12 September 2018

‘Racism. The Invention of Human Races’ at Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden

Yinka Shonibare, How to blow up two heads at once (Gentlemen), 2006 © Yinka Shonibare / Courtesy Fundação Sindika Dokolo
‘Racism. The Invention of Human Races’ at Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden
Yinka Shonibare, How to blow up two heads at once (Gentlemen), 2006 © Yinka Shonibare / Courtesy Fundação Sindika Dokolo

Racism is an inhumane ideology, but at the same time an everyday occurrence that confronts many people with discrimination and violence. The colour of their skin, their appearance, their religion or their language lead them to have humiliating experiences which are almost unimaginable for other parts of the population. Racism not only hurts individuals but also violates the ideals of equality and freedom that form the basis for our democratic society.

This exhibition investigates how these forms of racism are connected to the term “race”: a categorywhich, while it appears to describe human differences, is in fact really used to justify political, social and cultural inequality.

Racism. The Invention of Human Races, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, exhibition view. Photo copyright: David Brandt
Racism. The Invention of Human Races, Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden, exhibition view. Photo copyright: David Brandt

Though people all over the world look very different from one another, there is no such thing as“human races”. “Races” are an invention whose catastrophic effects have wreaked harm since the18th century. The exhibition analyses the scientific methods behind the development of this school of thought and presents images and media used to disseminate it to this day. One section addresses the role of the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum as a propaganda machine for so-called “racial hygiene”under National Socialism. Another chapter is devoted to the politics of racial exploitation in thecolonial period, the aftereffects of which extend to today’s refugee movements.

Tasha Dougé, This Land Is OUR Land, 2016 © Tasha Dougé/ Foto: Anthony Lewis
Refreshment room in the new building of the German Hygiene Museum with the mural by Otto Dix (1891 - 1969). Photography, 1930 © Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
Tobacco factory "Yenidze", 1909. Model, o. J. Museum of Labor - Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg
Model of a wagon from German Southwest Africa, 1939. Kurt Tausch (1899-1969) © Museum für Kommunikation Berlin
Advertisement film "Wegweis zur Gesundheit" about the German Hygiene Museum, 1939. Boehner-Film, Dresden, directed by Kurt Otto Albert Engel (1901-1977). Video still © Agency Karl Höffkes
Map of the British Empire, 1886. Walter Crane (1845-1915) Cornell University - PJ Fashion Collection of Persuasive Cartography

All the sections give the floor to figures who have critically examined racial ideologies. Multimedia exhibits, filmed interviews and video installations present current topics for discussion: rampant casual racism, the debate on population genetics, returning stolen cultural assets or the challenges of a post-migrant society.

The project team under curator Susanne Wernsing was advised by a working group made up of experts who deal with racist experiences on a personal or academic level, as activists or as part of education programmes. Their comments have become an important part of the exhibition. The design is the work of Berlin-based Kéré Architecture, who caused an international sensation in 2017 with their spectacular pavilion for the Serpentine Galleries in London.

Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz, Busts with different ethnic characteristics after Blumenbach, c. 1850 Anatomical Collection, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. Photos: C. Redies / University of Jena
Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz, Busts with different ethnic characteristics after Blumenbach, c. 1850 Anatomical Collection, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. Photos: C. Redies / University of Jena
Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz, Busts with different ethnic characteristics after Blumenbach, c. 1850 Anatomical Collection, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. Photos: C. Redies / University of Jena
Eduard Schmidt von der Launitz, Busts with different ethnic characteristics after Blumenbach, c. 1850 Anatomical Collection, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. Photos: C. Redies / University of Jena
Advertising sheet for the traveling exhibition "Eternal People", 1937-1939. German Hygiene Museum. Photo: David Brandt, © Deutsches Hygiene-Museum
"The truth about the colonies", 1931. Poster "La Vérité sur les colonies". Anti-imperialist exhibition, opened on 19.9.1931 in the Pavilion of the Soviets.Archives du PCF / Archives départementales de la Seine-Saint-Denis, Bobigny
Anne-Louis Girodet (1767-1824), Jean-Baptiste Belley, deputy of Santo Domingo, c. 1797. Musée de l'Histoire de France, Château de Versailles, © RMN / Gérard Blot
Deutsche Kolonial-Ausstellung, Dresden 1939. Titelseite des Ausstellungskatalogs

Imprint

ExhibitionRacism. The Invention of Human Races
Place / venueDeutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden
DatesMay 19, 2018 – January 6, 2019
Curated bySusanne Wernsing
Websitewww.dhmd.de/en
Index

See also