Cultural Heritage, British Diplomacy, and the German Peace Settlement of 1919

ABSTRACT

Restitution of cultural objects was one of the topics covered in the Treaty of Versailles and the related peace treaties. Britain made specific claims in Article 246 relating to the Koran of Caliph Othman and the Skull of Sultan Mkwawa, whilst the Foreign Office considered other claims. Britain’s policy on cultural restitution influenced growing international norms, but it should also be seen in the context of Britain’s wider diplomatic concerns, stretching from the time of Castlereagh into the post-Second World War era.

Acknowledegments

The author thanks Dr. Melanie Hall for her comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Wilhelm Treue (B. Creighton, translator), Art Plunder: The Fate of Works of Art in Wars and Unrest (London: 1961), Chapters 1–8. It first appeared as Kunstraub: Über die Schicksale von Kunstwerken im Krieg, Revolution und Frieden (Düsseldorf: 1957).

2. A very useful overview of these events is Dorothy Mackay Quynn, “The Art Confiscations of the Napoleonic Wars,” American Historical Review, 50/3 (1945): 437–60, written in the context of the conclusion of the Second World War and renewed interest in art repatriation.

3. Article 31: “Treaty of Paris, May 30, 1814”: https://www.napoleon-empire.com/official-texts/treaty-of-paris-1814.php.

4. Louis XVIII speaking on 4 June 1814, quoted in Quynn, “Art Confiscations,” 446, citing Eugène Müntz, “Les invasions de 1814–1815 et la spoliation de nos musées. Épisode d’histoire diplomatique,” La Nouvelle Revue, 105 (1897): 708–09.

5. On the debate about the Napoleonic era marking a shift in the concept of cultural property, see David Gilks, “Attitudes to the Displacement of Cultural Property in the Wars of the French Revolution and Napoleon,” Historical Journal, 56/1 (2013), 113–43.

6. Times, 25 March 1814, 3.

7. Andrzej Jakubowski, State Succession in Cultural Property (Oxford: 2015), 40.

8. Liverpool to Castlereagh, 3 August 1815, in Charles Vane, ed., Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh [hereafter Castlereagh, Correspondence], vol. 10. (London: 1853), 453.

9. Quynn, “Art Confiscations,” 448.

10. Ibid., 449. William Hamilton (1777–1859) had overseen the removal of the Parthenon frieze in 1802 and helped secure the Rosetta Stone in 1801, both of which were placed in the British Museum. Not to be confused with the antiquarian diplomat, Sir William Hamilton, whose collection of antiquities the British Museum also acquired.

11. Castlereagh to Liverpool, 11 September 1815, Castlereagh, Correspondence, XI, 12–14.

12. Castlereagh to Liverpool, 11 September 1815, ibid., 12–14; Liverpool to Castlereagh, 19 September 1815, ibid., 27–28.

13. C. K. Webster, The Foreign Policy of Castlereagh, 1812–1815 (London: 1931), 472–73.

14. Castlereagh to Liverpool, 11 September 1815, Castlereagh, Correspondence, XI, 12–14.

15. Harold Nicolson, The Congress of Vienna (London: 1946), 237.

16. Castlereagh note, 11 September 1815 delivered to the Allied Ministers, Paris, House of Commons, Hansard (February–March 1816) Volume 32, Column 301.

17. Wellington to Castlereagh, 23 September 1815, ibid., Column 304.

18. Liverpool to Castlereagh, 29 September 1815, Castlereagh, Correspondence, XI, 36–37.

19. Castlereagh to Liverpool, 1 October 1815, ibid., 38–39.

20. Ibid.

21. Cecil Gould, Trophy of Conquest: The Musée Napoleon and the Creation of the Louvre (London: 1965), 128.

22. See Eugène Müntz, “Les invasions de 1814–1815 et la spoliation de nos musées. Épisode d’histoire diplomatique,” La Nouvelle Revue, 105 (1897): 703–16. Also Monica Preti-Harnard, ‘“The Destruction of the Museum has become an Historical Monument’: The Restitution of Art Works as Seen by Louvre Officials (1814–1815),” in Ellinoor Bergveldt, Debora J. Meijers, Lieske Tibe et al., eds., Napoleon’s Legacy: The Rise of National Museums in Europe, 1794–1830 (Berlin: 2009), 137–56.

23. Wayne Sandholz, Prohibiting Plunder: How Norms Change (New York: 2007), 69.

24. Some of its earlier history is in Fredrik Thomasson, “Justifying and Criticizing the Removals of Antiquities in Ottoman Lands: Tracking the Sigeion Inscription,” International Journal of Cultural Property, 17/3 (2010): 493–517. For the place of antiquities collecting in Anglo-French relations, see Holger Hoock, “The British State and the Anglo-French Wars over Antiquities, 1798–1858,” Historical Journal, 50/1 (2007): 49–72.

