Universität Erfurt
Centre for Transcultural Studies / Perthes Collection
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt
Since January 2022
Curator for the collection of North Africa, West Asia, Central Asia and Siberia at Weltmuseum Wien Wien, Vienna, Austria
November 2017 – November 2021
Keeper Collection of Islamic Art, Museum für Arts und Gewerbe Hamburg
October 2015 – December 2017
Doctoral Scholarship University of Erfurt
Topic of the dissertation: Wissensdinge der deutschen Palästinaforschung 1877-1926
2014 – October 2015
Curatorial Assistant Kunsthaus Dresden, Project Artificial Facts
Project of the Kunsthaus Dresden. Städtische Galerie für Gegenwartskunst with the artist group Artefakte//aktivierung, Sophie Goltz in collaboration with the partners Burning Museum (Cape Town, South Africa), the École du Patrimoine Africain (Porto-Novo, Benin) and the University of Abomey-Calavi (Cotonou, Benin)
2014
Lectureship WS 2013/14 Francophone Literatures of North Africa, Romance Studies, TU Dresden
Lectureship SS 2014 Art History as History of Contact - Cultural Contact in Dresden Collections, Art History, TU Dresden
Lectureship WS 2014/2015 Lecture Studium Globale - World Religions / Islam, HS Zittau
2012 – 2014
Curatorial trainees, Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Inventory of the Peter Schienerl
2011 – 2012
Freelance cultural mediator Ethnological Museum Berlin, Berlin State Museums
2010
two-month internship UN Headquarters, ECOSOC, NGO Branch, New York
2008 – 2009
German-French parliamentary internship, studies at Sciences-Po, Paris and internship at the Assemblée Nationale, Paris
2006 – 2007
Erasmus studies at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO), Paris
May – July 2008
Assistance Summer School "Gender Budgeting and Care Economy in Muslim Societies" Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, Humboldt University, Berlin
2007 – 2008 / 2009 – 2011
Student assistant at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies, Berlin
2007
Three-month internship at the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Rabat
2004 – 2011
Studied African Studies (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) and Islamic Studies (Freie Universität Berlin), Magister Artium
Topic of Master's thesis: Die Auseinandersetzungen um die Reform des Familien- und Personenstandrechts in Mali und Marokko (1977-2011)
West Asia has been a focal point of colonial projects and theological research since the 19th century. What conceptions regarding environment, space, and cultural history underpinned the creation of scientific collections and maps of the region? Did the prospect of a future German colony or the projection onto a Land of the Bible take center stage in the narrative constructed from the compiled evidence? Furthermore, how did Zionist researchers build upon Christian Palestine exploration?
Based on object legacies and maps, the study offers a different perspective on German Palestine exploration, demonstrating that by the end of the 19th century, scientific research displaced biblical spatial conceptions. A biblical Orientalism, perceiving Palestine as the original landscape of the Bible, served as a counter-narrative to colonial modernization through railways and intensive agriculture. In Zionism, maps and collections were adopted based on political inclinations. While the Zionist World Congress translated Heinrich Kiepert's maps in 1913, the Revisionist Ze’ev Jabotinsky used the maps from the Wagner and Debes publishing house in Leipzig as a basis for his Hebrew Atlas in 1925. Revisionists, national-religious, and left-wing Zionists utilized maps of Palestine research, interpreting them differently and establishing distinct spatial conceptions. By examining previously understudied sources, the dissertation reveals turns and shifts in the intellectual history of Palestine research.
The dissertation was published in 2024 with the title "Palästina begreifen. Wissensdinge, Akteursnetzwerke, Raumerzählungen (1877-1929)".
Palästina begreifen. Wissensdinge, Akteursnetzwerke, Raumerzählungen (1877–1929), Frankfurt a. M./New York 2024. Open Access
Mörike, Tobias. “Anna Hohenwart-Gerlachstein. An Austrian Scientist Explored the Depth of Nubian Society.” Nobiana 2 (2025): 23–28.
Mörike, Tobias. “Das ‚Heilige Land‘ der Gegenwart. Palästinakarten des Leipziger Verlags Wagner & Debes.” Globalgeschichte / Global History 2, no. 1 (2024): 45–78.
