Exhibition on Emperor Menelik II’s Personal Physician

18-30 June 2012. The Institute of Ethiopian Studies pays homage to the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II and his personal physician Dr. Max Steinkühler with a symposium followed by an exhibition.

In 1909 Menelik II asked the German government for help in order to modernize his country. The German Emperor Wilhelm II sent in a team of experts, including Dr. Max Steinkühler, who became the Emperor’s personal physician. At that time Menelik II was seriously ill and the German doctor’s treatments seemed to be working, but suddenly the emperor’s health took a turn for the worse. Many people thought he had been poisoned by Dr. Steinkühler.

A special symposium, held by Prof. Shiferaw Bekele from Addis Ababa University and Dr. Wolbert Smidt, Mekelle University, will analyze and discuss this possibility.

The exhibition focuses on the correspondence between Dr. Steinkühler and Ethiopian officials. On display are also a series of photographs, a diary, some travel reports and documents on the emperor’s health, along with some other exciting corpora delicti.