Museum Evolution
We are renovating, making our collection accessible and creating new spaces for research, exchange and collaborative learning.
Programme
Insights into the research collection
Our research collection is opening its doors: Discover newly accessible collection spaces on a guided tour and learn how objects become new knowledge.
Experience research where it takes place
More than 30 million objects at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin preserve knowledge about the Earth and life. Very few of these are currently on display; instead, they form part of our research collection – a workplace for researchers from all over the world and, at the same time, the memory of our museum.
As part of our ‘Museum Evolution’ project, we are gradually opening new halls to the public. This is creating new spaces where the collection, research and engagement with society come together. You will no longer experience science solely through selected exhibits, but in the very places where research is conducted, specimens are collected and preserved, and new knowledge is created collaboratively.
Our Public Collections offer a glimpse into everyday scientific life behind the scenes. They reveal how natural history collections are built up, how they are preserved, and why they are indispensable not only for research but also for society today and in the future.
Deer and Bovids
Guided tours from September 2026
The newly created hall brings together scientific classification, current research and social issues. Specimens of deer and bovids tell stories of evolution and biodiversity, as well as of hunting, nature conservation and the colonial history of the collection. Working alongside international co-curators, new perspectives on our collection have emerged.
Photo: Verena Brüning
Photo: Verena Brüning
Mammal Skulls
Guided tours from September 2026
The landmarked historic hall will be open to the public for the first time. Surrounded by thousands of scientific specimens, you will learn how researchers use mammalskulls to unravel the mysteries of evolution, biodiversity and phylogenetic relationships. At the same time, an international co-curation process has opened up new perspectives on the colonial contexts of selected items in the collection.
Fossil Invertebrates
Expected from 2027
Trilobites, ammonites and many other fossils in the hall offer an insight into the evolution of life over hundreds of millions of years. The hall illustrates how historical fossils continue to inform current research – for example, on evolution, mass extinctions and climate change.
Museum Evolution
Construction, Collection, Knowledge
Opening up our research collection is a key objective of our Museum Evolution. It brings together three developments that are propelling the museum into the 21st century.
Construction is laying the groundwork: historic halls are being restored in accordance with heritage conservation standards, new spaces are being created, and the museum is gradually being made accessible to all.
A collection means more than just preservation. We safeguard, catalogue and digitise our holdings, and create optimal conditions for their long-term use by researchers and the wider public.
Knowledge is created when people are given access. That is why we are opening up our collection, making research processes visible and developing new forms of exchange – together with researchers, international partners and you.
Wet collection
In 2010, our Wet collection of fish and snakes became the first actively used research collection to be permanently incorporated into the exhibition tour.
digitize!
In the ‘digitize! – Live Science’ exhibition, we have been showing visitors since 2021 how collection cataloguing and digitization are transforming millions of objects into a knowledge infrastructure accessible worldwide.
ZUGvögel
The relocation of the historic bird collection gave rise to a new exhibition format in 2024: ‘ZUGvögel – A Collection in Motion’. Around 350 people, including many visitors, worked together with the museum team to develop this special exhibition.
You can find public guided tours of ‘ZUGvögel’ in our events calendar.
Minerals
Since the museum opened in 1889, the listed Minerals hall has housed both a scientific collection and an exhibition under one roof. It is therefore a historical precursor to the modern concept of public research collections.