Mörike, Tobias. “Magische Materielle Kultur – ägyptischer Schmuck und Amulette in der Sammlung Schienerl.” Abhandlungen und Berichte der Staatlichen Ethnographischen Sammlungen Sachsen 55 (2021): 27–50.
Mörike, Tobias. “Herbarien als Geomemorabilia – Blumenalben aus Jerusalem.” Annals for the History and Philosophy of Biology 22 (2018): 279–289.
Mörike, Tobias, and Bettina Zorn, eds. Auf dem Rücken der Kamele. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2024.
Asiimwe, Stella, Claudia Augustat, Jonathan Fine, Ute Marxreiter, and Tobias Mörike, eds. Science Fiction(s): Wenn es ein Morgen gäbe / If There Were a Tomorrow. Vienna: Weltmuseum Wien/KHM-Museumsverband, 2023.
Dolezalek, Isabelle, Tobias Mörike, Wibke Schrape, and Tulga Beyerle, eds. Sammlungsgeschichten. Islamische Kunst im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (1873–1915). Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net, 2022. Open Access
Mörike, Tobias. “Elias Habesci and the Present State of the Ottoman Empire.” In Christian-Muslim Relations: A Bibliographical History. Asia, Africa and the Americas (1700–1800), edited by David Thomas and John A. Chesworth, 351–354. Leiden: Brill, 2019.
Mörike, Tobias. “Nordafrika, Westasien und Zentralasien am Weltmuseum Wien.” EOTHEN (2025): 106–110.
Mörike, Tobias. “Ein Prinz aus Arabia. Ein maronitischer Almosensammler aus dem Libanon in Gotha 1727.” In Der Orient in Gotha: Katalog zur Ausstellung der Forschungsbibliothek Gotha auf Schloss Friedenstein vom 8. September bis 3. November 2024, edited by Feras Krimsti, 55. Gotha: Forschungsbibliothek Gotha der Universität Erfurt, 2024.
Mörike, Tobias. “Walid Raad.” In Erwerbungen, vol. 2017/20, 140–141. Hamburg: Stiftung für die Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, 2021.
Mörike, Tobias. “Islamische Chinoiserie.” In Staub & Seide: Steppen- und Seidenstraßen / Dust & Silk: Steppe and Silk Roads, edited by Maria-Katharina Lang, 34–38. Vienna: Weltmuseum Wien, 2021.
Mörike, Tobias. “Fragmente des Buyan Kuli Khan.” In Staub & Seide: Steppen- und Seidenstraßen / Dust & Silk: Steppe and Silk Roads, edited by Maria-Katharina Lang, 73–75. Vienna: Weltmuseum Wien, 2021.
Mörike, Tobias. “Die Geschichte der Archäologie Afghanistans.” In Raubkunst? Ein Paneel aus Ghazni …, 54–62. Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018.
Mörike, Tobias. “‚Eher ägyptische Reminiszenzen‘. Diskussionen um den Ursprung der Benin-Bronzen.” In Raubkunst? Die Bronzen aus Benin im Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, edited by Sabine Schulze, 64–67. Hamburg: Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2018.
Mörike, Tobias. “Ein anderer Blick auf Erich Brauer. Ethnologie als Koexistenz im frühen Zionismus.” In Die Morgenländer. Jüdische Forscher und Abenteurer auf der Suche nach dem Eigenen im Fremden, edited by Felicitas Heimann-Jelinek and Dinah Ehrenfreund-Michler, 278–289. Göttingen: Wallstein, 2025.
Mörike, Tobias. “Mount Lebanon as Epistemic Site: Beginnings of Biogeography in the Levant.” In In the Steps of the Sultan: Essays in Honor of Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn, edited by Tylor Brand and Bilal Orfali, 211–225. Beirut: American University of Beirut Press, 2024.
Mörike, Tobias. “Beyond Manuscripts: Maronite Christians as Object Interpreters in Early Modern Europe.” In Rediscovering Objects from Islamic Lands in Enlightenment Europe, edited by Isabelle Dolezalek and Mattia Guidetti, 101–121. London/New York: Routledge, 2022.
