Ovambo human remains in the Natural History Museum Vienna: Viktor Lebzelter's anthropological collection from Namibia

In recent years, the repatriation of human remains to Namibia has increased. Most of these repatriations have been linked to the genocide, recently acknowledged by the Federal Republic of Germany, that occurred during the time of colonial occupation. In the aftermath of the genocide, many European countries, including Austria, were also involved in collecting human remains from then Southwest Africa. This report examines the history and archival documentation of a collection of cranial remains of at least 27 individuals from Ovamboland curated in the Natural History Museum in Vienna. The collection was acquired by Viktor Lebzelter during his research in Southern Africa between 1926 and 1928. Lebzelter documented that these human remains belonged to individuals who had died during a famine in 1916 in an attempt to flee to Hereroland. Their remains were later collected from the bush and transported to the Natural History Museum in Vienna. In order to ascertain if Lebzelter's narrative on the provenance aligns with the evidence derived from the skeletal remains, a bioarchaeological re-analysis was conducted. This re-analysis highlights the taphonomy and health indicators of the remains. While the results of the re-analysis of the osteological examination support Lebzelter's claim of the post-mortem environment, it can neither be confirmed nor denied that these individuals were associated with the hunger crisis of 1915/1916. Further, it is not clear if Lebzelter collected the remains himself or received them from the South African colonial government. Whether or not he was aware of the wider picture of the gruesome colonial impact which exacerbated the famine, his actions were clearly aimed to profit from the human remains and use them for his research on racialization and classifying human populations.