Germany to return 500-12 months-outdated monument to Namibia – Tek Portal

Minister of Condition for Media and Tradition Monica Gruetters on Friday said the gesture confirmed that Germany was committed to accounting for its colonial past.“A apparent signal that we are committed to reappraising the colonial past,” Gruetters claimed at a press meeting announcing the restitution in Berlin.The 3.5-meter large navigation landmark, erected by Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão, was to start with placed on Namibia’s coast in 1498.It was taken to Germany in 1893 after the area became a German imperial protectorate and is on exhibit at the German Historic Museum in Berlin.
The Stone Cross, which bears the Portuguese coat of arms, was highlighted on old world maps, the museum claimed.
In June 2017, the Namibian governing administration formally requested its return.

Gruetters will travel with German Historical Museum President Raphael Gross to Namibia to hand over the monument in August, the German tradition ministry reported on Friday.
Gross at a symposium in 2018 explained the Stone Cross could spark conversations about Germany’s history of colonial rule and about restitution and the return of colonial artifacts.

Confronted with mounting pressure from African governments, additional European international locations are doing the job to return artifacts plundered from Africa in the course of colonial times.
France President Emmanuel Macron final yr ordered the return of 26 artworks to the Republic of Benin much more than a century right after they have been removed from the West African nation.
The British Museum in London in 2018 also explained it will return Benin bronzes looted by British troopers to Nigeria.