Ignacio Helmke, M. A.
Doktorand

Universität Münster
Historisches Seminar
Raum 219 (Fürstenberghaus)
Domplatz 20-22
48143 Münster

Curriculum Vitae

Ignacio Helmke Miquel (Valdivia, 1990) holds a BA in Art and a BA in Aesthetics from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. He also completed a Master's degree in Latin American Studies at the University of Chile. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Münster, with the support of a DAAD scholarship.
His research interests encompass ethno-aesthetics, heritage photography, wood culture, the German settlers in Chile and Argentina and their scientific contributions, as well as written culture, and finally the intercultural relations in the context of capuchin and anglican missionary activity.

Proyecto de investigación

His current doctoral research project is entitled ‘Transfers, translations and interpretations. Texts and images by Otto Bürger and Hans Helfritz (1900-1960)’, focusing on the production of books, images and collections by these two authors in Latin America and the world.
The research project focuses on two German authors and their relationship with Latin America, which have received very little attention in historical, anthropological and Latin American cultural studies research. They are the biologist Otto Bürger (1865-1945) and the musicologist Hans Helfritz (1902-1995). Both travelled from Germany to Chile and, from there, travelled to other countries on the continent and around the globe. Their experiences and experiences were reflected in an extensive visual and written production in the form of travel books, which were published mainly in Germany, in the German language and for a German public, so that knowledge of them is scarce in Latin America. They did not coincide in Chile, due to their periods of residence in the country. The selection criterion for both is a series of common elements such as the country of origin; the lasting relationship with Chile as a place of residence or as a base for other destinations in Latin America; the shift from a specific profession to the production of books with a strong use of photographs; and the publication in German by German publishers. The interest in both productions is that they offer narratives, interpretations and images about different places on the continent and about Latin America as a whole, which have remained largely unstudied or unattended to date. As an initial hypothesis, it is proposed that both authors contribute to the construction of a discourse on Latin America and Chile in particular, and that they offer little-known visions of the territory, its inhabitants and customs. This information and proposals, gathered by both authors during their travels, were not widely circulated or known, mainly due to the language barrier.

Publications (selection)

Helmke Miquel, Ignacio/María Soledad Abarca de la Fuente (eds.): Benedicto Rivas. Del registro al álbum de Cholchol 1910-1940. Centro de Investigaciones Diego Barros Arana y Veranada Ediciones 2024.

Helmke Miquel, Ignacio: Árboles seculares e iglesias misionales. Cambio y ocupación territorial en los bosques de la Araucanía, en el contexto misional capuchino bávaro, fines del siglo XIX e inicios del XX, in: Revista Historia y Patrimonio, 3 (4) (2024), 1-25.

Helmke Miquel, Ignacio/Margarita Alvarado Pérez/Christiane Hoth de Olano: Archivos fotográficos y patrimonio cultural. El caso de la misión capuchina en la Araucanía (1896-1935), in: Conocimiento, poder y transformación digital en América Latina (2024), 217-231.
Helmke Miquel, Ignacio: La producción fotográfica de Benedicto Rivas, in: Bajo la Lupa, Subdirección de Investigación, Servicio Nacional del Patrimonio Cultural (2022). https://www.investigacion.patrimoniocultural.gob.cl/publicaciones/la-sombra-de-los-arboles-tallas-y-usos-de-la-madera-en-atacama-partir-de-la-coleccion

Helmke Miquel, Ignacio/Christiane Hoth de Olano: “Para el apoyo significativo de la misión araucana”. El Museo de los capuchinos bávaros en Altötting (1906-1932), in: Revista TEFROS, Vol. 20, Nº2, julio-diciembre (2022), 9-43.

Helmke Miquel, Ignacio/Margarita Alvarado Pérez: Archäologisches aus Valdivia del Doctor Carlos Keller, in: Boletín de la Sociedad Chilena de Arqueología, Número 48 (2018), 61-83.