The Empire and Colonial Interconnections (1889–1918)

The museum is reinventing itself

On 2 December 1889, Emperor Wilhelm II opened the ‘Museum of Natural History’. The building was constructed against the backdrop of the fledgling German Empire and was financed, among other things, by reparations payments following the Franco-Prussian War. The building housed four separate institutions:

• Mineralogical Museum
• Geological and Palaeontological Museum
• Zoological Museum and Zoological Institute

During this period, a new understanding of the museum took hold: the separation of research and exhibition collections. This internationally debated reform fundamentally changed the way objects were handled and made the museum an early pioneer. For the first time, there was an educational exhibition collection for the public with the aim of imparting knowledge.

Dispute between directors

Architect August Tiede planned a modern building with collection rooms separate from the exhibition spaces. Director Wilhelm Peters, however, wanted to continue displaying the objects in systematic rows throughout the entire building. Although he had his way, he died shortly before construction began in 1883. His successor, Karl August Möbius, who supported the reform, finally implemented the separation already conceived by Tiede: the public collection moved to the ground floor, the scientific collection to the upper floors. This functional reorganisation was considered revolutionary at the time and established the museum as an early European pioneer.

Due to the separation of the research collection and the public collection, the grand staircases were closed to the public from the outset. For the first time in the museum’s history, the work under the Future Plan will now allow the architecture to be used in accordance with its original purpose. The museum’s evolution will enable – as originally intended – insights into the research collection on the upper floors.

A spectacular atrium – initially without dinosaurs

When it opened in 1889, the museum did not display any dinosaurs in its central atrium – these were not excavated in Tendaguru until 1909–1913 – but mainly large mammals, including several whale skeletons, elephants, rhinoceroses and giraffes. 

This varied use is an example of how the museum has continually reinvented itself: rooms were given new functions, exhibitions evolved, and scientific discoveries transformed presentation formats.

We are building on this as part of the museum’s current evolution. The historic atrium is being redesigned once again – this time into an open welcome area and a space for exchange and dialogue on the pressing challenges of our time. The large dinosaur skeletons are moving to a covered courtyard, which will provide additional exhibition space in future.

German colonial rule

Between 1884 and 1919, the Zoological Museum played a central role in the collection and processing of natural history specimens from the German colonies. It organised expeditions and provided colonial officials and military personnel in Africa, the Pacific and China with guidelines and materials for collecting specimens. Natural history collecting served not only to scientifically document biodiversity, but was also frequently linked to economic and political interests.

A Federal Council resolution of 1889 stipulated that all objects from expeditions funded by the Reich, as well as materials collected by officials on the ground, were to be sent to Berlin. As a result, the collection grew to an unprecedented extent.

Even after the end of the German colonial empire in 1919, former colonial regions remained important focal points for collecting and research. Collection items from these contexts continue to form a central basis for scientific work, exhibitions and educational outreach.

Coming to terms with this history is a central task of the museum. Researchers investigate the provenance of the objects, the conditions under which they were collected, and the underlying power relations. In doing so, they also critically reflect on scholarly practices, language and institutional structures. The aim is to create transparency and open up the collection to global dialogue.

The collection continues to grow

The most famous exhibit from this period is the ‘Brachiosaurus brancai’ (now scientifically described as Giraffatitan brancai) in the museum’s atrium. The skeleton, assembled from the bones of several individuals and supplemented with artificial bones, has been the centrepiece of the exhibition since 1937. The bones were excavated between 1909 and 1913 on Mount Tendaguru in what is now Tanzania.

In total, more than 225 tonnes of fossilised bones were brought to Berlin. The history of this excavation and the recovered fossils is documented in the book Dinosaur Fragments – On the History of the Tendaguru Expedition and its Specimens 1906–2018. It makes an important contribution to coming to terms with the colonial past of German collections – a hundred years after the end of the German colonial empire. Moreover, it forms the basis for the publicly accessible guide on dealing with colonial natural history objects, which creates transparency and offers guidance for responsible collection, research and exhibition practices.

The cataloguing of the museum’s collections also continually yields new insights. As early as 2008, for instance, it became known that the bird collection contained 28 specimens from the island of Nauru – the world’s most comprehensive collection of Nauru birds. They arrived in Berlin during the German colonial administration of the Pacific atoll. A current research project at the museum is creating virtual access to holdings from Tendaguru. 

Other significant additions to the collection include items from the German deep-sea expedition to Valdivia (1898/99), whose findings made a significant contribution to marine research.

Extension of the building – and a glimpse into the future

Between 1914 and 1917, during the First World War, the museum extended its building with an annex. This part of the building has never been comprehensively renovated to this day. Consequently, in many areas the structural conditions do not meet the requirements for modern collection storage, excellent research or integrated working practices.

The Museum Evolution project presents the first opportunity to fundamentally change this. The comprehensive, heritage-sensitive, sustainable and energy-efficient refurbishment of this historic part of the building will create space for modern research, responsible collection storage and new forms of dialogue.