Center for Natural History

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Entrance of the Hamburg Zoological Museum

The Center for Natural History (CeNak) was founded in 2014 as the central operating unit of the University of Hamburg and comprises the Zoological , Mineralogical and Geological-Paleontological Museum as well as the associated collections and research areas.

The scientific collections go back to the Natural History Museum , which was destroyed in World War II in 1943 , and together comprise over ten million natural history objects. They provide an important basis for the nationally and internationally networked evolution and biodiversity research carried out at the Center for Natural History .

The Scientific Director of the Center for Natural History has been Matthias Glaubrecht since it was founded in October 2014 . For the CeNak's collections and research laboratories, there are plans to build a new building in Hamburg in the coming years, which, with its exhibitions, will become a window for the natural sciences in the Hanseatic city.

history

The Center for Natural History, especially the Zoological Museum , goes back to natural history collections from the 19th century that were brought together by merchants and seafarers from all over the world. This distinguishes Hamburg from many other natural history museums that were founded by princes and royalty. In 1843 the Natural History Association in Hamburg founded the Natural History Museum and merged its collections with those of the Johanneum School of Academics . In addition, there were the extensive private collections of the merchants Peter Friedrich Röding and Johan Cesar Godeffroy .

Natural history museum at the Steintorwall in 1891

The collection was moved to a new building on the Steintorwall in 1891. An imposing hall structure was built especially for the Natural History Museum as a “cathedral of science”. The museum with its 7,100 m² of exhibition space was at times the most popular in Germany with up to 165,000 visitors in 1893. The museum was also actively used for research purposes.

During the Second World War , parts of the collection were evacuated in July 1943. First, due to the risk of fire, the alcohol collection was moved to a nearby and unused underground station (Lindenstrasse), while dry specimens, especially the entomological collection, and parts of the library were housed in the basement of the museum. Among them was the narwhal skull with two tusks, which is now the symbol of the Center for Natural History. Shortly after the evacuation, on July 30, 1943, the museum burned down to the outer walls and with it the exhibits in the exhibition. Only the outsourced alcohol products and the collection of insects and some other stored items , remained. After 25 years, the collection was roughly back to its original size. During this time, the collection was temporarily housed, including in a converted bunker on Bornplatz. In 1969 the collections came into the possession of the University of Hamburg and in 1974 were housed at the current location on the Martin-Luther-King-Platz campus.

Current situation

The establishment of a new natural history museum under the project name "Evolutioneum" has been pursued for a long time. Here, the collections should find more space and attention and should be linked more closely to research and an expanded and modernized exhibition.

The “Evolutioneum” should become a place for imparting knowledge, in which visitors can understand evolution and for which the preservation of biodiversity is made aware.

The Natural History Foundation Hamburg was founded in 2017, with the aim of "maintaining and expanding, researching and using the Hamburg natural history collections" and providing financial support to the Center for Natural History.

In November 2018, the application from the City of Hamburg and the State of North Rhine-Westphalia to accept the Center for Natural History into the Leibniz Association was accepted by the Joint Science Conference of the Federation and the States (GWK). The aim is to merge the CeNak in Hamburg with the Bonn Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig , Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity (ZFMK), and to establish a new Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) with locations in Bonn and Hamburg at the beginning of 2021.

research

The research program focusing on biodiversity is dedicated to research into evolution and the diversity of species and habitats in the areas of evolution systematics, organic structures and the function and dynamics of ecosystems.

Another focus is the systematic observation and recording of species and populations , the so-called biomonitoring , in both marine and terrestrial research projects.

A total of twelve research departments at the Center for Natural History conduct research on the subjects of evolution and biodiversity. The research departments are animal biodiversity , arachnology , entomology , geology - paleontology , herpetology , ornithology , ichthyology , malacology , mammalogy and paleoanthropology, mineralogy , invertebrates I, invertebrates II.

Collections

The Center for Natural History has a total of over ten million specimens, which are kept in eleven collections. Due to the historical holdings of animal species, some of which are already extinct, the collection is of very high value for evolutionary and biodiversity research.

