We Want Them Back by Robin Coenen

The Progressive Web-App »We Want Them Back« provides information about the ancestral remains of ancestors from colonial contexts in Germany and, above all, supports descendants in finding their ancestors in order to be able to bring them back to their home countries. In this way, the app aims to make a contribution to meeting the demand of societies of origin for more transparency regarding ancestral remains from colonial contexts in Germany.

In Germany, more than 17,000 ancestral remains from all over the world are kept in so-called collections in museums and universities.

Information about these ancestors is still difficult to find, especially for members of civil society, both in Germany and in the societies of origin and descendants who want to bring their ancestors home and bury them.

Since many institutions (museums, collections and others) do not make the necessary data publicly available, the web-app is currently based on the results of the publication "We want them back! Scientific report on human remains from colonial contexts in Berlin" by the coordination office at Decolonize Berlin.

Our app contains information about 15 institutions that still have 9490 ancestral remains of ancestors who can often be associated with a specific region with specific societies. As an interactive application, the app allows to share stories, give a face to the ancestors and make information accessible.

The app is intended to provide practical tools and background information to get in touch with museums and facilitate repatriation processes - especially as we continue to advocate for a legal solution for the repatriation of ancestors and the return of cultural assets from colonial contexts in Germany. At the same time, the app shows the (lack of) progress made by individual institutions in the repatriation of ancestors. The low number of repatriations, especially in former colonies, shows the extent to which museums, universities and other institutions have so far failed in the repatriation of human remains.

The app's database is continuously updated.