31). The mode of presentation can be understood according to Dreesbach as ‘’reflecting a recursive cycle of stereotypes’’(2012, 2). This means that this had little to do with the actual diversity and uniqueness of the people in the performance, but the imagery used to advertise these shows mainly focused on meeting the public’s expectations. In order to describe these modes of presentations critically it might be useful to use the language of theatrical performance naming the exhibition a show or a performance, the village a stage, the ‘authentic’ clothes costumes and the people actors. Moreover, it is crucial to understand that the technology of photography was a medium of colonialism. It is the ultimate medium to exemplify the intrusive gaze of imperialism. It is a subjective medium controlled by the colonial oppressor that

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decided what had to be seen and catalogued. Sometimes one can recognise the palpably furious gaze of the photographed rise from the surface of the photograph.

However, in the case of the Samoaner Dorf (1910) this is a little more complicated. The photographs which were sold in addition to the exhibition were part of their earnings - next to their regular fee, they were allowed to keep the profit for themselves.

The supplementary brochures and posters of the ethnic shows followed the concept of a hierarchy of cultures. This hierarchy was part of the colonial spirit of time. This hierarchy was not only found in the ethnic shows but an equivalent to this hierarchy could be found in the

ethnographic museums after about 1905. According to this hierarchical principle, solely Africans with black skin colour were depicted in a fighting posture, holding handcrafted weapons and where frequently shown together with wild animals. People from Arabic countries were stereotypically characterised as a more ‘civilised’ nation, presented as aggressive riders with embroidered robes, moustaches and turbans. People from the Pacific Islands were romanticised as gentle ‘creatures' from a tropical paradise, eternally dancing Hula bare-chested, wearing floral garlands. The publicity of the show with ‘Eskimos’ (Inuit) and ‘Laplanders’ (Sámi people) focused on diligence and hard work, domesticated animals and motion.

In 1991, Jill Lloyd alerted us to the fact that advertisement on the colonies presented itself in different ways. Satirical cartoons in for example Fliegende Blatter and Jugend concern criticism of the colonial while at the same time reaffirming the current situation at the time. These kinds of internal debates and ambivalence about imperialism resurfaces in the work off, among others, Pechstein . The political implications of the way the ethnic shows had been staged next to animals 10

in a zoo and how they have been marketed makes explicit reference to evolutionary prejudices of Social Darwinism. The conservative notion of Social Darwinism hinted towards the idea that a community which did not follow the western-European format of urban development and were ‘untouched by western society’ was an ahistorical community which could be idealised as ‘natural’ and ‘unchanging’. The consciousness of the artists who saw these kinds of promotion materials and visited the ethnic shows themselves must have, at least partially, been shaped by these colonial ideals.

A short illustrated explanation of the ambivalence in colonial debates in the beginning of the 20th-century

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has been explained by Jill Lloyd. See the catalogue German Expressionism. Primitivism and Modernity. Yale University Press, 1991. p. 191 - 194.

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2.1 The motive of the ethnic show in the work of early 20th-century artists

When we turn to look at imagery of non-European models in modern art, we often find, in more general terms, the counter imagery of the western notion of civilisation and modernity (Lloyd, 102). Early 20th-century artists tended to look for alternatives to the impact of modernity with its

industrialisation and colonial rule. The alternative to modernity was found in the ‘primitive’ imagery of imagined distant lands, (or the indigenous countryside of the Fehmarn) rather than in reality. The notion of ‘primitive’ culture which was strongly tied to non-European culture was not only expressed in the Freikörperkultur, or the naturism movement at the coast of the Fehmarn Island and the lake of Moritzburger Teiche and practising archery but also in urban images of ‘exotic’ dance. The visiting of ‘exotic spectacles’ such as the ethnic show became common among the self-proclaimed ‘primitivists’, ever since Gauguin visited the ethnic shows at the colonial Universal

Exhibition of 1889 (Foster, 38). At all of the ethnic shows organised by the Marquardt Brothers, a 11

small section was dedicated to the exhibition of ethnographic objects of the region of the travellers. This visiting of the ethnic shows was one of the most important experiences to encounter non-European art as well as people outside of the scientific display of the ethnographic museums and publications.

