The ethnographical collection in Burgdorf is an example of a collection that lived through enormous changes. The initial objects have been assembled by the son of a cheese factory owners from Burgdorf, Heinrich Schiffmann, who travelled the world hoping to cure his tuberculosis. Upon his dead in 1905, he donated the objects to the local Gymnasium, where the curator Dr. Arnold Korth systematically expanded the exhibition in order to show it to students and people from the village. Through his wide network, he managed to acquire objects from people like the Roth family from Burgdorf, Heinrich von Niederhäusern, the “Fräulein” Schafroth or the art dealer dynasty Arthur Speyer. With Kordt, the collection lost its most passionate curator, and the collection entered quiet years from the 1940s onwards.
The department for East Asian Art History at the University of Zurich was contacted by the curators of the Burgdorf collection in 2009, and organised a first research tutorial with focus on the East Asian collection in autumn 2012. The uncertainty of the collection’s future inspired students to establish an independent society for its support and promotion, the “Interessensverein Völkerkundesammlung Burgdorf”. Collaboration between the owners of the collection in Burgdorf, the Department for East Asian Art History at the university and the student society culminated in a first exhibition “Konnichiwa!” at the Creaviva, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern in spring 2013, and a trilogy of three exhibitions in 2014: “Hiroshige & Kunisada. Faszinierende Farbholzschnitte” at the Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf, from June 7- November 9, 2014, “Entdeckerlust – Burgdorfer in Ostasien” in the castle of Burgdorf from October 16, 2014 – July 5, 2015, and “Japan sammeln – Nihon o yobiyoseru” at the Japan Information and Cultural Centre of the Japanese Embassy, Bern, from November 22, 2014-January 18, 2015.