200 Years of Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Crowd-Puller and Centre for Biodiversity Research

Comprising over 30 million collection items, an exhibition area of over 7,000 square metres and a Research Department, the Museum für Naturkunde is the largest German natural history museum. On a global scale, it is among the top five natural history museums. It was founded in 1810.

Highlights of the Exhibitions:
• Primeval Bird Archaeopteryx
• The 13,27-metre tall skeleton of Brachiosaurus
• Items collected by Alexander von Humboldt
• The Biodiversity Wall
• Bobby the Gorilla
• Insect Models by Alfred Keller
• A piece of pitchblende in which the element uranium was discovered
• Rocks from the Moon and Mars

Approximately half a million visitors per year see the exhibitions.

Evolution in Action
The exhibitions are united under the umbrella theme "Evolution in Action“, showing the effects and mechanisms of evolution, such as.:
• The Emergence of the Universe and the Earth
• Life and Death of the Dinosaurs
• Volcanoes and Meteorite Impacts
• Mechanisms leading to the Diversity of Species

Evolution is shown as a process that has not been completed, but is ongoing, and we are right in the middle of it.

Exhibition and Research
Our Research Department is currently employing 200 members of staff. Our most recent exhibitions give visitors an insight into our latest research in the collections, labs and libraries of the Museum. The original items are on display, while research results are made available through short texts or movies.

Up to sixty year-old exhibition halls and traditional displays, combined with new exhibition halls and the latest multimedia presentations make for an intriguing visitor experience.

Foundation under Public Law
From the 1st of January 2009, the museum is no longer part of the Humboldt Universität and has become a Member of the Leibniz Association. It is now a foundation under public law with the official name "Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz-Institut für Biodiversitäts- und Evolutionsforschung“.