Anneliese Eilers

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Anneliese Eilers [1] (born 1900 in Hamburg; died 1953) was a German ethnologist known for her research on Micronesian culture. She was among the first women in Germany [2] to receive an academic degree in anthropology and is known for her scientific contribution to the ethnography of Micronesia as results of the Hamburger Südsee-Expedition ( Hamburg South Seas Expedition ). She herself had never been to Oceania and compiled the ethnographic monographs she worked on “from notes, diary entries, photographs, and other “documents” of the expedition”. [3] Paul Hambruch died in 1933.

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Micronesian Cultural Area (map) Micronesian Cultural Area.png
Micronesian Cultural Area (map)

Life and education

Anneliese Eilers was born in Hamburg in 1900. Her father was a high-ranking clerk at the local German Post Office. She spent her childhood and youth in Hamburg and completed her secondary education in 1922.

In the same year, Eilers began her studies in anthropology, phonetics, and African languages at the newly founded Hamburg University. Her teachers included Carl Meinhof, Georg Thilenius, Paul Hambruch, and Maria von Tiling. In 1925, she continued her studies at the Eberhard Karl University of Tübingen, where Adolf Basler was among her instructors.

After returning to Hamburg, Eilers graduated in 1927 with a thesis on social relations among Bantu children. Her doctorate placed her among the first women in Germany to obtain an academic degree in anthropology.

Career and research

Following her graduation, Eilers focused on ethnographic research in the South Pacific. She published three volumes on the remote Southwest Islands, which are culturally closer to Yap but politically part of the Republic of Palau. These studies were conducted during the Hamburger Südsee-Expedition (South Pacific expedition) of the Hamburg Ethnological Museum.

Eilers also edited, systematized, and published the ethnographic work of Paul Hambruch on Ponape Island (now Pohnpei), incorporating her comparative analyses of neighboring regions in Micronesia. Her research was financially supported by forerunner of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).

When she wrote (in 1934) the report on Nukuoro for the Hamburg South Seas Expedition of 1908–1910, she drew on the reports of Kubary (1846–1896) and Jeschke (1877–1959), for — as she noted — “through the advance of the mission, of course, the indigenous cult on the island had been completely destroyed”. [4]

Anneliese Eilers died in an accident in 1953. [5]

According to a report of the German Federal Foreign Office (Auswärtiges Amt) in 2025, the so-called “Krämer” volumes of the German South Seas Expedition (1907–1910) by the German ethnologists Augustin Krämer (1864–1941) and Anneliese Eilers remain relevant today: The records contained in the seven volumes are still recognized by Palauan courts as the only authentic source in cases of land or tribal disputes. In the absence of written records, the “Krämer” records constitute the codified memory of Palauan culture and identity, which is threatened by modern ways of life. The German Federal Foreign Office financially supported the translation of these records into English. [6]

Publications

In Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition 1908-1910 (in the subseries 2: Ethnographie B: Mikronesien): [7]

Siehe auch

References

  1. ↑ With full name: Hedwig Bertha Anneliese Eilers (DNB).
  2. ↑ cf. Brigitta Hauser-Schäublin (1991:19)
  3. ↑ Jakob Klaus: “Not the First Time: Asymmetrisches Wissen zwischen medialer Zirkulation und Kolonialarchiv”, pp. 55-78, in: Szenen kritischer Relationalität, meson press 2024, here p. 69
  4. ↑ Anneliese Eilers: Inseln um Ponape, Hamburg 1934, p. 274 („Durch das Vordringen der Mission ist natürlich der auf der Insel heimische Kult gänzlich vernichtet worden.“) - For the early research reports on Nukuoro (Kubary, Jeschke, and the Hamburg South Seas Expedition, see the detailed account by Hilke Thode-Arora, „German sources on Nukuoro and the ancestor statues : Kubary, Jeschke and the Hamburg South Sea Expedition“, in: Nukuoro. Sculptures from Micronesia, ed. by Christian Kaufmann / Oliver Wick, München 2013, pp. 44–91); cf. fondationbeyeler.ch: Abschlussbericht Provenienzforschung an ethnografischen Objekten zu Händen des Bundesamtes für Kultur, Fondation Beyeler, 12. November 2020, p. 5
  5. ↑ germananthropology.com: Short Portrait: Anneliese Eilers
  6. ↑ auswaertiges-amt.de: Deutschland und Palau: Bilaterale Beziehungen (February 26 2025)
  7. ↑ In total, 30 volumes of the Ergebnisse der Südsee-Expedition 1908-1910 were published, edited during his lifetime by Prof. Dr. Georg Thilenius (1868-1937), director of the Hamburgisches Museum für Völkerkunde (Hamburg Ethnological Museum).

Bibliography

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