Between Greenland and Sardinia: The Photographic Collection of Rudolf Trebitsch
Rudolf Trebitsch (1876–1918), a physician, ethnologist, collector, and traveller, left behind not only numerous publications and phonographic recordings but also a photographic collection that is now being made accessible on a larger scale for the first time. Comprising nearly 1,400 photographs, the collection primarily documents his journeys to West Greenland (1906), the British Isles (1907, 1909), the Mediterranean region (1907, 1909), and Brittany (1908). In addition to landscapes and geological formations, he photographed people, music, and everyday culture. Trebitsch combined photography, sound recordings, publications, and public lectures to document his research comprehensively and to present it to audiences as vividly as possible. His humanistic worldview found expression in 1917 in a public statement opposing hierarchical thinking, racism, and war (Trebitsch 1917). Trebitsch died in Graz on 10 October 1918 from the consequences of a suicide attempt. In 1940, the Museum für Volkskunde (Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art in Vienna) donated a commemorative plaque dedicated to Trebitsch, which had been installed in the museum in 1920, to the „Metallspende des deutschen Volkes“ (‘Metal Donation of the German People’). By doing so, the museum removed from both its internal memory and its public presentation the commemoration of – and gratitude for – Rudolf Trebitsch's extensive, committed, and generous support for the association, its collections, and the museum.