Burschel, Peter, and Tobias Mörike. “Der Prinz vom Berg Libanon Scidid Spaada Habaisci.” In Bitte eintragen! Die Besucherbücher der Herzog August Bibliothek, edited by Hole Rößler and Marie von Lüneburg, 61–70. Wolfenbüttel: Herzog August Bibliothek, 2021.
Mörike, Tobias. “Mit Kompass und Wörterbuch: Die Karten des Johann Ludwig Burckhardt.” In Johann Ludwig Burckhardt Sheikh Ibrahim. Discoveries in the Orient around 1800, edited by Lucas Burkart, Jan Loop, and Rolf Stucky, 119–125. Basel: Christoph Merian Verlag, 2019.
Mörike, Tobias. “Botanical Explorations by Frederik Hasselquist (1749–1752) and Pehr Forsskål (1761–1763): Linné’s Apostles in the Holy Land.” In Travellers in Ottoman Lands: The Botanical Legacy, edited by Ines Aščerić-Todd, Sabina Knees, Janet Starkey, and Paul Starkey, 109–121. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2018.
Mörike, Tobias. “Dialog mit den Kanarischen Inseln.” WeltNews 6 (Spring/Summer 2026): 14 ff. [Final page to be confirmed.]
Mörike, Tobias, and Petra Weigel. “Krankheit und Karte. Die Gothaer geomedizinische Kartographie.” Gotha3, April 14, 2020.
Mörike, Tobias. “Ulrich Jasper Seetzens Reise nach Vorderasien. Neue Ansätze der Reiseforschung.” Conference report. H-Soz-Kult, August 31, 2019.
Mörike, Tobias. “Mission Jerusalem. Eine kurze Geschichte deutscher protestantischer Einrichtungen in Jerusalem.” Jerusalem Gemeindebrief – Stiftungsjournal 2 (2017): 6–10.
Mörike, Tobias. “Geschichte der Vorurteile gegen Islam.” Dresdener Universitätsjournal 26/9 (2015): 3.
Mörike, Tobias, and Julius Heinicke. “Wissenschaft mit einem Hauch von Poesie.” Humboldt 5 (2012): 7.
Mörike, Tobias, and Inken Wiese. “Die Palästinensische Autonomiebehörde unter Abbas.Wie (ver)handlungsfähig ist sie?” SPW 39/1 (2005): 39–40.
Blicke auf Europa in der afrikanischen Kunst des 15. bis 17. Jahrhunderts, 17 June 2019, Workshop Europabilder außerhalb Europas, Bibliotheca Hertziana, Rome
Abschlusskommentar Ulrich Jasper Seetzens Reise nach Vorderasien. Neue Ansätze der Reiseforschung, 13-15 June 2019, Gotha Research Centre
Von islamischer Kunst zum Design Westasiens. Institut für Orientalistik, 5 June 2019, Otto Friedrich University of Bamberg
Mapping the Red Sea. Production of a Colonial Space. Postcolonial Oceans, Contradictions and Heterogeneities in the Epistemes of Salt Water, 30 May-2 June 2019, University of Bremen
Knowledge-brokers and Object-interpreters: Maronite Christians and the Redefinition of "Islamicate Objects" by the 1800s, 20-21 September 2018 Heritage Revisited. Rediscovering Objects from Islamic Lands in Enlightenment Europe, Vienna
Coins as visual evidence of the Holy Land. 26-29 September 2017, Eastern Coins in the Early Modern World. Antiquarianism and the Oriental Artifact 1500-1800, Trujillo, Spain
Blumenalben aus Jerusalem. 14-16 September 2017, Botany and Aesthetics, International Symposium, Halle an der Saale, Germany
Der Prinz vom Berg Libanon. Die Reise des Spaada Habaisci (1725-1728) als Wissensgeschichte einer Höflichkeitslüge, 10-12 July 2017, Falsche Prinzessinnen, Scharlatane und selbsternannte Experten. Hochstapler in neuzeitlichen Gesellschaften (3rd Former Students' Meeting of the Herzog Ernst Scholarship Programme of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation), Orangery, Gotha
"Flowers of the Holy Land" Herbariums as Circulating Reference in the Discourse on Palestine (1877-1929), 13-14 May 2017 Travelers in Ottoman Lands: Botanical Legacies. Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh
Knowledge Brokers/Beggar Princes. Travelers from Mount Lebanon in the German Principalities, 4-7 March 2017, The Middle East and Europe-Cross-Cultural. Diplomatic and Economic Exchanges in the Early Modern Period (1500-1820), Paris Sorbonne Abu Dhabi
