Südsee-Sammlung & Historisches Museum

Description

Within the townscape of Obergünzburg, the Südsee-Sammlung Obergünzburg occupies a distinctive position as a collection documenting the cultural history of the Melanesian island world.

The starting point was the private collection of the Obergünzburg‑born seafarer Karl Nauer. Between 1906 and 1913 he sailed the islands of Melanesia as captain of the passenger steamer „Sumatra“ for the Norddeutschen Lloyd and brought back numerous objects and pictorial documents. Among the items he brought are more than 300 glass plate slides as well as utilitarian and ritual objects, from simple spears to intricately carved funerary masks. In 1913 Nauer handed over the collection of over 1,500 exhibits to the municipality of Obergünzburg; the municipality honoured him by appointing him an honorary citizen and by naming a street after him.

The collection was initially displayed in the attic of the „Mädchenschule“ and was later moved to the listed Pfarrstadel. This building had to be vacated in 1990 because of urgent renovation work. Between 2005 and 2009 a new building was erected next to the Heimatmuseum Obergünzburg, which had been installed in the former parsonage, financed with funds from the European Union. Since its opening in May 2009 the collection has been housed there permanently.

Today the Südsee-Sammlung Obergünzburg, through objects and photographs, documents an early 20th‑century seafarer’s encounters with the everyday and ritual culture of Melanesia and thus constitutes an important source linking local museum history and non‑European cultural artefacts.