Jakob Wigand
@jawi.bsky.social
160 followers 290 following 22 posts
PhD candidate @ uhh || colonial provenance research x history of science x collection history || he/him
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Liebes Leipzig!
In einem Vortrag an der @ubleipzig.bsky.social zeige ich, wie 1927 ein Papyrus nach Deutschland geschmuggelt wurde - ein Blick in das Spannungsfeld von Wissenschaft, Recht und Kolonialismus. Kommt vorbei!

23. Okt 2025, 18 Uhr, Vortragssaal in der Bibliotheca Albertina, Leipzig
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
Paris-Berlin sleeper: low carbon, 2 years old, constantly full, but currently losing SNCF a few million EUR/yr

Intl Jet fuel tax exemptions are 80 years old and cost the EU 22 million EUR/yr for the Paris-Berlin route alone.

And you're cutting... the sleeper?

www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/...
It’s goodnight Vienna as Paris sleeper train to Austria and Berlin hit by cuts
Some Nightjet services suspended from mid-December after French withdrawal amid public budget crisis
www.theguardian.com
Papyrus bilinguis 1 is now on display—together with its full provenance history—at the Hamburg State and University Library (06 Aug – 28 Sep 2025).
🔗 Exhibition info: blog.sub.uni-hamburg.de?p=40573
📄 For more information see my article: doi.org/10.1163/2451...
But the story does not end here. How should institutions address illicit acquisitions of the past? What responsibilities follow for today’s collections? So far, the State and University Library Hamburg has not taken a clear position - an open debate is still needed.
The story of Papyrus bilinguis 1 shows how European institutions and collectors used secrecy to conceal illicit activities.This summer, the papyrus with its problematic provenance history is finally exhibited at Hamburg’s library.
In 1929 Schmidt published news of the acquisition. Still, he feared repercussions if the story reached Egypt. The papyrus’s illicit provenance remained unknown for nearly a century.
Historic newspaper article from the Hamburger Fremdenblatt (1929) titled “A papyrus find of world-historical significance. Acquired for Hamburg. By Prof. Carl Schmidt, University of Berlin.”
Why the delays? Provenance. Carl Schmidt, a scholar and well-known buyer of manuscripts, had bought the papyrus in Egypt without the required approval of the authorities. Fearing publicity might alert the Egyptian state, he repeatedly urged Hamburg’s library to keep the purchase secret.
Black-and-white portrait photograph of Carl Schmidt, German coptologist and papyrologist, wearing glasses, shirt, and tie, date unknown.
In May 1927 the codex was acquired, but only in 1929 did Hamburg newspapers announce it. In 2023, I proposed exhibiting the papyrus and its provenance. Again, it took two years - until 2025 - for the papyrus to be displayed publicly.
Reports on Papyrus bilinguis 1 - a famed early Christian codex from Egypt, today in the Hamburg State and University Library - have often come with delay. Its provenance, however, continues to raise urgent questions.
Glass display case at the Hamburg State and University Library with documents and panels on the provenance history of Papyrus bilinguis 1. In the background, exhibition panels with texts and images.
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
I am also fascinated by the anonymity of this beautifully researched and written article on the artifact in question. Is it a sign that telling the simple truth about provenance can endanger a career in the art world? A way for people to speak despite the danger? apollo-magazine.com/grasshopper-...
Did this grasshopper come from the tomb of Tutankhamun?
The Guennol Grasshopper is coming to auction after spending years in notable private collections, but are its origins even more illustrious?
apollo-magazine.com
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
Indiana Jones and the Curse of the Exzellenzinitiative

Indiana Jones and the Treasure of Competitive Grants

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Spitzenforschung
Gesehen am Kreuzstadl Rechnitz, Burgenland, wo im März 1945 200 jüdisch-ungarische Zwangsarbeiter ermordet wurden.
Kreuzstadl Rechnitz, Blick durch den Eingang auf die Ungarisch-österreichische Grenze.
Aus: Bewahr und schütz mich

Miklos Radnóti, Gewaltmarsch
Ausgewählte Gedichte
Corvina Verlag, Budapest, 1979
Was taugt das Wort noch zwischen Krieg und Krieg,
was taugt es, daß ich achtsam und gebückt
ums Schwierig-Seltene der Worte weiß,
wenn jede Leichthand dumm die Bombe drückt!

Miklós Radnóti, 1937
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
“Unsere Geschichte ist eure Beute” (Our history is your booty) - graffiti below Humboldt Forum.
Graffiti on a wall below Humboldt Forum: “Unsere Geschichte ist eure Beute” (our history is your booty)
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
Machtasymmetrien, Unterwerfungs- und Dominanzgesten. Zur Erinnerung.
Macron irks allies, left with Africa 'forgot to say thank you' jibe
Paris (AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday faced an angry backlash from France's remaining allies in West Africa and accusations at home of showing a neocolonialist attitude after lamenting that African countries "forgot to say thank you" for France's decade-long military deployment to fight an Islamist insurgency.
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
Politischer Journalismus, der in dieser historischen Situation Haltungsnoten vergibt, ist nicht in der Gegenwart angekommen und womöglich selbst ein Problem.
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
#OTD in 1928 in Hellenthal, a German Jewish girl was born, Margot Heumann. As a teenager, she was deported to Theresienstadt, Auschwitz, Neuengamme, and Bergen Belsen. To this date, she is the only Jewish Holocaust survivor who bore testimony about her queerness.
Margot as a passport photo of four with hair in piggy tails. She smiles lightly and looks unafraid.
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
Wir trauern um unseren Direktor und Kollegen Thomas Großbölting. Unsere Gedanken sind bei seiner Familie.
zeitgeschichte-hamburg.de/wir-trauern/...
Portrait von Thomas Großbölting. Foto: Claudia Höhne
Reposted by Jakob Wigand
Was bei dieser wichtigen Diskussion – gerade mit Blick auf die Migrationspolitik – nicht übersehen werden sollte: Der #Geschichtsrevisionismus der AfD schließt ebenso offensiven #Kolonialrevisionismus ein. Siehe hierzu diese Analyse von @rheinze.bsky.social: www.rosalux.de/news/id/4506...