This project aims to characterise the coloniality of missionary collections from Latin America by conducting basic and contextual research and to determine how the asymmetrical relationships between missionaries and indigenous peoples were reflected at the level of material culture. To date, missionary collections in Germany have received little attention in ethnological provenance research and initial projects have mostly focussed on collections from Africa or the Pacific. The aim here is to broaden the view to another region and a group of actors important for collecting.

In practical terms, it needs to be determined which German religious orders in the 19th and 20th centuries were active as missionaries among indigenous groups in Latin America, conducting ethnographic studies and establishing collections or making the infrastructure they created available to other researchers and collectors. In a further step, the aim is also to examine the collections of objects that have been shown in historical permanent and special exhibitions relating to Latin America to identify sensitive objects. Finally, three cases are to be analysed in detail as part of in-depth investigations: The Brazil Museum of the Franciscan Monastery of Bardel and the Chile objects of the Capuchins in the Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich. In the third year of the project, the Paraguay collection of the Divine Word Missionaries is to be researched in co-operation with the Mission Museum in Steyl in the Netherlands.

“Mission beyond home and colonies: German Catholic missions in Latin America in the 19^th and 20^thcenturies” originated from the project “Missionary Collections”, which was based at the IWM from May 2022 to June 2024.

The consulting service for religious orders and congregations with missionary collections of ethnographic and natural history objects, which has been maintained at the project office to date, continues to exist: Should there be any concerns regarding the storage, documentation and handling of such collections or press enquiries, those responsible can still contact Dr. Markus A. Scholz.