Human remains return home
Freiburg, 08/10/2025
Universities of Göttingen and Freiburg hand over ancestral remains from their collections to the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
The Universities of Göttingen and Freiburg have returned ancestral remains to a delegation from the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The formal handover took place in Göttingen on Tuesday 7 October 2025.
“This is the first time ever that we are repatriating our ancestors that have been lost”, said Doreen deBrum, Ambassador of the Marshall Islands to the United Nations Office at Geneva. “It is an important moment for us. The repatriation is about connecting and restoring the dignity of our ancestors, reconnecting them to their homeland. And to bring them back is to honour both their memory and our living community. Thus, we are able to face the future with dignity and humanity.”
The remains of four individuals come from the Enewetak Atoll, which consists of around 40 islands with a total land area of just under six square kilometres. Paul Merz, German Government Secretary of the Marshall Islands, sold the skulls to the then Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg in 1913. How they came into his possession, cannot be reconstructed with certainty.
From 1911, the German colonial administration attempted to exploit the economic potential of the Marshall Islands more thoroughly. With this in mind, and under the direction of Government Secretary Merz, the usable land areas of several islands and atolls, including Enewetak, were surveyed in 1912. It was probably during these visits that Merz came into possession of the human remains.
In the 1950s and 1960s, the anthropological collection of the Museum of Ethnology in Hamburg, now known as MARKK (Museum am Rothenbaum – World Cultures and Arts), was transferred to the University of Göttingen. Among the items were the remains of four individuals from Enewetak Atoll, which today belongs to the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
The human remains of four other individuals from the Marshall Islands, which were held in the anatomical anthropological collection (known as the Alexander Ecker Collection) at the University of Freiburg, originate from Jaluit Atoll (also in the Republic of the Marshall Islands). They arrived in Germany via networks such as the then Museum Godeffroy, private dealers, or private collectors, who sold or donated them to the University of Freiburg.
“The return of human remains is an important step in dealing with our colonial heritage,” said Falko Mohrs, Lower Saxony’s Minister of Science and Culture. “We cannot undo the suffering from the era of colonialism, but we can at least work to restore the inviolable dignity of the deceased and raise awareness of their fate. As the state of Lower Saxony, we very much welcome the fact that scientific collections are being critically examined and historical injustices are being worked through.”
“Restitutions from the colonial era are an issue that the University of Göttingen has been very committed to for years,” explained Göttingen University President Professor Axel Schölmerich. “Following the restitutions to Hawaii, New Zealand, and Palau, the handover to the Republic of the Marshall Islands is the latest step in this endeavour. We are also concerned with appropriately addressing the colonial past of our collections.” In recent years, the University of Göttingen’s Senate has also emphasized the University’s responsibility for addressing colonial history and for making productive, future-oriented connections with postcolonial societies.
The University of Freiburg also considers it part of its historical and ethical responsibility to continue to critically examine the history of the Alexander Ecker Collection and the handling of human remains from colonial times, and to return human remains to their communities of origin. In recent years, in close cooperation with the state of Baden-Württemberg, human remains have been returned to their communities in Namibia, Australia and Hawaii.
“We take responsibility for the injustices of the past. Returning the human remains that were taken without the consent of relatives, in some cases even using force, during the colonial era is also a very important matter to me personally. I would like to thank the representatives of the Republic of the Marshall Islands for their great commitment – together we are taking a step towards a more honest reappraisal of our history.”
Petra Olschowski
Minister of Science Baden-Württemberg
“We take responsibility for the injustices of the past,” said Baden-Württemberg’s Minister of Science Petra Olschowski. “Returning the human remains that were taken without the consent of relatives, in some cases even using force, during the colonial era is also a very important matter to me personally. I would like to thank the representatives of the Republic of the Marshall Islands for their great commitment – together we are taking a step towards a more honest reappraisal of our history.”
“We must bow our heads to the people whose remains are returning to their homeland today,” said Professor Kerstin Krieglstein, Head of the University of Freiburg. “We hope that this restitution will contribute towards healing and justice. The appropriation at that time was carried out in the name of a supposed science that perpetuated colonial power structures. Today, we are working against this through a critical reappraisal of our own university history and responsibility, in parallel with respect for the communities of their origin.”
“We must bow our heads to the people whose remains are returning to their homeland today. We hope that this restitution will contribute towards healing and justice. The appropriation at that time was carried out in the name of a supposed science that perpetuated colonial power structures. Today, we are working against this through a critical reappraisal of our own university history and responsibility, in parallel with respect for the communities of their origin.”
Prof. Dr. Kerstin Krieglstein
Rektorin, Universität Freiburg
New Position for dealing with the colonial history of science at the University of Freiburg
The return of ancestral remains to the Marshall Islands is part of a comprehensive process of critically reappraising the University of Freiburg’s colonial scientific collections. Since 1 September 2025, Dr. Christoph Balzar has been investigating the provenance of the anatomic-anthropological collection (known as the Alexander Ecker Collection), particularly hundreds of skulls from contexts of colonial violence. The mortal remains of these people served in the nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries as ‘evidence’ for racist theories, which in turn supposedly legitimized German colonialism and later also the racial politics of National Socialism. The project ‘Provenance Research on Colonial Scientific Collections’ is set to run for five years and is located at the Vice Rectorate for University Culture. One half of the funding is being provided by the University of Freiburg, the other half by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Science, Research, and the Arts. The aim is to reconstruct the origin of these human remains, enabling them to be returned to the societies of origin. At the same time, the project will reappraise the involvement of anthropology and other scientific disciplines in Freiburg in colonial violence. ‘The project is a central element of our efforts to develop transparent solutions for dealing with colonial scientific collections’, says Prof. Dr. Sylvia Paletschek, Vice Rector for University Culture.