The Karl Braun Collection and the role of the Amani Institute during the German colonial period in Tanzania. A German-Tanzanian research project

The article presents an interim status of the results after two years of collaborative provenance research conducted by the Museen Stade (Germany) and the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR, Tanzania), focusing on the collection of the colonial botanist Karl Braun. Drawing on an exceptionally broad range of sources in German archives, the study reconstructs detailed object biographies and, for the first time, offers a comprehensive analysis of the colonial history of the Amani Institute. At the same time, the evaluation of Braun's estate is constrained by linguistic challenges and the one-sided perspective of colonial records. Complementary field research in Tanzania was therefore undertaken to broaden and critically reflect these perspectives. The article argues that the appropriation of cultural objects in colonial contexts cannot be understood in isolation but must be situated within the institutional, scientific, and political power structures of the Amani Institute. A purely museum-based provenance research approach thus proves insufficient. Instead, an interdisciplinary framework is required to adequately address the entanglement of knowledge production, military violence, and cultural appropriation. This applies not only to historical analysis but also to the development of contemporary decolonial research practices, which depend on international collaboration, multi-perspectival approaches, and the critical reflection of ethical and structural conditions.Footnote1