Africa, Southern Africa, Namibia

This object as well as at least one ekori, the leg spirals V 1.405 ff. and possibly other pieces of clothing/jewellery from Herero women could be a gift from the postal inspector (later: postal director) Wilhelm Diers from 1902. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Diers was a postal official in what was then German South West Africa (stationed in Windhoek). See Bibl. Roemer-Museum Signatur U 53/75, newspaper cuttings concerning the Roemer Museum, No. 156, 27 September 1902, Postal Inspector Diers donates "a whole number of items of clothing worn by Herero women from German South-West Africa", including "the strange helmet-like headdress made of leather and iron, as well as necklaces and leg chains made of iron beads and leather", the latter weighing approx. 4.5 kilos. However, as the objects are not assigned to Diers by name in the inventory book, "unknown" was entered here under previous owner, year of acquisition etc.. In 1900, the Roemer Museum also received items of clothing belonging to Herero women by purchase through Adam Koch (curator at the Senckenber Museum in Frankfurt), collected by an unnamed former member of the "Schutztruppe" in what was then German South-West Africa. However, these objects are also not labelled in the inv. book. If the object comes from Wilhelm Diers, it is a gift from 1902 and he is the previous owner.

Roemer and Pelizaeus Museum Hildesheim

Exhibited in the special exhibition "Fashionable heavyweights from Namibia", RPM, 11 February 2020 to 31 January 2021