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Abstract
This thesis investigates the German physical anthropological discourse on Australian
Aborigines during the long nineteenth century. It particularly explores, on the basis of
contemporaneous German-language scientific publications, the way in which German
physical anthropologists utilised Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains for their theorising
on human diversity and evolution.
One focus lies on the discussion of the Neuholländer or Australier in its various
manifestations: ranging from the speculative theorising of the late Enlightenment period to
the natural scientific, physical anthropological investigations of the mid-nineteenth to early
twentieth centuries. It is shown that German physical anthropologists first relied on, and
then continuously reinforced and thereby sustained existing notions of Australian Aboriginal
physical and cultural-intellectual inferiority that were conveyed from the beginning of
European contact. This bias was extraordinarily powerful, overriding the empirical evidence
that challenged these pre-conceived ideas. The profoundly variable nature of humanity
demonstrates the underlying fundamental problem; namely, the intrinsic fragility of
classifying, typifying and ordering human diversity on the basis of one or another concept of
race.
This thesis also examines the scientific investigation and interpretation of Australian
Aboriginal ancestral remains in the context of the establishment of German Anthropologie
as a natural science discipline in the second half of the nineteenth century. Sceptical of the
idea of Darwinian human evolution from a common animal ancestor, the first generation of
anthropologists used Australian Aboriginal skeletal remains as research material, attempting
to rebuke Darwinist hypothesising. In this context, this thesis intervenes into the current
historiographical debate about the relation between humanism, liberalism, Darwinism and
(anti- or non-) racist approaches to human diversity in the early German physical
anthropological community. It is shown in particular, that German anti-Darwinians, who
have been credited with following a non-racist approach to the investigation of humanity,
only in theory refrained from drawing conclusions about racial hierarchies. In practice, their
skeletal investigations, whether undertaken by Darwinists or anti-Darwinians, remained
within and furthered the prevalent paradigm of racial hierarchies throughout the time
period in question.