Deconstructing Dinosaurs The History of the German Tendaguru Expedition and its finds, 1906-2023

About this book

Deconstructing Dinosaurs takes a fresh look at the history of the German Tendaguru Expedition (1909–1913), using recently uncovered sources to reveal how Berlin's Natural History Museum appropriated and extracted 225 tonnes of dinosaur fossils from land belonging to modern-day Tanzania. It examines the colonial conditions under which the area's inhabitants located, excavated, and prepared the finds and carried them out of the country's interior to the coast. Once in Berlin, the fossils were transformed into valuable scientific assets and prize exhibits, foremost among them Giraffatitan brancai. This specimen, a prominent subject of provenance and restitution debates, is used to explore the colonial legacy of natural history collections and the social and political responsibilities of the museums that hold them.

Originally published in German in 2018 as Dinosaurierfragmente: Zur Geschichte der Tendaguru-Expedition und ihrer Objekte, 1906-2018 by Wallstein Verlag.

Contents

Preliminary Material   i–xviii

1. Deconstructing Dinosaurs: The History of the German Tendaguru Expedition and Its Finds, 1906–2023   1–13 / Ina Heumann, Holger Stoecker, and Mareike Vennen
2. Minerals and the Maji Maji War: On Events Preceding the Dinosaur Fossil Excavations at Tendaguru in German East Africa   17–30 / Holger Stoecker
3. Colonial Crown Land and the Export Ban: How the Tendaguru Fossils Were Appropriated in the Name of German Science   31–46 / Holger Stoecker
4. The Politics and Economics of Dinosaurs in Southern Tanzania: Oral History Research in the Tendaguru Area   47–61 / Musa Sadock and Halfan H. Magani
5. Images of Work—Work on Images: Photographs of the Tendaguru Expedition   65–82 / Mareike Vennen
6. On Donors and Sponsors: The Financing of the German Tendaguru Expedition   85–98 / Holger Stoecker
7. Big in Japan: Brachiosaurus brancai in Tokyo   99–121 / Ina Heumann
8. Marketing Deep Time: Paleontology in a Time of Transition   125–134 / Marco Tamborini
9. Whose Is Bigger? Exhibiting the First Finds from Tendaguru   135–158 / Mareike Vennen
10. Dinosaurs in Berlin: Transformations in the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, 1909–1937   163–184 / Mareike Vennen
11. Bone Collages: Media of Deep Time   185–198 / Marco Tamborini
12. Hunting for Dinosaurs: Science, Museums and the Entertainment Industry   199–218 / Mareike Vennen
13. Looking Back, Looking Forward: A Conversation with Daniela Schwarz, Curator of the Tendaguru Dinosaur Collection   219–228
14. Taxonomies at Tendaguru: How the Berlin Dinosaurs Got Their Names   233–254 / Holger Stoecker and Michael Ohl
15. Dinosaurs and Provenance: The Colonial Legacy of the Tendaguru Fossils, 1909–2023   255–272 / Ina Heumann, Holger Stoecker, and Mareike Vennen
16. Voices on Decontextualized Heritage: The Case of Tanzania   273–282 / Bertram B. B. Mapunda

Index of Persons   283–286

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Biography

Mareike Vennen is a cultural scientist with the Landesarchiv Berlin. After receiving her PhD from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar in 2016 and doing postdoctoral research in Berlin at Humboldt-Universität and Technische Universität, she currently writes on the cultures of natural history collecting and collection ecologies.

Holger Stoecker is a historian who specialises in African-German colonial history and history of science, currently at the University of Göttingen. He conducts research into the provenance of human remains and natural history objects from colonial contexts.

Ina Heumann is a historian of science and co-leads the Humanities of Nature Department at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. She studies the politics of natural history and is particularly interested in issues of natural history and empire, economies of collections, and the social and political responsibilities of natural history museums.