A wealth of drawings, woodcut’s, paintings and photographs executed by early 20th-century artists in Germany illustrate the importance of the motive of the ethnic show. The practise of

drawing from ethnographic sculptures was essential to the formation of the new formal language. Additionally, it seemed to make the real connection, empathy and identification of people behind them redundant (Hiller, 2).

This chapter will analyse to what extent, the artists of the early 20th-century performed ‘exoticism’, carefully studied the travellers or, came up with a fixed image. This analysis will be done in order to answer the question whether these artists reinterpreted or reproduced the people in the ‘exotic spectacles’. The concept of appropriation of the formal language of ethnographic

Gauguin made two drawings which can be related to the ethnic shows at the 1889 Universal Exhibition in

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Paris. Self-Portrait with Portraits of Roderic O’Conor and Jacob Meijer de Haan (1890) and Tahitians: Sheet of studies with six heads (1893) (Thomsen, 73).

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sculpture, the dismissal of what was believed to be West-European influence and the antithesis of industrialisation will show to what extend the artist gave notice to the colonial, and in what way.

The artist group Brücke distanced themselves through their manifesto from the prevailing school of impressionism. They painted from life along the lake of Moritzburg and at the Fehmarn Island like the impressionists did. However - without any intention of copying it. ‘’Whoever renders directly and authentically what impels him to create, is one of us’’ the Brücke manifesto reads. With this statement, they explained their use of nature as inspiration for spontaneous perception, in search for their personal worldview through their artistic means. This artist group was founded on June 7, 1905, in Dresden, a moment which has been recognised as the birth of the expressionist movement. It was founded by architectural students Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Fritz Bleyl and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Sometime later Max Pechstein, Emil Nolde, Cunot Amiet, Kees van Dongen, Fin Axel Gallin-Kallela and Otto Mueller joined the group for a period of time. The group strongly aligned with the ideology of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. This is invoked in the name Die Brücke, which stems from the quote “What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal: what is lovable in man is that he is an over-going and a down-going.” by Nietsche. Nietzsche is perceived as an outspoken critic of German nationalism and the symbol for a gloriously emancipated future that echoed in Nazi Germany.

There was sympathy among the members for freeing woman from the bourgeois marriage. However, this was based on a view of a woman as virtually a sexual being who should be free to become sexual. From this Nietzschian point of view, a woman should not aspire to education or careers because that might inhibit their sexuality (Ankum, 211). There emerged this understanding among these artists that non-European people were believed to be less-civilised and therefore, free, purer and more instinctual than the modern west.

These artists typically did not make an effort to respect nor understand whom they painted, how it was possible for them to see these people in Germany nor why they were these travellers came to Germany and with that dismissed the parts they rendered unimportant (Murrell, 1). This typical way of thinking about non-Europeans was given the term ‘Primitivism'. The artists drew inspiration from non-European cultures and simultaneously denigrated them through the use of this terminology. This term is now seen as problematic.

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2. 1 Gabriele Münter, Malabaren-Truppe, 1901

Gabrielle Münter was born to an upper middle-class family in Berlin in 1877. The circumstances allowed Münter to take art classes at a young age. When she turned 20 she decided to use her family share to study in the atelier of an elderly painter before she attended the Ladies’ Art School in Düsseldorf. It was her impressive handling of colour what made Münter famous. However, she only started painting in 1902, about five years after her art studies. Around the fin de siécle, before Münter began painting, she learned to train her eye as a skilled photographer. Her relatives in North America gave her a Kodak Bull’s Eye N2 camera which started off her artistic practice as a

photographer. Her photography is now acknowledged as the formative role, which had an enduring effect on the development of her painting (Janssen, 16). The potential of linking photography and painting put Münter far ahead of her time. Most of her photographs previous to her return to Germany had been either off the American landscape or portraits of the members of her family. However, when they were not taken of her family members, she often photographed Afro-American woman like Three Woman in their Sunday Best (1899). After her return to Germany, she started to immortalise people in painted portraits as well. It was in the same year as her visit to the ethnic show in 1901 that she started taking sculpting classes in Munich. Here she moulded her first female nude after a classical model of Wilhelm Hüsgen.