25. Until 1858, all wills had to be proved by Church courts. If the estate was of high value, it went not to the diocesan court but the appropriate archdiocesan court. In 1857, this jurisdiction passed to the Court of Probate. “In the matter of the will and codicils of the late Napoleon Bonaparte. Prerogative Court, Thursday, Feb. 17 (before Sir. J. Dodson),” Times, 18 February 1853, 7. Also “The State of the Continent,” Times, 15 February 1853, 5. A grateful Napoleon III rewarded the Queen’s Proctor, Francis Hart Dyke, who presented the case, with a golden snuffbox bearing the Imperial cipher in diamonds on the lid.

26. See Erik Goldstein, “Diplomacy in the Service of History: Anglo-American Relations and the Return of the Bradford History of Plymouth Colony, 1897,” Diplomacy & Statecraft, 25/1 (2014): 26–40.

27. Bishop of London to Salisbury, 29 January 1897, FO [Foreign Office Records, The National Archives, Kew] 5/2340.

28. Salisbury note, 31 January 1897, ibid.

29. Bayard to Creighton, 6 June 1897. Creighton [Bishop Mandell Creighton Papers, Lambeth Palace Library, London] Volume 8, ff.283–84.

30. “Mr. Asquith’s Speech,” Times, 5 September 1914, 10. He was speaking at the Guildhall.

31. Letter by Pollock, 29 August 1914, Times, 1 September 1914, 12.

32. Letters to the editor, ibid.

33. “Proud to Hear Army Called Barbarians,” NY Times, 14 November 1914, 3, stated to be from an article by von Ditfurth in the Hamburger Nachrichten, reported in the Daily Standard (London). The general’s name is misspelt as Disfurth. This comment appeared in multiple publications.

34. Erik Goldstein, “Redeeming Holy Wisdom: Britain and St. Sophia,” in Melanie Hall, ed., Towards World Heritage: International Origins of the Preservation Movement, 1870–1930 (London: 2011), 45–62.

35. H. Guppy, “The Reconstruction of the Library of the University of Louvain,” Bulletin of the John Rylands Library, 10/1 (1926): 223–87.

36. Headlam-Morley minute, 29 May 1919, FO 608/2/19/1/1/11550.

37. Treaty of Peace between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany, and Other Treaty Engagements Signed at Versailles, June 28th, 1919 (London: 1920).

38. Tammy M. Proctor, “The Louvain Library and US Ambition in Interwar Belgium,” Journal of Contemporary History, 50/2 (2015): 147–67.

39. Castlereagh note, 11 September 1815 delivered to the Allied Ministers, Paris, House of Commons, Hansard (February–March 1816) Volume 32, Column 301.

40. The British Empire representatives were the attorney general, Gordon Hewitt, with the solicitor general, Ernest Pollock, serving as an alternate. William Massey, the New Zealand premier, joined them.

41. La Documentation Internationale, La Paix de Versailles: la commission de réparations des dommages, vol. 1. (Paris: 1932), 185–214; and Sandholz, Prohibiting Plunder, 108–10.

42. Bernhoft [Danish minister, Paris] to President of Conference, 27 May 1919, FO 608/136/474/1/1/11731.

43. Norman minute, 5 June 1919, FO 608/136/474/1/1/11766.

44. Steen Bo Franden, “Schleswig: A Border Region Caught Between Nation-states,” in Katarzyna Stokłosa and Gerhard Besier, eds., European Border Regions in Comparison: Overcoming Nationalistic Aspects or Re-Nationalization (New York: 2014), 162–97; and Stine Wiell, “Løven, stenen of båden: Kulturminder i nationalspolitisk spil,” in Bjørn Poulsen and Ulrich Schulte-Wülwer, eds., Istedløven (Mikkelberg: 1993).

