Nefertiti – an icon par excellence

It is the undisputed primadonna among the “Royals”, appreciated, copied and marketed all over the world: Nefertiti. Her over 3300 -year -old bust still practices her unbroken spell despite or because of the lack of her left eye. In December 1912 she was found in the Egyptian Amarna by German archaeologists, which the Berlin cotton manufacturer James Simon had commissioned and financed. Egypt was British protectorate at the time. The rules of the division of archaeological finds at that time stipulated that every find should go equally to the finder and the country. The bust of the Nefertiti fell to Simon, a large altarpiece of Egypt. Simon later gave the bust to the Prussian state and so it was first exhibited in the new museum in 1924, where it can still be admired or again.

The historian Sebastian Conrad from the Free University of Berlin has prepared the history of her discovery and the dispute around her in a scientifically based non -fiction book, decorated with lush images. Egypt has been calling for the queen back for over a hundred years that she is colonial predatory art. So far in vain. In between, the GDR and the Federal Republic also argued. From this substance, the Berlin author Stefanie Gerhold knitted a novel that talks to the historical facts with fine fictional garnish. She invites her reading audience to the Christmas party of the “Gebrüder Simon” Anno Domini in 1912. In the middle of the speech by James S. in front of the workforce of his cotton company, a telegram offer brings good news from Cairo: »Made significant find. Describe useless. Borchardt «. This offspring of a Jewish merchant family, Ludwig Borchardt, Egyptologist, had headed the excavations of the German Orient Society in Amarna at the time, in which the Bust of the sculpture from Thutmosis was met. Stefanie Gerhold also reports on the art protection officer of the US Army Walter I. Farmer, who after 1945 defended all the desires of US museums and saved nothing for Germany, for which he was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit.

The Conrad’s non -fiction book also begins entertaining. It is reminiscent of the spectacular appearance of African American pop singer Beyoncé in April 2018 as the revenue of the Nefertiti. For her, the Pharaonin is more than an ideal of beauty, she connects the wife and co-regent of Akhenaten as a self-confident black woman with her own standing for the Black Power and Black Lives-Matt movement. What after the initial good cooperation to break with Zahi Hawass, the former general secretary of the Egyptian antiquities of antiquities, led, who wants to know Nefertiti only in the Egyptian tradition and has stubbornly fighting the bust to Cairo for decades. In autumn last year, he had repeatedly started a petition with this request to the federal government. Incidentally, Beyoncé had traveled to Berlin before her legendary concert to see the Nysfettes bust, in front of which she could be photographed in the media. The museum was specially cordoned off for the photo shoot of the pop icon.

According to Conrad, Nefertiti belongs to the whole world. Even if she was already inspiring as an inspiration for the collective self -authorization and self -assurance “Black is Beautiful” in the 1960s and was already awaited by the South African freedom fighter Nelson Mandela as an outstanding protagonist at the weighing of African culture and civilization, she would also stand for modern global, including the so -called sonid. Feminists from the Weimar Republic also referred to the beautiful and clever pharaoh of Egypt, who bravely defied with her husband to resist the old priesthood against the introduction of a monotheistic religion, the sun cult, aton. »Nefertiti has become part of a global culture in which quotes no longer refer to the original; It became the global circulating icon par excellence, «says Conrad. However, one would have loved to learn even more about the life and work of the authentic Nefertiti, but another book is required, this was not the subject of this excellent non -fiction book.

Sebastian Conrad: The Queen. Nefertes global career. Propylea, 376 pages, born, € 29.
Stefanie Gerhold: The Queen’s smile. Galiani, 232 pages, born, 23 €.