Beetle from the entomological collection of the Center for Natural History

Zoological collection

Most of the specimens belong to the zoological collection, which in turn is divided into nine further collections. This includes, for example, Germany's largest fish collection in the Ichthyology Department with 260,000 objects and around 8,000 species, or the most extensive collection of earthworms ( Oligochaeta ). The collections are also used internationally by other scientific institutions for research purposes.

Mineralogical collection

With almost 90,000 objects, the mineralogical collection is one of the largest in Germany. It includes minerals , precious stones and gemstones, as well as meteorites , ores and rocks and thus forms the basis for university research in this area.

The meteorite collection, which includes objects from the moon and Mars , should be emphasized . The focus of the collection was and is Norway , Chile and Namibia .

Geological-paleontological collection

The geological-palaeontological collection of the Center for Natural History at the University has its origins in the holdings of the former Natural History Museum in Hamburg . From 1945 the collection belonged to the “Geological-Paleontological Institute” of the university and has been part of the Center for Natural History since its foundation in 2014.

The large number of objects is of national and international importance as they provide comprehensive insights into the flora and fauna of past geological ages. The amber collection includes around 6,000 animals or plant remains enclosed in resin that are several million years old. With their help, knowledge can be gained about former environmental and climatic conditions.

One of the largest collections in Europe is that of fossil cuttlefish .

Besides giving glacial sediment on the basis of the transported in sediments and fossils insights into spread of glaciers in northern Europe, which is why they are for regional geology of great importance.

Exhibitions

Groomed walrus lady "Antje" in the Hamburg Zoological Museum

The Zoological Museum is the largest of the three museums belonging to CeNak. In 1969 the Mineralogical Museum in Grindelallee was reopened after being temporarily relocated. The Geological-Paleontological Museum on Bundesstrasse followed six years later . In 1984 the zoological exhibition was opened with a small part of the zoological collection at Martin-Luther-King-Platz. This exhibition can still be seen in the Zoological Museum in a modernized form and with a newly designed entrance area .

The number of visitors has been increasing for years. Two years after the opening of the Zoological Museum there were a good 11,000 visitors, the museum now has around 86,000 visitors annually.

Zoological Museum

Based on the biodiversity and evolution research in the Center for Natural History, the exhibition shows the biodiversity of the animal world in different regions of the world.

With the exhibition on the “ Anthropocene ”, the foyer focuses on the role of humans on earth and the effects of human activity on nature.

The exhibits in the permanent exhibition include the rare skull of a female narwhal with two tusks.

In the entrance area, the story of whaling in Hamburg is told based on a fin whale around 20 meters in size .

Another centerpiece of the exhibition is the well-known walrus Antje , former mascot of the NDR and a visitor magnet in Hagenbeck's zoo during his lifetime .

The exhibition also shows many preparations of large mammals , such as other whale skeletons, cloven-hoofed animals , feline and primate , an ornithological collection and exhibits of reptiles and amphibians .

Building of the Mineralogical Museum Hamburg

Mineralogical Museum

In the exhibition of the Mineralogical Museum you can find a variety of minerals as well as special meteorites and crystals. A centerpiece of the exhibition is a 424 kilogram heavy meteorite from Namibia , which already belonged to the collection of the then natural history museum in 1905 . About 1500 objects are exhibited in the Mineralogical Museum .

Geological-Paleontological Museum

Geological-Paleontological Museum Hamburg

The Geological-Paleontological Museum is located in the buildings of the Geomatikum of the University of Hamburg . In addition to ammonites and amber , the exhibition also shows fossils of dinosaurs millions of years old and skeletons of ice-age animals. The local geology and important fossil sites in Germany are also part of the exhibition.

Special exhibits include the skeleton of a cave bear around 30,000 years old, a fossilized ichthyosaur around 180 million years old and the cast of a giant ammonite with a diameter of over two meters.

Teaching

In cooperation with other faculties of the university, scientists of the Center for Natural History are involved in university teaching and student training with lectures and excursions.

