Setting out to preserve nature

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Our team has been working for the conservation of nature at the Museum der Natur Hamburg and the Museum Koenig Bonn since the Centre for Natural History at the University of Hamburg and the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig (Zoological Research Museum) merged to form the Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels (Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change; LIB) on 1 July 2021. From that day onwards, our cooperation in interlinked teams has been targeted at researching biodiversity around the world.

Networking

We cannot protect individual species or entire habitats without knowing what shares this planet with us in the first place. This is a problem when the great map of nature sports many blank spots even today.

Our researchers are travelling locally and globally, visiting deserts and forests, oceans and rivers, the tropics and the icy poles alike to gain more knowledge. They explore the definition of species, their development and evolutionary change, and the reasons of why biodiversity is essential for the functioning of ecosystems and, therefore, for our lives.

Our scientists examine our collections with close to 16 million objects from the fields of zoology, geology, palaeontology, and mineralogy in cooperation with their colleagues from around the world. The exhibits provide glimpses into the past while the stories they tell help us glance at the future as well. Working together across our centres and departments opens up new approaches to our collections and their research.

As one of eight research museums in the Leibniz Association, we seek to connect the various disciplines and pool resources. In this context, we have recently taken over operation of the initiative for creating a national collection and research infrastructure (OSIRIS) in order to help build up global databases.

The project is going to bundle information on more than 150 million objects from Germany’s natural, cultural, and technological collections, made accessible to everyone and developed further in future.

Our researchers are working in transnational projects to assemble the puzzle before them and fill the gaps in our picture of biodiversity. We develop solutions for sustainable management and action with a broad range of perspectives and knowledge and in cooperation with businesses, politics, and society.

Eine Alge im Museum ausgestellt — The Museum der Natur Hamburg has some proper treasures to discover, such as these ulexite (front) and calcite (rear) specimens.

Eine Sammlung Schmetterlinge mit Beschriftung — The scientific collections permit glimpses into the past and comparison with the present.

Zwei Forscher stehen in einem Bauchlauf in Regenkleidung — Researchers from the LIB and local partner institutes pursue the goal of inventorying the largely unknown biodiversity in the Caucasus together in Georgia in order to be able to protect it.

Hamburg’s museum gap is about to close

The seafarers of the past brought beetles, birds, snails, whales, seals, and many other things home to Hamburg from their expeditions around the world. Some of these valuable collections were shown to the public and drew large crowds in the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum), a magnificent Wilhelminian building at the main railway station that was built in 1891. That museum was reduced to rubble in 1943, during World War II. What could be saved from the collections was then transferred to the University of Hamburg.

It took nearly eight decades after the destruction of the Natural History Museum for the city of Hamburg to finally choose a location for its new, innovative natural history museum. From 2022 onwards, this place of research, collection, and exhibition is being developed in the HafenCity quarter in order to once again unite the fields of zoology, palaeontology, geology, and mineralogy under a single roof rather than keeping them spread across three different locations.

Planning is in full swing. Now, in 2024, we at the LIB are cooperating with the City of Hamburg to make plans for accommodation of the collection and research infrastructure and forging a rough concept for the content of the exhibition. At the same time, an architectural competition for the building has been launched.

Following the groundwork laid by the Museum der Natur Hamburg, this new museum is going to focus on the diversity and evolution of life on earth and the strong influence of humans on ecosystems. However, its offering will be staged using the opportunities afforded by new media and enhanced with glimpses behind the scenes of the collections and into research work. Interactive formats will present the connections within and between the habitats.

We understand how crucial biodiversity is for our lives. We recognise our own vital role in the major changes in nature and learn about how to protect it.

We will understand the importance of biodiversity for our lives, recognise our decisive role in the major changes in nature and learn about measures for its protection.

Hamburg’s Natural History Museum used to display natural treasures that captains had collected on behalf of shipowners and merchants in several floors until 1943.

Museum der Natur Hamburg, Außenfassade — The “Museum der Natur Hamburg” houses the Hamburg collections and exhibitions from the fields of zoology, geology, and palaeontology as well as mineralogy spread out across three locations today.

Zusammenschnitt eines Innenraum eines Museums mit Besuchern und einem Wasserbecken — Hamburg’s new Natural History Museum is going to bring science to life. It will teach about the history of evolution up to the present day and the changes humankind has wrought.

Museum König Bonn, Außenansicht — Our researchers at Museum Koenig Bonn use modern methods and technologies in an exhibition that affords plenty of opportunities to participate.

Forschungsgebäude Poppelsdorf, Außenansicht — The LIB has built the Poppelsdorf research building, to be ready for occupancy in 2024, to provide the space the Bonn collections need to grow as they should and to create space for laboratories.

Politics vs. natural history in Bonn

Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz paid tribute to the beginning of German democracy at Museum Koenig Bonn on 1 September 2023, standing in the very place where the Parliamentary Council under Konrad Adenauer took up its work on the Constitution, referred to as the “Basic Law”, of the Federal Republic of Germany 75 years earlier. Democracy is as vital to the research museum today as it was back then. The facility hosts a large forum for discussions on scientific findings and sustainable use of nature.

Alexander Koenig opened his ornithological museum back in 1900. In 1934, the zoologist from Bonn moved his collections into the new prestigious adjacent museum building that houses the Museum Koenig Bonn to this day. Even two giraffes number amongst the large number of birds and mammals that Alexander Koenig brought home from his expeditions.

The African savannah where these giraffes are exhibited in the museum atrium continues to serve as the permanent exhibition’s centrepiece, enabling visitors to observe its native animals and experience the complex relationships between different species of this habitat. Binoculars and a species key allow visitors to feel as researchers.

The subjects of evolution and biodiversity are linked to the realities of visitors’ lives in the staging of other ecosystems, such as the Arctic and Antarctic, desert, and rainforest ones, as well. Interactive displays encourage visitors to reflect on their consumption decisions and weigh up the harmful impact on ecosystems against sustainable actions.

The research facilities at the Bonn site keep on growing, culminating in the opening in a new building complex on the Bonn-Poppelsdorf university research campus in 2024 for the moment. The premises are going to afford space for collections and molecular biodiversity research, including some state-of-the-art laboratories and the biobank (where frozen tissue and DNA collections are stored).

Frank Wischhöfer und Marie Rahn tauschen sich aus

Working together for the greater good

Our teams cooperate behind the museum doors in Bonn and Hamburg, even across locations, to enable a merger of knowledge and skills that takes the greater good into account.

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