The German University of Göttingen said on October 7 that the University of Göttingen and the University of Freiburg returned eight human remains from the Marshall Islands to the Marshall Islands, which the Marshall Islands delegation received the same day.

According to the German news agency, in 1885, the Marshall Islands were occupied by the German Empire and became German colonies, the human remains were stolen during the colonial period. The historian of the University of Göttingen, Holger Stöcker, told the media that in 1913, a German colonist sold the remains to a German ethnic museum in Hamburg. In the 1950s, the remains were transported to Göttingen. Since 2020, the University of Göttingen has been conducting a study of human remains, the project covering more than 1,300 remains from around the world. In addition to the Marshall Islands, dozens of remains and bones from Australia, Nauru and Namibia will be returned separately.

At the ceremony, the Marshall Islands delegation said the remains would be buried in a memorial in the Marshall Islands.