The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin promotes free knowledge to mark Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary

To mark Wikipedia’s 25th anniversary, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is taking part in a joint initiative involving more than 30 cultural, educational and memory institutions from Germany and Austria. Together, they are each donating 25 pieces of content that were not previously freely licensed to the free online encyclopaedia; these will be published on Wikimedia Commons from 15 January 2026. In doing so, the Museum is actively contributing to the further development of free, reliable knowledge.

Since its foundation, Wikipedia has stood for the goal of making knowledge freely accessible to all. The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin shares this mission: as an integrated research museum of the Leibniz Association, the museum develops an open knowledge infrastructure and consistently promotes open science through open access, open data and international networking.

In addition to the 25 anniversary contributions, the Berlin research museum provides a constantly growing collection of open, curated collection and research data. This data ranges from biological and geoscientific evolution to global biodiversity. For structured indexing and international networking, the museum is increasingly using Wikidata, the open knowledge database of the Wikiverse.

Natural history collections and research institutions thus make a key contribution to free, quality-assured access to scientific knowledge. Especially in times of disinformation and the increasing use of artificial intelligence, verified, contextualised and openly available data are more important than ever. 

By publishing under free licences, the museum’s content is not only usable for illustrating Wikipedia articles. It is also freely available for reuse by teachers, students, researchers, creative professionals and the interested public worldwide. At the same time, the museum is increasing the visibility of its collections and research and positioning itself as an active player in the digital knowledge society.

The joint gift campaign to mark Wikipedia’s anniversary sends a strong signal for the future of cultural and knowledge dissemination. It demonstrates how museums, archives, libraries, schools and universities, together with participatory knowledge projects such as Wikipedia, can preserve, open up and keep alive the cultural and scientific heritage for the 21st century.

All contributions from the participating institutions will be available on the Wikipedia anniversary page from 15 January 2026.