Humboldt Forum: Europe's First Anthropocene Museum Opens in Berlin

The Humboldt Forum in Berlin, opened on December 16, 2021, is being hailed as Europe's first Anthropocene museum. Designed to integrate environmental, ethnological, ecological, and historical perspectives, it aims to address the contradictions of civilization, including colonial crimes and ecological destruction. The museum houses ethnographic collections from Africa, Oceania, and Asia, sparking debate over restitution. Scholars like Bénédicte Savoy and Felwine Sarr, who authored a 2018 report for French President Emmanuel Macron on African art restitution, have influenced the discourse. The Forum positions itself as a site for commemorating colonial violence and ecological extinction, rather than merely displaying looted artifacts. It unites narratives of nature and art, reflecting on the Enlightenment legacy of the von Humboldt brothers. Located on Berlin's Museum Island, the Forum faces the Altes Museum and Alte Nationalgalerie, near the Pergamonmuseum. Felwine Sarr emphasized in Die Zeit the need to refound Africa-Europe relations through 'creolization' of objects as mediators. The museum represents a shift from questioning 'what is a museum for?' to 'what can a museum tell us about ecological catastrophe and humanity's role?'