In the 1890s, the section dedicated to volkskunst in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum in Munich which had opened and played a role in the spark of interest into the carvings of Bavaria in Germany, Russia and other non-European countries (Janssen, 138 - 139). From this moment on Münter and Kandinsky started to collect objects, prints and panels from non-European cultures. According to art historian and curator Isabelle Janssen, these objects were collected without any regard to their specific history or origin (139). From photographs of the interior of the apartment of Münter and her husband Kandinsky in Munich (fig. 11), we know that she did not only articulate her interest in the art of non-European artists, children and folk-art in her paintings and photographs but also dedicated her home to the colonialist ideal called ‘primitivism’. However, her engagement with this kind of art only started to play a prominent role in her paintings towards the end of the first decade of the 20th-century. Her fascination with objects from a wide range of sources of origin attest to her the open-mindedness she herself claims to embrace; ‘’I am not committed to a single,

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sustained mood, and I refuse to cloak the world in preconceived notions.’’(Münter, 25)

’’.

Her interest in non-European cultures was, other than with her interest in folk-and children’s art not ongoing, but rather had it’s upheavals throughout her oeuvre. Other than the members of the Brücke she only started to sketch and paint in the ethnographic museum in Berlin ten years áfter her visit to the ethnic show.

One of the first registered moments of her interest in the foreign was during her visit to one of the ethnic shows. In 1901 she visited an ‘exotic spectacle’ in Munich where she shot at least six 12

photographs (fig. 12). In 1901 there were at least five ethnic shows on show in Germany . From 13

her photographs and her home seems rather likely that Münter visited the J. & G. Hagenbeck’s

Malabaren-Truppe in Munich. According to a newspaper article in Der Chronist, a group of 60

people from Malabar in India arrived at the 23rd of June, 1901 in Munich, and were on show in a reconstruction of an Indian village . From an annual report of 1900 of the Museum für 14

Völkerkunde in Leipzig we know that the group also performed a show in the museum, (Author unknown.’’Bericht des Museums für Völkerkunde in Leipzig’’. Leipzig: Von Grimme & Trömel, 1900, p. 7). The Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv has several recordings from the travellers during their visit to Kurfurstendamm which were collected by ‘ethnomusicologists’ Dr. Hornbostel and Dr. Abraham, in the summer of 1902 . The event has also been recorded in the Berliner Zeitung on Juli 15

6, 1902. Sadly, this article nor the documentation material in the Phonogramm-Archiv does not provide us with any biographical information about the travellers. From a publication on Indian music, we know that the music of the performance has been recorded to enlarge a phonographic collection. From this publication we know the names of a few of the travellers (these names were given by the musicians themselves): Nagasara, Hothi, Tumri, Modig and Talam as well as the notes

To call the capturing of a photograph ‘to shoot’ we are acknowledging the violence nature of photography

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executed under the colonial misbalance according to Teju Cole. Cole is a Nigerian art historian teaching at Hardvard, a novelist, a photographer and the magazine’s photography critic. Read his convincing article by Teju Cole, ‘'When the Camera Was a Weapon of Imperialism. (And When It Still Is.)’’ . New York Times, 6 February 2019.

From the postcards provided by a private collector I was able to identify five different ethnic shows;

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Schilluck-Dorf, Hagenbecks Malabaren-Tuppe, Unsere neuen Landsleute aus Samoa, Togo-Truppe aus Deutsch-Westafrika and Afrikanische Völkerschau, dem Beduinenlager.

However, according to a newspaper article in Die Kleine Presse a group of 50 people from India arrived at

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the 4th of September, 1900 in Frankfurt, instead of 60 people.

The recordings of Der Malabaren-Truppe can be requested through folder Archive Indien, 1902 kopien und

15

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to ‘’Love Song’’, sang by the performers (Wachsmann, K. P. and H. P. Reinecke, 120). There is no record of any mentioning of this visit in Münter’s letters or diaries, nor has she reflected upon her visit in her sketchbooks or paintings. According to Janssen, this visit can be considered first and foremost of documentary value (142 - 143).

