Tabouret et pipe ·  Gabon, Kota · ID: 3048222

Helga Seidl (1928-2005), Austria / Africa

Helga Seidl came from Upper Austria and studied medicine in Vienna after the second World War. She left Austria in the late 1950s and worked for several years as a doctor in Albert Schweitzer’s jungle hospital in Lambaréné in Gabon, Central Africa. After her time in Lambaréné, she continued to work as a doctor and as a development aid worker in many other African countries, including Nigeria, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana.

During this time she built up an extensive collection consisting of ethnographic objects, archaeological artefacts, minerals, fossils, as well as other curiosities. During occasional stays at home, she deposited parts of the collection with relatives in Vienna from the 1970s onwards.

Most recently, she ran a small medical station in Mauritania on the border with Mali, where she tragically fell victim to a crime in 2005.