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Learn about biodiversity and the people who study it

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Große Biodiversitätswand in der Ausstellung „Evolution in Aktion“ mit zahlreichen präparierten Tieren und Naturmaterialien. In einer mehrteiligen Glasvitrine sind Fische, Schildkröten, Schlangen, Krokodile, Delfine, Säugetiere, Muscheln, Korallen und weitere Organismen aus verschiedenen Lebensräumen arrangiert.

Museum Evolution

Evolution Update

What actually goes on behind the scenes of the Museum Evolution? In our latest update, Director General Johannes Vogel and Managing Director Stephan Junker discuss progress, challenges and the next milestones.

Museum Evolution

Between tradition, construction and the future

The Museum Evolution is taking shape: in 2025, key milestones for the museum’s future were reached – from the finalisation of plans for the new sites to visible progress on the construction of the historic main building.

Beleuchtete Vitrinen mit verschiedenen Vogelpräparaten in der Sonderausstellung „ZUGvögel – Eine Sammlung in Bewegung“ im Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

Museum Evolution

Feather Show

Research collections are usually kept out of public view. The special exhibition ‘ZUGvögel – Collection in Motion’ offers a glimpse into the museum’s bird collection and shows how collections enable us to gain an understanding of nature – past, present and future.

Blick in einen Sammlungsraum des Museums für Naturkunde Berlin mit dicht bestückten Regalanlagen voller Geweihe, Hörner, Schädel und Präparate von Hirschen, Antilopen, Ziegen und anderen Hornträgern.

Museum Evolution

Public collections and co-curation

Hundreds of skulls, antlers and horns tell stories of research, nature and global connections. With the new public collections, previously hidden collection rooms are now part of the exhibition tour for the first time – shaped by an international co-curation process that reveals new perspectives on the collections and their historical interconnections.

Blick in den Ausstellungsbereich „digitize!“ des Museums für Naturkunde Berlin. Zwei Personen arbeiten an Digitalisierungsstationen mit Monitoren, Kameratechnik und Scannern. Im Hintergrund zeigt eine großflächige Projektion zahlreiche digitalisierte Sammlungsobjekte.

Collection Future

Taking the collection into the future

The museum’s collection not only preserves knowledge about the Earth’s past – it also provides answers to questions we have not even thought of yet. Through digitisation, international collaboration and open access, its holdings are increasingly being made available worldwide and harnessed for the research of tomorrow.

Blick durch die Forschungssammlung „Hirsche und Hornträger“. Dicht an dicht lagern Geweihe, Hörner und Schädel verschiedener Arten in hohen Regalanlagen.

Knowledge

Summit meeting

What does an elephant skull reveal about Germany’s colonial history? Together with international co-curators, the museum is investigating the origins of its collection and bringing previously hidden stories to light.

Zwei Hände halten ein fossiles Objekt aus einer geöffneten Sammlungsschublade. Daneben liegt ein handschriftliches Etikett; weitere Fossilien sind in den Fächern der Schublade sichtbar.

Collection

Ancestors carved in stone

Many of the museum’s most significant fossils have until now been hidden away in drawers and storage rooms. With the opening of the Fossil Invertebrates Collection, these treasures are being made accessible to a wider public for the first time – and demonstrate how fossils enable new insights into evolution, mass extinctions and climate change.

Blick auf den Pollinator-Pathmaker-Garten vor dem Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Im Vordergrund wachsen verschiedene blühende Wildpflanzen und Gräser in unterschiedlichen Höhen und Farben. Im Hintergrund ist die historische Museumsfassade mit dem Eingangsportal zu sehen.

City Nature

Biodiversity research, environmental education, activating for nature

What do we know about biodiversity in Berlin – and where are the gaps in our knowledge? Dr Nike Sommerwerk looks back on three years of the ‘Understanding Diversity’ project and shows how research and society can work together to shape the future of urban nature.

Knowledge Worlds

Urban fallow lands as a habitat

Wild bees find nectar and pollen there during the whole summer, as well as good nesting opportunities due to the diversity that exists there. A typical example of a wild bee that is present in fallow areas is the shaggy bee.

Collection Future

Creating digital value through collection and research

From automated digitisation stations to the intelligent analysis of collection data: ELIO demonstrates how the challenges faced by natural history collections give rise to digital innovations that find applications far beyond the museum.

Blick in die Sonderausstellung „ZUGvögel – Eine Sammlung in Bewegung“ im Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Die Ausstellung besteht aus einer offenen Struktur aus hellen Holzelementen mit großformatigen Texttafeln, beleuchteten Vitrinen und Projektionen. Zu sehen sind zahlreiche präparierte Vögel aus der wissenschaftlichen Sammlung sowie schwebend montierte Vogelpräparate über den Ausstellungsmodulen.

Museum Evolution

Exploring new forms of exchange and dialogue

How can research be made accessible to everyone? And how can we create spaces where science and society can learn from one another? The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin’s response is based on five guiding principles that shape the knowledge transfer within the Museum Evolution.

Dr. Elisabeth Heyne sitzt in der ehemaligen paläontologischen Bibliothek vor einem Tisch mit Glasgefäßen, die verschiedene Objekte enthalten; im Hintergrund Regale und Karteischränke.

Portrait

The story collector

Humans are altering nature with all their might. So much so that scientists have identified a new geological epoch: the Anthropocene – the age of humankind. Elisabeth Heyne is building a digital collection of all kinds of everyday things that connect people with this new reality.

Knowledge Worlds

How do bees survive winter?

We are most aware of bees in the spring and summer, when they are most active. But we often do not know exactly how they spend the winter.

Wissenschaftlerin Jenny Feige lächelnd nach rechts blickend.

