Lindiwe Breuer

After two Bachelors degrees (philosophy, cultural studies) at Universität Leipzig, I completed my Masters in the philosophy and history of science and technology at TU Berlin. There, I worked on the research project “Atlas of Absence (Reversed History of Collections).” As an art educator, I have worked in institutions including the Gropius Bau.

Portrait of a woman with a plait, wearing black, posed against a bright yellow background.

Photo: private

  • Constructing Provenance: Provenance Practices in the Museum of Natural History Berlin, 1889–Present

    Over the past three decades, research on the provenance of museum collections has gained visibility in politics, the media, and activism, while also emerging as a distinct scholarly field. Yet the history of provenance practices—the concrete ways in which authorship and origin were attributed to constitute the museum objects now at the center of provenance research—remains underexplored. My praxeological study focuses on Berlin museums from the late nineteenth century, a period marked by a fundamental shift in museum politics and collection practices, through the twentieth century to the present day. Analyzing how provenance was constructed and deployed within museum work, it seeks to illuminate the epistemic and institutional conditions that shaped modern notions of cultural heritage.

  • ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-4342-0041

    2023. “Der ‘erste deutsche Elefant’: Ein kamerunischer Elefant auf Bestellung.” In Atlas der Abwesenheit: Kameruns Kulturerbe in Deutschland, edited by Mikaél Assilkinga et al., 185–95. Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net.

    2022. “Der ‘erste deutsche Elefant’: Eine Geschichte der Extraktion.” Boasblogs DCNtR, November 1.

  • 2025. “Emanzipation und Technik? Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Haushalt und Frauenrollen in der DDR am Beispiel von Frau P.” (podcast, in cooperation with Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin). TGTUBlog, April 28. 

    2024. Presentation of the publication Atlas of Absence (panel member). Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale), March 3.

    2023–2024. Exhibition of geographical maps taken from the research publication “Atlas of Absence” withing the format Rapid Response (co-creation and co-planning of an exhibition). GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde, Leipzig. https://www.facebook.com/reel/1709380516250997. Sep 2023 – Oct 2024.

    2023. “Ein kamerunischer Elefant auf Bestellung” (conference presentation). Cameroon's Cultural Heritage in Germany. Findings and Perspectives, Technische Universität Berlin, June 2. 

    2023. “Im Keller.In Leipzig bemüht man sich um Wiedergutmachung und um Transparenz. Ein Besuch im Depot des Grassi-Museums mit den ‘Atlas’-Forschenden Mikaél Assilkinga und Lindiwe Breuer” (interview). Art: Das Kunstmagazin, 12/2023: 75–79.

  • l.breuer[at]hu-berlin.de
    phone: +49 (0) 30 2093 65867