The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek's (German Digital Library, DDB) subportal “Collections from Colonial Contexts” offers centralised access to objects from colonial contexts for the first time.

The Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek’s (German Digital Library, DDB) online portal “Collections from Colonial Contexts” offers centralised access to digitised collections from colonial contexts in German cultural and research institutions. Users can search for collection items from countries that were formally under official colonial rule, as well as from regions that were once governed by informal colonial structures or that came under the informal influence of colonial powers.

The service is primarily aimed at people and organisations from countries and cultures of origin, representatives of diasporic communities, and members of civil society. The portal offers researchers around the world the opportunity to better understand the colonial contexts in which these objects were acquired. 

Since the activation of a test version in November 2021, the portal has been further developed in close coordination with 25 German cultural heritage institutions and experts from various countries of origin, and has been relaunched in July 2024.

Project coordinator: Lisa Quade (Institut für Museumsforschung)
Cooperation partner: Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure, FIZ Karlsruhe (Matthias Razum)
Participating Pilot Institutions: University of Freiburg – University Archive and Uniseum, Applied Botany Collection (ABC) at the University of Hamburg, BASA Museum (Bonn Collection of the Americas), Ethnographic Collection at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Ethnographic Collection at the Philipps-Universität Marburg, Ethnologisches Museum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (SPK), Ethnographic Collection of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Göttingen, Linden-Museum Stuttgart, Berlin Museum of Medical History at the Charité, Museum am Rothenbaum – Kulturen und Künste der Welt (MARKK), Museum Fünf Kontinente, Museum für Asiatische Kunst – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (SPK), Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Museum Wiesbaden, Landesmuseum Hannover, Landesmuseum Natur und Mensch in Oldenburg, Nordfriesland Museum in Husum, Rautenstrauch-Joest Museum – Cultures of the World Cologne, Roemer- und Pelizaeusmuseum in Hildesheim, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, State and University Library Bremen (SuUB), Städtisches Museum in Braunschweig, Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin-Brandenburg (SPSG), Übersee-Museum, Institute of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth
Duration: Since autumn 2021, with the project based at the Institut für Museumsforschung since March 2022
Project website: ccc.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de