FEATURE
The fi rst groups of Bangwa objects to
arrive at Berlin’s Museum für Völkerkunde were
received in April and November of 1899 and included
been among the highlights of the institution’s permanent
century, fi rst at its original location (fi gs. 1 and 2)
next door to what today is the Martin-Gropius-
Bau and later in its facility in the outlying borough
repeatedly over the years in keeping with shifting
perceptions in the Western world of this “art from
far away.” This continued to be the case up to the
time the museum closed the doors of its Dahlem
location in January of 2017. Many of these early
collected Bangwa objects that remain in the in-
ON THE BANGWA
COLLECTION
Formed by Gustav Conrau
94
FIG. 1 (below):
The Königliches Museum
für Völkerkunde at 120
Königgrätzer Strasse (today
Stresemann Strasse) at
Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse
(today Niederkirchner
Strasse), Berlin.
Postcard published by L. Saalfeld,
Berlin, #261, c. 1900.
FIG. 2 (facing page, left):
The Lichthof of the
Königliches Museum für
Völkerkunde, Berlin.
Engraving after C. Stöving.
From Die Gartenlaube, Ernst Keil’s
Nachfolger, Leipzig, 1887, p. 549.
FIG. 3 (faing page, right):
Memorial fi gure of a father
of twins, aini. Bangwa,
Cameroon. 19th century.
Wood. H: 89 cm.
Collected by Gustav Conrau, 1898
or 1899.
Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin, inv.
III C 10521.
Photo: Martin Franken, ©
Ethnologisches Museum der
Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin -
Preußischer Kulturbesitz.
photographed the dancing female fi gure in oval
shadows and as part of a surrealistic composition
that juxtaposed it with a female model (fi g. 7). A
less emotive photograph of this female fi gure is included
in Walker Evans’ portfolio on the 1935 African
Negro Art exhibition, which was held at the
Museum of Modern Art in New York City (fi g. 8).
Even contemporary Cameroonian artists in their
own works3 refer to this iconic piece, which has
come to be known as the Bangwa Queen.
These fi rst Bangwa objects to enter the Berlin collection
were acquired in the Cameroonian Highlands
and sent to Germany, where they met with
immediate acclamation. In the course of the development
of the fi eld of art history in the Western
world, in which some of these pieces played a part,
the name of the individual who collected them in
Cameroon, Gustav Conrau (fi g. 11), also became
increasingly well known. Conrau was born on October
2, 1865, on the estate of Priemern, near Seehausen
in the Altmark area of Germany. The son
of the estate’s gamekeeper, Conrau is believed to
have been educated as a merchant and perhaps attended
a colonial school for preparation for a career
in Africa, which began in Cameroon in 1890.4
The course of his career there and its implications
today will be discussed in detail below.
NEW DISCOVERIES
I recently discovered two letters from Conrau to
geologist Kurt Hassert (fi g. 10), whose literary estate
is now in the Leipzig Central Archives (fi gs.
12 and 13).5 Addressing him as “Dear friend!”
one is dated July 16, 1898, and the other June 12,
1899. Since they previously have not been considered
in the research, they have prompted me
some truly wonderful objects. Many have
displays over the course of more than a
of Dahlem. These installations have changed
stitution’s collection will undoubtedly also be
prominently featured in permanent installations
and temporary exhibitions after the museum reopens
in its new location in 2019 in the Humboldt
Forum, located in the historical center of Berlin.
Most, though not all, of the pieces have been published
over the years, and there is a strong connection
between them and the aesthetic revolution of
the early twentieth century, specifi cally the advent
of cubism and expressionism. Some of these early
Bangwa works have been lost over the years.1
Five more sculptures left the museum in the mid
and late 1920s and today are in private or institutional
collections.2 A particularly expressive female
fi gure (fi g. 4) and her male “partner” (fi g. 6)
are among these deaccessioned objects, which
came onto the art market in 1926 via Berlin collector
and dealer Arthur Speyer. In the course of
their social biography since then, they both have
changed hands on several occasions. Man Ray
By Bettina von Lintig