For a long time, human remains were used in universities for teaching purposes. Freie Universität Berlin also harbors such human remains, however, their origin is insufficiently known. Through the initiative of the human biology teaching staff, a project to elucidate the provenance of these human remains was formed at the Institute of Biology at the Department for Biology, Chemistry, Pharmacy. Since the start of the project, human remains are no longer being used for teaching purposes as long as ethical questions surrounding their origins are unanswered. The project has revealed that two of the human remains under investigation most likely came from the “Luschan Collection,” and were thus likely a result of colonial injustice. In July 2022, these human remains were transferred to the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte (Museum of Prehistory and Early History), an institution that falls under the umbrella of the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation). There, provenance research is being carried out on the human remains in the Luschan Collection. The provenance research project at Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute of Biology was presented to the public on January 17, 2023.

In November 2021, master’s student and human biology instructor Vanessa Hava Schulmann began investigating the origins of the human remains in the zoological collection of Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute of Biology. She was supported in this research endeavor by the department’s human biology teaching staff, including Dr. Vladimir Bajić, Prof. Dr. Katja Nowick, Dr. Alexander Lieven, Dr. Vladimir Jovanović, and Anne Hartleib. During the research, Schulmann documented approximately twenty human skulls, as well as additional human remains such as jawbones, teeth, long bones, foot bones, hand bones, several almost complete human skeletons, and various other human anatomical specimens. Based on the appearance of some of the human remains, as well as their documentation, it could not be ruled out that these stem from a context of colonial injustice. To investigate their suspicions further and gain more insights into the origin of these human remains, the provenance team consulted experts such as provenance researcher and anatomy professor Andreas Winkelmann from the Brandenburg Medical School.

According to an initial assessment by Professor Winkelmann, it is possible that some of the human remains may come from Freie Universität’s former Institute of Anatomy. Investigations on this possibility are still ongoing. However, even human remains that were received as donations to science can be problematic; the concept of informed consent did not always exist in its current form, which raises ethical questions today. These are questions that must be answered.

Referring to a humerus and a mandibula, Professor Winkelmann also drew attention to the possibility that these human remains could have once been part of the Luschan Collection, and thus may stem from a colonial injustice context. Also known as the “S-collection,” the Luschan Collection was compiled by doctor and anthropologist Felix von Luschan in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for the Museum für Völkerkunde (Museum of Ethnology). The collection was then distributed among several universities in Berlin in 1925. A large part of the collection came from German colonies in Africa and the Pacific region and was once used for dehumanizing racial research. Originally, this collection contained around 6,300 skulls. However, according to the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, only around 5,500 of these still remain in Berlin.

It was confirmed that the two human remains in question at the Institute of Biology, Freie Universität Berlin, originate from the Luschan Collection. For this reason, they have since been transferred to the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte. The provenance of the human remains found at Freie Universität’s zoological collection will also be researched there.

President of Freie Universität Berlin Professor Günter M. Ziegler thanked everyone involved in the working group from the Institute of Biology for their commitment to the project. He particularly highlighted their sensitive and responsible approach to the topic, and the transparent manner in which they went about their work. The teaching staff at Freie Universität’s Institute of Biology were not the only people who were responsible for the project: Museum staff and members of organizations such as Decolonize Berlin e. V., which deals with colonialism and racism both past and present, also played an important role in investigating the zoological collection. Collaborations like these are invaluable, emphasized Professor Ziegler.

A public event was held on January 17, 2023, at Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute of Biology, to provide more information and a platform for discussing the findings of the project. Speakers at the event included Isabelle Reimann, ethnologist and provenance researcher from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Mnyaka Sururu Mboro, human rights activist and co-founder of the non-governmental organization “Berlin Postkolonial” and board member of “Decolonize Berlin,” two organizations committed to the recognition and reappraisal of colonial injustice.

The provenance research team at Freie Universität Berlin’s Institute of Biology has published a website (www.bcp.fu-berlin.de/biologie/provenance/index.html, in German) answering frequently asked questions about the project. This is aimed at ensuring as much transparency as possible.

Biology student Vanessa Hava Schulmann is hoping that the project will spark a discussion about scientific and social responsibility in research and teaching. “We biologists, who work and learn with human remains, need to be aware of our social and ethical responsibility,” she says. The critical dialogue that needs to take place surrounding teaching and research with human remains is not as prevalent in biology as it is in other related disciplines, like anthropology and archaeology. On an interdisciplinary level, the origins of human remains present in collections housed at universities, institutes, schools, institutions, and museums are often insufficiently researched, she says.

Schulmann is appealing to policy makers in science and research to allocate more money to provenance research in order to guarantee funding for further projects. Securing long-term funding for provenance research is necessary, Schulmann says.