Resource Spotlight | “The Man Who Would Not Be Polite: The Story of the Danish Colonial Doctor Agner Møller” by Jesper Kurt-Nielsen

Agner Møller with villagers in Hilli Mondregeraja. Photograph by Ho Teng Lin.

The Man Who Would Not Be Polite

The Story of the Danish Colonial Doctor Agner Møller

by Jesper Kurt-Nielsen

Published by Gyldendal.

Agner Møller collected 850 objects, and many of them were photographed on large 24x30 glass plates when they arrived at the National Museum in Denmark. Photograph by Sophus Bengtson.

In the 1920s, the Danish doctor and passionate collector Agner Møller (1892-1976) ended up on the small Indonesian island of Nias off the coast of Sumatra. Agner Møller was far more interested in culture and ethnography than in taking care of his work as a doctor — and one of Møller's achievements for posterity is that he bought a large number of cultural objects and an entire chief's house, which he had towed to Copenhagen and the National Museum of Denmark.

The wayward Møller also married a young princess' daughter from Nias, whom he took home to Denmark despite strong opposition from the authorities and his wife.

Museum curator at the National Museum and author Jesper Kurt-Nielsen has written a biographical portrait of a large, angular personality, whose life contained many conflicts and dramas.

Click the image below to watch a visually illustrated lecture with Jesper Kurt-Nielsen.

Warriors in the village of Namõza’oea, showing off their impressive swords. Photograph by Ho Teng Lin.

Warriors in Hilli Nawaviser. Photograph by Ho Teng Lin.

The chief’s daughter Zoeri who became Agner Møller’s wife, photographed in front of a large panel in the Chief’s house in Hilli Mondregeraja. Photograph by Ho Teng Ling.

A nobleman and his wife in the village Hilli Navalõ. Photograph by Ho Teng Lin.

Father with son in the village Kampong Lagoedi. Photograph by Ho Teng Lin.

Three young women adorned with gold, presumably in the village Hilli Mondregeraja. Photograph by Ho Teng Lin.

Hoenõdanõmõ in the village Dobora. Photograph by Ho Teng Lin.

A view of the chief’s house in the village Hilli Mondregeraja, the house that Agner Møller bought.

The largest house in southern Nias, the chief’s house in Bawomataluo, featuring an early and prestigious tin roof that replaced the traditional palm branches.

The interior of the chief’s house in Hilli Mondregeraja. It was very dilapidated, and Agner Møller, therefore, feared the Dutch authorities would demand to have it demolished.

The common bathing area in Hilli Mondregeraja.

Shortly after arriving in Copenhagen, the objects from Agner Møller’s collection were put on display. Today only a handful can be seen and enjoyed by the public. Photograph origin unknown.

Jesper Kurt-Nielsen

Jesper Kurt-Nielsen is the curator in charge of the African, Indian, and Middle Eastern collections in the National Museum of Denmark. He has an MA in history and museum ethnology from the University of Copenhagen and has been a volunteer officer in the Royal Danish Army and Naval Homeguard since 1979.

He is presently co-editor and co-writer of a three-volume book, in cooperation with the Royal Danish Geographical Society and the National Museum of Denmark, concerning 400 years of global Danish exploration history.

Jesper Kurt-Nielsen is furthermore associated with Denmark’s oldest publishing house Gyldendal, as a writer. His primary focus is on Danish expeditions and Danes that collected ethnographic objects in a colonial context. In 2019 he was admitted to the Yale University Writers Workshop, due to an essay concerning the cultural history of the gorilla.

In 2003 he traveled to Nias to photograph the southern villages where the Danish medical doctor and Dutch colonial officer Agner Møller lived and worked in 1924-27. His latest book is a biography concerning Agner Møller with a focus on Møllers work for the National Museum of Denmark on Nias, but also a broader view of Dutch colonialism, with the use of several primary sources, such as Danish medical doctors and planters in the Dutch East Indies.

Jesper Kurt-Nielsen is currently working on a book concerning the last years of the Danish colonial settlement on the Gold Coast in West Africa 1842-50, and he is researching the Knud Holmboe cross-continental expedition in Africa 1930.

View Jesper Kurt-Nielsen's CV

Art of the Ancestors extends gratitude to Finette Lemaire of the legendary Gallery Lemaire in Amsterdam.

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. Art of the Ancestors does not receive a commission should any of our readers purchase the aforementioned book. Art of the Ancestors is a strictly non-commercial educational platform and has no vested interest in the professional activities of the author listed above.