Early 20th-century expressionist painting experienced a direction that reflected on a disinterest in an accurate depiction of the world as it was. In the art of the members of the Brücke, this was expressed through the depiction of the construct of the so called ‘primitive’ without the interference of West-European influence. However, Münter was depicting her immediate

surroundings, and the display’s the travellers in the ethnic show in a rather different way. The six portraits shot at the ethnic show represent one (6) sometimes two (1, 2, 4 and 5) or more (3) people who were part of the ethnic show. The works are a black-and-white representation of the people in the spectacle in the centre, but often including another white woman on the right (at photograph 1, 3, 4 and 5) who is the looking investigatory at the traveller. These white woman often are in sharp contrast with the traveller’s through their clothes which are also white. The darker focus is really on the foreground rather than the bright background of the decorative ‘villages’ and ‘temples’ that were part of the exhibition which you can see on photographs 2, 3, and 5. The composition of most of the images is triangular, either upside-down on the first photograph, or normal. Münter used this

triangular composition, the gaze of the spectator and the dark and light contrast to direct the focus to the traveller in all but number 6.

The facial expressions seem to be dominant to the photographs, especially when one has a close look at the gaze of the traveller. Especially when we look at the man on the left of photograph 1, the central figure in photograph four and the mother in photograph five we are confronted with the stare of someone who, possibly, does not want to be the spectacle for her photographs. Through this, we are confronted with our own gaze onto the traveller. Other people in the photographs are a little further to the back and often cut half out of the photo, leaving us with the imagination of a crowd outside the frame. These photographs clearly express the locality of the event, where the travellers seem out of place being in Germany. The focus is on the gaze of the spectator versus the one who is being looked at. This tension makes these travellers look strong and fierce.

The first and third photograph shows the fences that were placed around the people in the ethnic show to keep the German audience out. The postcards in the hands of the travellers on photograph 1, 4 and 5 give an indication to the commercial side of the ethnic show.

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The subjects that Münter chose to photograph were mothers and children (in photograph 2 and 5). Children were the symbol of creativity and impulse, which were of big inspiration to Münter. However, this last photograph is slightly different from the rest. In this photograph, the structural wall of the ‘village’ is part of the focus point, and the low angle captures the structure off the ground. The photograph looks like a more intimate and sensual portrait; the gaze has been blurred by the smoke coming from her mouth. This intimacy is composed though the open posture of the woman, with her torso turning towards Münter, the peek of her bare foot and the spectators who are facing backwards. The woman is sitting cross-legged. Similar to what we will see in the woodcut by Pechstein, the woman is about to shut her eyes, totally in a trance by the smoke of her pipe. Other than the other photographs this photo ties in with the idea of the ‘primitive’ and the ‘exotic’ as it was understood at that time. It gives almost no reference to it being a photograph taken in Germany.

From the postcards accompanying this ethnic show, I have been able to recognise at least one person who has been photographed by Münter. The smiling man with achondroplasia on the first photograph of Münter is also represented on the right at the first postcard (fig. 13) and in the middle of the second postcard at fig 14. For the other people that Münter shot the characteristics are less easy to detect.

In an article written by the artist in Das Kunstwerk, Münter debated that she did not narrate out of preconceived notions (25). On the other hand, it is impossible for her to be completely without prejudice or to narrate out of notions that were preconceived because the artistic language and ideology of expressionism laid it’s foundations on the emerging German expressionism of that time. The fact that she was able to go and see objects in ethnographic museums and see people from India in Munich was only possible through the construct of colonialism. Her photographs show this dialectic relation of her criticism on the exploitation of the travellers as well as that it implicates her at the same time, as she was profiting and exploiting people in the same situation.

2. 2 Max Pechstein: Somalitanz, 1910

Max Pechstein, one of the members of the Die Brücke artist group, was likewise interested in the art of ‘’natural people’’, as it was called in one of the most influential publications reproducing Pacific