Ausstellungsbereich mit einer Bremsscheibe aus Metall neben Mineralproben; dahinter Vitrinen mit einer umfangreichen Mineralsammlung.

EXHIBITION

Minerals
A Historic Hall Full of the History of Science

How Minerals Shape Our Lives

You think you have nothing to do with minerals? Then think again: your breakfast plate is made of quartz, kaolinite, and feldspar; your nail polish sparkles thanks to mica minerals such as muscovite or lepidolite; and your smartphone contains up to 70 different chemical elements – including aluminum, copper, nickel, gold, silver, rare earth elements, zinc, and tungsten.

All of these materials can also be found in the mineral and rock collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

What are minerals?

A mineral is a naturally occurring, inorganic substance with a fixed chemical composition and an ordered crystal structure.

A well-known example is halite, also known as rock salt. It consists of sodium and chlorine and has a cubic internal structure.

To classify minerals systematically, the Berlin mineralogist Gustav Rose developed a system in the 19th century that is still in use today. The museum’s display collection also follows this classification.

Minerals form through geological processes within the Earth. Temperature and pressure determine their structure – for example, carbon can form either graphite or diamond.

By the way: the terms “minerals” and “mineral substances” mean the same. In modern scientific usage, “minerals” is standard. “Mineral substances” is the older term, originating from the era of large natural history collections in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Historic Hall Full of the History of Science

Our mineral collection was founded in 1781 by King Frederick II as the Royal Mineral Cabinet. Today, it comprises around 280,000 objects and includes about 65 percent of all minerals known worldwide.

Some objects originate from famous expeditions. These include minerals that Alexander von Humboldt brought back from Russia and the Americas. During his travels, he collected rocks and minerals in Franconia, Italy, Russia, and the Americas. More than 1,100 of these specimens entered the museum’s collection. A selection is on display in the exhibition – simply look out for the minerals highlighted in blue.

In total, the historic, listed exhibition hall from the 19th century presents more than 1,000 mineral species in both historic and modern display cases. It has remained largely unchanged since the museum opened in 1889 and is therefore an exhibit in its own right. Alongside magnificent crystals, busts, models, and instruments tell the story of mineralogy – from Humboldt to the present day.

Another Highlight

The Ribbeck Meteorite

On the night of January 21, 2024, an asteroid about 40 centimeters in size entered the Earth’s atmosphere and broke apart over the Havelland region. Fragments fell near Ribbeck. A team from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin collected more than 20 samples for the research collection, which already includes around 7,000 extraterrestrial rocks. The meteorite formed shortly after the origin of the solar system and has remained largely unchanged ever since.

Research on the Ribbeck meteorite is coordinated by the museum. It is a rare achondrite (aubrite), an iron-poor rock composed of magnesium silicates. Comparative samples from the collection enabled rapid classification. Researchers are also investigating the potential effects of larger asteroids and are involved in the ESA Hera mission for planetary defense.