Portrait

Chronologist of the universe

Cosmic dust that falls to Earth can tell us a lot about the history of our solar system. Astrophysicist Jenny Feige collects extraterrestrial particles in the Chilean Atacama Desert to gaze millions of years into the past.

Knowledge Worlds

How to identify the most common tree species in winter

There is not much to discover in the city in winter - or is there? If you take a winter stroll through the streets of the city, you will be able to see which trees stand along the way, even in the cold season.

Collection Future

Millimeter work on pressed plants

For more than 150 years, around 45,000 pressed plant parts have been stored in a herbarium that was once compiled by the botanist Johann Schrader. Now the delicate specimens are being given a new lease of life: Over the next few years, they will be restored and digitized.

Registrar Meta Friese in der Sammlung des Museums für Naturkunde; vor einem Hirschpräparat stehend, daneben eine Kollegin.

Portrait

The attorney of the objects

Meta Friese is an art historian. She is responsible for ensuring that collection objects are treated correctly and that no damage occurs to them.

Knowledge Worlds

Pigeons in the city

When it comes to animals in the city, pigeons rarely find appreciative mention, despite or perhaps because they are so present. The bad reputation of pigeons pushes the actual nature of these intelligent, social and very adaptable birds into the background.

Poträt von Katharina und Parm von Oheimb auf dem Friedhof Wilmersdorf.

Portrait

Team Snail

Katharina and Parm von Oheimb are united in their enthusiasm for slimy molluscs. They search for snails and slugs in Berlin’s cemeteries to gain new insights into their diversity and way of life.

Collection Future

Collecting the treasure of data

Mareike Petersen holds a doctorate in biology and is a data scientist at the Museum für NaturkundeBerlin – and since November 2023 also Strategic Project Manager of the new WiNoDa project.

Collection Future

Smartphone and energy transition

Those who believe they have nothing to do with minerals are greatly mistaken. The breakfast was on the porcelain plate – made from quartz, kaolinite, and feldspar.

Astrid Faber sitzt im Museum für Naturkunde Berlin vor einer Vitrine mit Präparaten; hinter ihr ist ein ausgestelltes Pferd zu sehen.

Portrait

The mediator

Astrid Faber is convinced that nature concerns us all. The biologist is committed to ensuring that as many people as possible benefit from the knowledge and collections of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

Steffen Bock hält einen kleinen 3D-gedruckten Plastikschädel eines Ursauriers in der Hand.

Portrait

The interpreter of prehistory

Steffen Bock brings prehistory into the present. With proto-reptile early tetrapod skulls produced by 3D printing, creative writing workshops, and virtual reality excavations, his team captivates a broad audience with the fossil discoveries of the Bromacker site in Thuringia.

Knowledge Worlds

Things to know about conifers

The leaves of trees change color in autumn and fall off at some point - we learn that from an early age. But the fact that the needles of conifers are also leaves and why they do not fall off every autumn in the vast majority of species is usually of less concern to us.

Mehrere historische Akten und Bücher liegen auf einem Tisch; auf einem Dokument mit der Aufschrift „Acta“ liegt eine Lupe, daneben ein Paar weiße Handschuhe.

Citizen science

The secrets of ancient scriptures

Who can read Sütterlin and decipher manuscripts? Dedicated citizens help to make the stories from the museum's archive accessible to everyone.

Linda Freyberg steht im Grünen zwischen hohen Pflanzen und hält einen Leitfaden zu Rechtsfragen in Citizen-Science-Projekten in den Händen.

Citizen science

Everything that is right

Citizen science projects are fun. But citizen scientists also face legal questions: Am I insured if I injure myself while searching for wild bees? What about data protection when I map villages? A guide provides clarification.

Collection Future

What digestion leaves behind

What does this tiny bone cluster tell us? Arnaud Rebillard investigates (un)digested remains of vertebrates, discovered at Bromacker.

Collection Future

What the explosion left behind

Where the city of Chemnitz is located today, there used to be a volcano. When it erupted, it buried a forest underneath it. Ludwig Luthardt, a palaeontologist at the museum, explores the fossilised wood - and can thus reconstruct the climate.

Eine Hand hält ein Smartphone mit der Naturblick-App; auf dem Bildschirm ist das Artportrait eines Buchfinks zu sehen, im Hintergrund ein unscharfer Computerbildschirm mit Code.

Citizen science

Discover urban nature with the Naturblick app

The Naturblick app enhances the experience of nature in urban settings. With around 120,000 users, the app is one of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin’s bestsellers.

Franziska Schuster und die Bibliothekarin Vivien Bauer betrachten mit Handschuhen eine großformatige historische Karte, die auf einem Tisch in einer Bibliothek ausgebreitet ist.

Portrait

The treasure seeker

Old expedition diaries, handwritten labels, intricate copperplate engravings, biological specimens – the collection at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is brimming with rarities and hidden knowledge. Franziska Schuster helps to unearth these treasures.

Knowledge Worlds

Wondrous molluscs

Which animal has thousands of teeth, no skeleton and only one foot? Which animal can carry both male and female sexual organs and manages to move unharmed over sharp knife edges? That's right, a snail! Snails are often labelled as slimy, boring or even annoying.

Jutta Helbig steht in der Vogelsammlung des Museums für Naturkunde zwischen Vitrinen mit präparierten Vögeln und betrachtet die ausgestellten Exemplare.

Portrait

The preserver

The rooms of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin are steeped in history. The listed building is soon to undergo renovation. Art historian Jutta Helbig is documenting the treasures of the past in order to preserve them for the future.

Saskia Brunst und eine studentische Hilfskraft arbeiten gemeinsam an einer Transkriptionsstation und betrachten ein historisches Dokument unter einer Lampe.

Citizen science

Making old fonts legible

Transcribing old labels from collection items into a modern, legible form helps to make historical collections accessible.