Tina Brüderlin takes over the management of the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin
Press release from 10/13/2021
The Ethnological Museum with its two locations in the Humboldt Forum and in Dahlem will have a new director from mid-January
The current Director of the Ethnological Collection of the Museum Natur und Mensch in Freiburg, Tina Brüderlin, will in future head the Ethnological Museum of the National Museums in Berlin. She succeeds Jonathan Fine, who has been Director of the Weltmuseum Wien since the beginning of July. The new appointment follows a decision by the SPK Foundation Council at the end of June. Ms Brüderlin will take up her new post on 15 January 2022.
Tina Brüderlin, born in 1977 in Colorado (USA), studied ethnology with a minor in American studies and cultural geography at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Dartmouth College in New Hampshire (USA). In the course of her academic career, she specialised in the two regional focuses of East Africa and North America. In particular, she specialised in the South Omo region of Ethiopia and the Pacific Northwest coast of Canada and Alaska (USA), where she also undertook numerous research trips. After completing her studies, Ms Brüderlin initially worked as a research assistant in the interdisciplinary Collaborative Research Centre "Cultural and Linguistic Contacts" at the University of Mainz. From 2007 to 2009, she worked as a collections and curatorial assistant at the American Museum of Natural History in New York (USA) in the departments of North American Ethnology and African Ethnology. She then worked as a research assistant on the joint project "One History - Two Perspectives: Culture-specific translation functions of the 'exotic foreign' using the example of the 'terms of trade' on the Pacific Northwest coast based on the collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin". Her research focussed on the provenance research of the Haida and Tlingit in the collection of the Ethnological Museum in close cooperation with representatives from communities of origin. She has been well acquainted with the Berlin museum ever since.
Since 2012, Tina Brüderlin has been head of the Ethnological Collection of the Museum Natur und Mensch of the Freiburg Municipal Museums, one of the largest municipal ethnological collections in Germany. There she is largely responsible for the processing and development of the worldwide collections and their mediation, including through digitisation projects (Oceania collection; African collection from colonial contexts), as well as the deepening of the field of collection research and the conception of successful ethnological and interdisciplinary exhibitions. Since 2012, she has also regularly taught courses at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, among others. From 2016 to 2017, Brüderlin was acting director of the interdisciplinary Museum Natur und Mensch with its Natural History and Ethnological Collection departments.
Tina Brüderlin says: "The Ethnological Museum Berlin is undergoing dynamic and challenging processes. The collections it holds are among the most important in the world. This brings with it great responsibility. In the scientific processing of the collections as well as in their public presentation. I look forward to helping to shape the future-oriented development of the museum and to the potential of interdisciplinary collaboration within the network of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation and its partner institutions."
Hermann Parzinger says: "The Ethnological Museum is more than ever the focus of public attention. It needs decisive and prudent management that structures the complex subject areas well and presents them to the public. I am delighted that we have gained such a competent and energetic ethnologist with international experience for this task."