Events

Children's group in the Zoological Museum Hamburg

In addition to its research activities, the Center for Natural History is the organizer, cooperation partner and participant of various public events. The Center for Natural History has been organizing excursions and guided tours for the GEO Day of Nature at the Long Day of StadtNatur Hamburg. The Center for Natural History also takes part in the Long Night of the Museums and on this evening opens its collections, which are otherwise not open to the public, to interested parties.

Another regular event is the reading series “Literature meets nature” in the Zoological Museum . Authors present “popular science or literary books as part of a scientific lecture”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Glaubrecht: HAMBURG: The Center for Natural History on Its Way Toward Reestablishing a Natural History Museum in Hamburg . In: Lothar A. Beck (Ed.): Zoological Collections of Germany - The Animal Kingdom in its Amazing Plenty at Museums and Universities , Springer Verlag, 2018, p. 435.
  2. ^ Matthias Glaubrecht: HAMBURG: The Center for Natural History on Its Way Toward Reestablishing a Natural History Museum in Hamburg . In: Lothar A. Beck (Ed.): Zoological Collections of Germany - The Animal Kingdom in its Amazing Plenty at Museums and Universities , Springer Verlag, 2018, p. 436
  3. ↑ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 36 ff.
  4. ↑ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 62
  5. ^ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 54
  6. ↑ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 60
  7. ↑ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 83
  8. ↑ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 227
  9. ^ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, pp. 227–229
  10. ^ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 231
  11. ↑ Brochure “The Center for Natural History on the Move”, published September 2018, Matthias Glaubrecht, page 13
  12. ↑ Press release of the University of Hamburg: "Stiftung Naturkunde Hamburg" established. University of Hamburg, November 29, 2017, last accessed on February 26, 2019
  13. ↑ Center for Natural History becomes part of the Leibniz Association , accessed on June 27, 2020.
  14. ^ Susanne Köstering: A Museum for World Nature , Dölling and Galitz Verlag, 2018, p. 315
  15. ^ Matthias Glaubrecht: HAMBURG: The Center for Natural History on Its Way Toward Reestablishing a Natural History Museum in Hamburg . In: Lothar A. Beck (Ed.): Zoological Collections of Germany - The Animal Kingdom in its Amazing Plenty at Museums and Universities , Springer Verlag, 2018, p. 443 =
  16. ↑ Anna Priebe: The University of Hamburg has the world's largest collection of earthworms. Newsroom of the Universität Hamburg, March 27, 2018, last accessed on February 26, 2019
  17. ^ President of the University of Hamburg: Scientific collections. University of Hamburg, October 2014, p. 12
  18. ^ Website of the Center for Natural History: Geological and Palaeontological Collection . Center for Natural History, April 7, 2015, last accessed on February 26, 2019
  19. ^ Website of the Center for Natural History: Amber Collection. Center for Natural History, February 25, 2019, last accessed on February 26, 2018
  20. ^ President of the University of Hamburg: Scientific collections. University of Hamburg, October 2014, p. 48
  21. ↑ Website of the Center for Natural History: Ice Age sediments. Center for Natural History, February 25, 2019, last accessed on February 26, 2018
  22. ^ Matthias Glaubrecht: HAMBURG: The Center for Natural History on Its Way Toward Reestablishing a Natural History Museum in Hamburg . In: Lothar A. Beck (Ed.): Zoological Collections of Germany - The Animal Kingdom in its Amazing Plenty at Museums and Universities , Springer Verlag, 2018, p. 450
  23. ↑ Website of the Center for Natural History: Ice Age sediments. Center for Natural History, February 25, 2019, last accessed on February 26, 2018
  24. ^ Matthias Glaubrecht: The Center for Natural History on the Move , University of Hamburg, September 2018, p. 62
  25. ^ Website of the Center for Natural History: Mineralogical Museum. Center for Natural History, December 4, 2018, last accessed on February 26, 2019
  26. ^ President of the University of Hamburg: Scientific collections. University of Hamburg, October 2014, p. 25
  27. ^ Matthias Glaubrecht: The Center for Natural History on the Move , University of Hamburg, September 2018, pp. 98 ff.
  28. ↑ Website of the Center for Natural History: Literature meets nature. Center for Natural History, February 5, 2018, last accessed on February 26, 2019