The history of the Frobenius Institute for Research in Cultural Anthropology in Frankfurt begins with a contract signed on May 16, 1925, in which representatives of the City of Frankfurt and the self-taught scholar, explorer, Africa expert and adventurer Leo Frobenius (1873–1938) set down that he and his collections should find a new home in Hessen. In commemoration of the signing of this contract, on May 16, 2025, the Frobenius Institute will celebrate its 100 years of existence in Frankfurt.
As confirmed by the German Science and Humanities Council in July 2024, the Frobenius Institute continues to play a special role in German social and cultural anthropology. With its archives and collections, unique worldwide, and its current research projects, it is an active player at the interface between research institute and museum and constitutes an internationally acknowledged center of excellence in the field of cultural anthropology that attracts researchers from throughout the world to Frankfurt.
The institute can look back on an interesting past. Leo Frobenius had founded the “Africa Archive” in Berlin in 1898. After World War I, he transferred it to Munich, and it was there that he established the “Research Institute for Cultural Morphology” in 1920. Ludwig Landmann, then mayor, invited Frobenius to move to Frankfurt, and with the help of foundation funds the city acquired the extensive collections of the Africa Archive and made rooms available in the Palais Thurn und Taxis. Although he did not hold an academic degree, Frobenius was given a teaching position in cultural and ethnological studies at the University of Frankfurt and appointed as honorary professor in 1932. In 1934, Frobenius additionally became director of the Municipal Museum of Ethnology. It was only after his death in 1938 that the institute was named after him.
In its early days, work at the Frobenius Institute focused on the study of African cultures and history. Between 1904 and 1935, Frobenius undertook twelve expeditions to the continental interior, during which he collected ethnographic and historical data, oral records, cultural artefacts and copies of rock art. His theoretical approach to cultural morphology led him to consider cultures as organic beings shaped by Paideuma, a kind of “independent essence” – an approach regarded today as controversial. Members of the institute also conducted research in Europe (Spain, Italy, France and Scandinavia), on the Arabian Peninsula, in India, Southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia. Although his research during the time of the German Empire was anchored in the Reich’s colonial policy and Frobenius even tried his hand (rather unsuccessfully) as a secret agent in Italian Eritrea on behalf of the Prussian king, his belief that Africa’s cultures were equal to others was not always consistent with the world view of his contemporaries. During the Nazi period too, Frobenius continued to take an ambivalent stance: He allowed industrialists from Wilhelm Kepler’s circle to finance his travels, who also helped propel the rise of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP, “Nazi Party”). Frobenius also thanked Hindenburg, Goebbels and Hitler for their support of two expeditions between 1933 and 1935; among his most important backers in Frankfurt were Friedrich Krebs, mayor and NSDAP official, and August Wisser, the university curator appointed by the Nazi regime. However, Frobenius was adamant about his theory of cultural morphology, which contradicted the Nazi ideology of race, and he consequently incurred the wrath of Alfred Rosenberg, an NSDAP Reichsleiter, and of Walter Groß from the Office of Racial Policy.
In 1946, Adolf Ellegard Jensen succeeded Frobenius as the institute’s director and remained in charge until 1965. During his term of office, researchers undertook expeditions to Africa, South and Central America, India and Oceania. Numerous field studies were also conducted under the institute directors who followed – Carl August Schmitz (1965–1966), Eike Haberland (1968–1992) and Karl-Heinz Kohl (1996–2016). All successors of Leo Frobenius were also professors at Goethe University Frankfurt.
Roland Hardenberg has been the director of the Frobenius Institute since 2017. As a professor at Goethe University Frankfurt, he teaches social and cultural anthropology. At his initiative, the institute’s regional focus has extended and now also encompasses South Asia (especially India) and Central Asia. Today, researchers at the institute apply anthropological, historical and archaeological methods to study different conceptions of the human condition and the relationships between human beings and their environment. For the Frobenius Institute, its task lies in enhancing knowledge in the field of cultural anthropology and fostering a reflective handling of cultural difference through scientific dialogue. Working with the existing archives, continuously expanding them and reflecting on the history of the subject and its methods are established elements of the institute’s scientific approach. Worldwide collaborations, especially with people and institutions in the countries of provenance, have been intensified and become an important feature of research at the institute.
On the occasion of its centenary, the institute is opening its archives and inviting its audience to take part in special guided tours or become members of the Frobenius Society. The aim is to continue and intensify the productive collaboration between research and urban society, which has endured since Leo Frobenius sowed the seed so many years ago.
Anniversary program:
Thursday, May 22
2.00 p.m.: Guided tour of the Frobenius Institute’s collections and archives
Frobenius Institute, I.G. Farben Building, Westend Campus
4.00 p.m.: Escape room in the library
Frobenius Institute, Westend Campus
Friday, June 6
12.00 noon: Opening of the poster exhibition “Our Research Projects in Pictures” as part of the Summer Symposium
Frobenius Institute, Campus Westend
Binding registration is requested for all events under: www.frobenius-institut.de/aktuelles/100-jahre
