Book presentation and debate: Götz Aly "Das Prachtboot: Wie Deutsche Kunstschätze der Südsee raubten."

Friday, 17.09.2021, 7.00 pm, Karl-May-Museum Radebeul (Tipi)
Karl-May-Straße 5, 01445 Radebeul
Book presentation and debate: Götz Aly "Das Prachtboot: Wie Deutsche Kunstschätze der Südsee raubten."
Moderation: Ben Hänchen, journalist at MDR

Debates about how to deal with colonial history have long characterised public discourse. Alongside monuments and street names, museum artefacts bear witness to the former colonies. But how did they come to us and where did they come from? In his latest book "Das Prachtboot", historian Götz Aly reveals that in the vast majority of cases it was colonial looted art and tells how brutally German traders, adventurers and ethnologists went on a raid in the South Seas. On the island of Luf, they destroyed huts and boats and almost completely exterminated the inhabitants. In 1902, Hamburg merchants seized the last ocean-going boat built by the survivors. Today, this globally unique piece of splendour can be seen in the newly opened Humboldt Forum in Berlin.
With his latest book, Götz Aly makes an important contribution to coming to terms with looted art, colonialism and racism and at the same time tells a harrowing piece of German history. Götz Aly, who is one of the leading contemporary historians, also succeeds in stimulating debate with this publication. With his research, Aly repeatedly shatters certainties, both conservative and left-wing, and does not shy away from uncomfortable insights.

Götz Aly, born in 1947, is a historian and journalist. He has worked for the "taz", the "Berliner Zeitung" and as a visiting professor. His books have been translated into many languages and have received numerous awards, including the Heinrich Mann Prize and the Ludwig Börne Prize. In 2011, he published "Warum die Deutschen? Why the Jews? Gleichheit, Neid und Rassenhass 1800-1933" and in 2013 "Die Belasteten. 'Euthanasia' 1939-1945. A social history". His major study on the European history of anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, "Europe against the Jews 1880-1945", was published in 2017. He was awarded the Geschwister Scholl Prize for this book in 2018.

Admission: €5 plus advance booking fee
Tickets at all known advance booking offices.

An event organised by the city of Radebeul with the support of the Karl May Museum and presented by MDR-Kultur.