The Municipal Museum was founded by Brunswick citizens in 1861 as part of a citizens' initiative on the occasion of the city's millennium celebration. The goal was to collect "objects worthy of preservation" from the Duchy of Brunswick. The receipt of artifacts from the non-European world is documented for the first time in 1865.
Initially still regarded as "oddities" or "varia," an independent ethnographic collection focus crystallized at the Municipal Museum from the 1870s onward, which was expanded between 1893 and 1917 in particular. Since then, it has shaped the profile of this important cultural institution of Lower Saxony, along with the latter's collections of art, decorative arts, design history, historical musical instruments, and numismatics.
Today, the ethnographic collection of the Municipal Museum comprises almost 9.000 object numbers. Regional foci of the worldwide collection are Africa, Indonesia, and Oceania. However, the collection also contains other highlights, among which rarities from North America are particularly noteworthy.
The Municipal Museum is firmly committed to a critical reappraisal of the colonial references of its ethnographic holdings. This attitude has not only been expressed by an increase in staff in the area of provenance research. It is also reflected in the new conception of the permanent ethnological exhibition, which is scheduled to open in 2022. The focus here will be on the aspect of acquisition contexts and the identification of holdings from colonial, and in particular German-colonial contexts of injustice. Ongoing collaborative provenance and restitution initiatives with partners in Cameroon and Namibia will also play an important role.