45. Allenby [Cairo] to Foreign Office [836], 24 May 1919, FO 608/114/385/1/19/11530.

46. Clayton [Cairo] to Foreign Office [47], 22 February 1919, FO 608/114/385/1/19/3094.

47. Mallet minute, FO 608/114/1/385/1/19/11530.

48. Forbes Adam minute, 3 June 1919, FO 608/114/1, 385/1/19/11530.

49. Frieherr von Lersner to Clemenceau [as President of the Peace Conference], 21 January 1920, FO 608/277/221/221.

50. Foreign Office to Allenby and de Robeck, 3 February 1920, Ibid.

51. Webb to Curzon, 19 April 1920, FO 371/5242/E3864/3864/44.

52. Vansittart [British Delegation, Paris] to Young [Foreign Office], 30 April 1920, F0 371/5242/E4119/3864/44.

53. De Robeck [High Commission, Constantinople] to Curzon, 5 June 1920, FO 371/5242/E6375/3864/44, replying to Curzon to De Robeck [325], 5 May 1920, FO 371/E4119/3864/44. This copy of the Koran was probably the one once owned by the Caliph Osman that had once been at Samarkand, from where it was taken to St. Petersburg in 1868 after Samarkand’s conquest by Russia. In 1917, during the Russian Revolution, it was brought first to Kazan and then in 1924 to Tashkent, where it remains. It was added the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation “Memory of the World Register” in 1997.

54. Sadakh [under-secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Ministry, Mecca] to British Agent [Jeddah], 5 June 1920, FO 371/5242/E3864/3864/44.

55. De Robeck to Curzon, 5 June 1920, FO 371/5242/E6375/3864/44.

56. Rumbold to Curzon, 29 November 1920, FO 371/5242/E15419/3864/44.

57. Crowe minute, 17 December 1920, FO 371/5242/E15419/3864/44.

58. Michael Marx, “Le Coran d’Uthmān dans le Traité de Versailles,” in François Déroche, Christian Julien Robin, and Michel Zink, eds., Les origines du Coran, le Coran des origines (Paris: 2015), 271–95, provides an overview of the story of the Uthman Koran and possibilities as to its existence and location.

59. Sthamer [German chargé d’affaires, London] to Foreign Office, 12 July 1920, FO 371/5269/E8407/8407/44.

60. The reply to German observations sent by Clemenceau, 15 June 1919, ibid.

61. Samuel [Jerusalem] to Curzon, 18 August 1920, FO 371/5269/E10896/8407/44. His despatch included an excerpt of Dalman’s attack that had appeared on the front page of the Palästina Jahrbuch, 10 (1914), the official organ of the Institute. On Dalman and his remarkable colour photographic record of the region, see Marcel Serr, Gustaf Dalman’s Palestine (Jerusalem: 2016); and Marcel Serr, “Understanding the Land of the Bible—Gustaf Dalman and the Emergence of the German Exploration of Palestine,” Near Eastern Archaeology, 79/1 (2016): 27–35.

62. Tilley minute, 8 September 1920, FO 371/5269/E10896/8407/44.

63. On the history of the Institute, see Pınar Üre, “Byzantine Heritage, Archaeology, and Politics between Russia and the Ottoman Empire: Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople (1894–1914)” (PhD thesis, London School of Economics, 2014).

64. Webb to Foreign Office, 24 April 1920, FO 608/278/f268/268.

65. Forbes Adam minute, 3 May 1920, Malkin minute, 5 May 1920, both ibid.

66. Konstantinos Papoulidis, “The Russian Archaeological Institute of Constantinople (1894–1914): From Its Establishment Until Today,” in Scott Redford and Nina Ergin, eds., Perceptions of the Past in the Turkish Republic (Leuven: 2010), 187–92.

67. Alison Redmayne, “Mkwawa and the Hehe Wars,” Journal of African History, 9/3 (1968): 409–36.

68. Simon J. Harrison, “Skulls and Scientific Collecting in the Victorian Military: Keeping the Enemy Dead in British Frontier Warfare,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 50/1 (2008): 285–303.

69. Byatt to colonial secretary, 14 November 1918, FO 608/215/791/1/1/1380; Gaselee to Colonial Office, 2 May 1939, CO [Colonial Office Records, The National Archives, Kew] 691/174/9.

70. Knatchbull-Hugesson minute, 5 February 1919, FO 608/215/791/1/1/1380.

71. Strachey minute, 6 February 1919, FO 608/215/791/1/1/1380.

72. Strachey minute, 8 February 1919, Malkin minute, 21 April 1919, both ibid.

73. Arthur Guiterman, “The Plaint of the Sultan Mkwawa,” Life, 31 July 1919, 186.

74. See the correspondence in CO 691/174/9.

75. The English language edition is Rudolf Frank [Patricia Crampton, translator], No Hero for the Kaiser (New York: 1986).

76. House of Commons, Hansard (17 March 1936), Volume 310, Column 236. Lt. Cmdr. Reginald Fletcher (1885–1961), a Labour MP, later First Baron Winster and governor of Cyprus (1946–1949), put the question.

