Nils Seethaler (born August 18, 1981, in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
) is a German
cultural anthropologist
Cultural anthropology is a branch of anthropology focused on the study of cultural variation among humans. It is in contrast to social anthropology, which perceives cultural variation as a subset of a posited anthropological constant. The portman ...
. He researches historical collections of ethnological objects and human remains.
Personal life
Nils Seethaler was born in
Berlin-Lichterfelde
Lichterfelde () is a locality in the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin, Germany. Until 2001 it was part of the former borough of Steglitz, along with Steglitz and Lankwitz. Lichterfelde is home to institutions like the Berlin Botanical Gard ...
and spent his youth in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
and in
Morschen in northern Hesse. After graduating from the Elisabeth Knipping School in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
in 2000, Seethaler studied at the
Freie Universität Berlin
The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...
Ethnology with
Georg Pfeffer
Georg Pfeffer (17 January 1943 — 20 May 2020) was a German anthropologist. Born in 1943 in Berlin to a German sociologist father and a British mother, he was schooled in Hamburg. In 1959, he moved to Lahore with his family, and studied at the c ...
and
Markus Schindlbeck, literary studies with
Ulrich Profitlich and
Volker Mertens and political science with
Fritz Vilmar and
Walter Rothholz. Since 2012 he has been coordinating the archive of the
Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory at the Archaeological Center of the
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen ...
. Seethaler lives and works in Berlin.
He is married and has a daughter and a son.
Research
Seethaler was involved in numerous projects, in particular to research historical ethnological collections. In particular, this includes provenance research on '' human remains ''. In addition to examining possible contexts of injustice in collections from the colonial and Nazi era, he researches the history, motifs and social mechanisms of collecting, particularly non-European cultural goods, up to the present day.
His provenance research on the skulls of indigenous Australians in the anthropological collection of the
Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory
and from
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
in the collections of the
Charité
The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...
in the "Charité human remains project" formed the start of a broad study of the origins of human remains in German museums and collections. This research formed a basis for the creation of a uniform guideline for dealing with human remains in public collections in Germany.
In this context there was restitution of skulls to the countries of origin.
The rediscovery of four presumably indigenous skulls from Canada, in which Seethaler was involved in his role as archive director, also attracted international attention in 2020.
The Canadian doctor
William Osler
Sir William Osler, 1st Baronet, (; July 12, 1849 – December 29, 1919) was a Canadian physician and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. Osler created the first Residency (medicine), residency program for spec ...
brought the skulls to Germany at the end of the 19th century and gave them to
Rudolf Virchow
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...
in Berlin.
In addition to his work with historical collections, Seethaler was involved in a number of interdisciplinary research at the interface between the humanities and the natural sciences.
In 2010, together with
Carsten Niemitz
Carsten Niemitz (born 29 September 1945 in Dessau) is a German anatomist, ethologist, and human evolutionary biologist.
Life and work
Niemitz studied biology, mathematics, medicine and art history at the Universities of Giessen, Freiburg, Gött ...
and
Benjamin P. Lange, he organized the 11th Annual Conference on "Human Behavior in Evolutionary Perspective" in Berlin.
Exhibition projects
Seethaler advised, organized and directed numerous museum exhibition projects on ethnological, art-historical and natural science topics. In these exhibitions, innovative ways of exhibiting ethnological objects and conveying ethnological content in museums were presented in particular. His initiative is essentially the rediscovery and redevelopment of the lost
Museum für Völkerkunde Rostock, as well as the preservation and redesign of the
Julius Riemer
Julius Riemer (* 4 April 1880 in Berlin; † 17 November 1958 in Lutherstadt Wittenberg) was a German factory owner, natural history and ethnological collector and museum founder.
Life as a factory owner and collector
Julius Riemer grew up as t ...
Collection in
Lutherstadt Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north of ...
(the only ethnographic museum in
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
) as a museum institution, the expansion of which he supported by arranging donations from the
Rainer Greschik
Rainer may refer to:
People
* Rainer (surname)
* Rainer (given name)
Other
* Rainer Island, an island in Franz Josef Land, Russia
* 16802 Rainer, an asteroid
* Rainer Foundation, British charitable organisation
See also
* Rainier (disambiguation ...
collection.
The opening of the cross-cultural exhibition "Objects of Adoration" ("Objekte der Verehrung") conceived by Seethaler was the finale of the internationally received events for the Reformation anniversary in 2017 in Lutherstadt Wittenberg.
Collection projects
Seethaler undertook various research and collecting trips to Australia, to
Oceania
Oceania (, , ) is a region, geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern Hemisphere, Eastern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of ...
, to the
Near East
The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...
and through
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
. During these collecting trips, but especially through contacts with collectors in Europe, the
USA
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
and Australia he brought together several thousand ethnological pieces; plus a similarly extensive collection of ethnological photographs with examples from the 19th century to the present day. Objects from the collections compiled by Seethaler were sent to various museums, including the
Ethnological Museum of Berlin
The Ethnological Museum of Berlin (german: Ethnologisches Museum Berlin) is one of the Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), the de facto national collection of the Federal Republic of Germany. It is presently located in t ...
, the
Museum Europäischer Kulturen
The Museum of European Cultures (german: Museum Europäischer Kulturen) – National Museums in Berlin – Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation came from the unification of the Europe-Department in the Berlin Museum of Ethnography and the Berli ...
, the
Museum of Municipal Collections in the Zeughaus
The Museum of Municipal Collections in the Zeughaus is an interdisciplinary exhibition building in Wittenberg that presents objects from archaeology and urban history, as well as natural history and ethnology. The director of the museum is Andreas ...
in
Lutherstadt Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the River Elbe, north of ...
, to the
East Prussian State Museum in
Lüneburg
Lüneburg (officially the ''Hanseatic City of Lüneburg'', German: ''Hansestadt Lüneburg'', , Low German ''Lümborg'', Latin ''Luneburgum'' or ''Lunaburgum'', Old High German ''Luneburc'', Old Saxon ''Hliuni'', Polabian ''Glain''), also calle ...
and to the
Hermann Bahner collection in the Museum Altes Rathaus in
Langen (Hessen).
[Karina Blüthgen: Finissage im Zeughaus: Seit es Menschen gibt, werden Dinge verehrt. In: ''mz-web.de'', 22 April 2018 (retrieved 29 December 2018).]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seethaler, Nils
1981 births
Living people
Cultural anthropologists
German anthropologists
20th-century anthropologists
21st-century anthropologists
Scientists from Berlin
People from Lichterfelde (Berlin)
Free University of Berlin alumni