Reiseberichte als Transfermedien. Die Popularisierung des Wissens über Palästina im 19. Jahrhundert, Interdisciplinary colloquium on knowledge transfers between academic research and public space. 4-5 November 2016, Koblenz Campus University of Koblenz-Landau
„Wissensdinge des Heiligen Landes“. Project presentation in the Workshop for Young Scholars and presentation Blumen, Karten, Amulette. Materielle Kultur als Quelle der Geschichte Palästinas, 23rd International Congress of the DAVO 6-8 October 2016, Eberhard Karls University Tübingen
Doxa-Dinge. Blumenalben aus Jerusalem als materielle Referenz imaginärer Geographien, Workshop Wissensdinge, 1 July 2016, Gotha Research Centre
Re-collecting the Land of the Bible: Collections of Palestinian Material Culture as Entangled History Conference Missionaries, Materials and the Making of the Modern World 15-17 September 2014, Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Workshop Sammlungsmanagement Palestine Museum 9-10 June 2014 at the invitation of the Goethe Institute, Ramallah
Künstlerische Zugänge im Blickwinkel mit den Malern Hans Looschen und Carl Gustav Carus, talk with the painter Dierk Schmidt, 20 June 2015, Kunsthaus Dresden
Medizin, Bibel und Amulette - Aus dem Leben von Lydia Einsler in Jerusalem - lecture together with Zofia Durda and Dr Ronald Grobe-Einsler on 19 October 2014, Museum of Ethnology in Dresden
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2020
Reviews (selection)
Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria
6 September 2026 – 30 May 2027
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
Exhibition 15.11.2018-13.01. 2019
Reviews (selection)
Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria
18 September 2024 – 24 August 2025
Exhibition 6 Nov - 13 Dec 2015 - Gallery Holger John Dresden.
Works by Manaf Halbouny, Sulafa Hijazy, Khaled Barakeh, Ali Kaaf,
Reviews (selection)
Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria
27 February 2024 – 26 January 2025
with Brigitte Krause and Robert Liebscher, 2008, among others, Zentrum Moderner Orient and Foyer of the Faculty of Law, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, discussion.
Weltmuseum Wien, Vienna, Austria
30 March 2023 – 9 January 2024
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (MK&G)
Hamburg, Germany, 31 March 2022 – 31 March 2024
Summer School "Colonial Cities and Border Regions in the Long 19th Century in Inter- imperial and Intra-imperial Comparisons", Herder Institute Marburg, 2020 (postponed)
Excursion of the graduate centre Wissensgeschichte der Neuzeit Gotha to the University of Cambridge and London, 2019
German-Israeli Archive Colloquium funded archive stays in Israel and Germany organised by the Institut für die Geschichte der Deutschen Juden Hamburg and the University of Tel Aviv funded by the Alfred Toepfer Foundation and the Gerda Henkel Foundation, 2017/2018
résidence d'écriture/two-week writing workshop at the Centre Georg Simmel Paris, July 2017
Summer School "Gender, Sexualities and the State" American University Cairo, June 2010
Co-founder of the Spanish Film Festival Berlin in 2011 with Santiago Gomèz Rojas
Employee in film series and events of Dresden Fair Culture with the cultural manager Kristin Eubling
Conference briefing
The Middle East and Europe: Cross-cultural, diplomatic and economic exchanges in the early modern period (1500-1820) Yann Rodier / Clarisse Roche, University Paris-Sorbonne Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi 04.03.2017 - 07.03.2017
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University of Erfurt (Campus)
Nordhäuser Str. 63
99089 Erfurt