77. Lathrop [American Library in Paris] to Foreign Office Librarian, 14 April 1939, CO 691/174/9.

78. Gaselee to Colonial Office, 2 May 1939, ibid.

79. Lambert minute, 9 May 1939, CO 691/174/9/42211.

80. Gaselee minute, 5 April 1940, FO 370/592/L1691/1691/405. This related to a request for information from Diane Sherwood, who was working on an article.

81. Edward Twining, Baron Twining of Tanganyika (1899–1967). Known as Peter Twining, he served in the Army (1917–1928), when he transferred to the Colonial Service. Also governor of North Borneo (1946–1949) and Tanganyika (1949–1958). Knighted 1949 and made a life peer on his retirement. Ceremony and royal symbols fascinated him and, in retirement, he wrote History of the Crown Jewels of Europe (London: 1960); European Regalia (London: 1967). For an analysis of Twining’s role; and see Jesse Bucher, “The Skull of Mkwawa and the Politics of Indirect Rule in Tanganyika,” Journal of Eastern African Studies, 10/2 (2016): 284–302.

82. Massey [British Consulate, Bremen] to Sykes (British High Commission, Bonn), 2 February 1954, CO 822/12/5/L/41/2.

83. Massey to Barnes [British High Commission, Bonn], 27 July 1954, CO 822/12/5/L41/8.

84. “Translation of an article appearing in the German monthly periodical ‘Der Spiegel,’ 25 August, 1954,” CO 822/12/5/L41/10. A slightly different translation appears in CO 822/12/5/L41/9.

85. Barnes to Gellatly [Foreign Office], 21 September 1954, CO 822/12/5/L41/9. On the later history of the site, see Pastory Magayane Bushozi, “Towards Sustainable Cultural Heritage Management in Tanzania: A Case Study of Kalenga and Mlambalsai Sites in Iringa, Southern Tanzania,” South African Archaeological Bulletin, 69/200 (2014): 136–41; and Edgar V. Winans, “The Head of the King: Museums and the Path to Resistance,” Comparative Studies in Society and History, 36/2 (1994): 221–41.

86. Twining to David [Colonial Office], 8 March 1954, CO 822/12/5/L41/4.

87. “Speech by His Excellency the Governor at the Ceremony of the Return of the Skull of Chief Mkwana of Uhehe to Chief Adam Sap and the People of Uhehe,” 19 June 1954, FO 370/2354.

88. Twining to Massey, 25 June 1954, CO 822/12/5/L41/8.

89. ffoulkes to Foreign Office, 10 January 1921, FO 371/5994/C866/866/18.

90. Waterlow minute, 13 January 1921, FO 371/5994/C866/866/18.

91. Malkin minute, 14 January 1921, FO 371/5994/C866/866/18.

92. George Steinmetz, “A Monument under Lock and Key: Seeking Germany’s Colonial Lieux de Mémoire,” Germanic Review, 84/3 (2009): 251–58.

93. Other statues removed when Britain occupied Dar-es-Salam were those to Karl Peters, the German colonial ruler, and Otto von Bismarck. On the disposal by London of the Wissmann and Bismarck statues, see EN [Imperial War Museum, London] 1/1/DIS/049. Peters was referred to in the Foreign Office Historical Section Handbook 114 on German possessions, which reminded readers that the local population knew Peters as the “man with the blood stained hands” (33). His statue had only arrived in Dar-es-Salam in 1914 and due to the war never erected. It made its way directly to Hamburg and kept in the cellar of a ship owner until erected in 1931 on Heligoland. Peters had been involved in the 1890 treaty by which Germany swapped Zanzibar for Heligoland. The statue was destroyed during the Second World War, but the bust survived and in 1966 placed in the garden of the Heligoland Museum. See Jan Rüger, Heligoland (Oxford: 2017), 175–76; Arne Perras, Carl Peters and German Imperialism 1856–1918: A Political Biography (Oxford: 2004), 243–44; and Joachim Zeller, “‘Deutschlands größter Afrikner’. Zur Geschichte der Denkmäler für Hermann von Wissmann,” Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, 44 (1996): 1089–111.

94. Britta Schilling, Postcolonial Germany: Memories of Empire in a Decolonized Country (Oxford: 2014), 186.

95. “Art Reparation of Peace Treaties,” Times, 30 May 1919, 14.

96. Jakubowski, State Succession, 53–68.

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Erik Goldstein

Erik Goldstein is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University. Amongst his publications, many of them relating to the Paris Peace Conference era, are Winning the Peace: British Diplomatic Strategy, Peace Planning, and the Paris Peace Conference, 1916–1920 (1991) and co-editor with B. J. C. McKercher of Power and Stability: British Foreign Policy, 1865–1965 (2003) a volume of essays in honour of Michael Dockrill. He is the founding editor of Diplomacy & Statecraft.