Museum of Animal Science Dresden

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Building in Klotzsche

The Museum für Tierkunde in Dresden is an extensive collection of zoological objects. It belongs to the Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden . With the exception of a small branch in Moritzburg and an exhibition in the Japanese Palais , it currently has no significant exhibition space.

collection

GDR postage stamp from 1978 with a Papilio haeneli belonging to the knight butterflies from the Otto Staudinger collection , issued on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the Staatliche Wissenschaftliche Museen Dresden

In total, the museum has more than six million objects from all over the world. They are mainly stored in a large administration and depot building in the northern Dresden district of Klotzsche , where they take up an entire floor. In the same building, but one floor below, are the objects of the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology .

The focus of the collection is on vertebrates and insects . The vertebrate department alone, with more than 231,000 objects, is subdivided into the departments of mammalogy , ornithology and ichthyology . In entomology, a distinction is made in the museum between butterflies , two-winged birds , beetles and half- winged birds . In addition, molluscs are collected in the malacology department .

The museum consists of many special collections from different regions of the world. These include Wolfgang Makatsch's collection of 30,000 eggs , which is one of the most extensive of its kind in Germany, Otto Kleinschmidt's collection of 2,000 bellows and preparations mainly from birds, a plant beetle collection from Werner Heinz Muche and a collection of palaearctic butterflies from Otto Staudinger , who came to the museum through Otto Bang-Haas in 1961. The holo- and paratypes of various species, including two of the four known specimens of broad-headed flies worldwide, are of outstanding value . The collection items also include 14 horns of the controversial spiral horn antelope .

An extinct species of vertebrates one of the world's still about 20 skeletons of include Steller's sea cow , a Kaua'i'Ō'ō , a thylacine , a Pied Raven , a Moa , great auk and passenger pigeons represented. Species that are no longer native to Saxony and are among the stocks include blue ruff , ground squirrel and the only surviving European sturgeon that was caught in Saxony.

In a modern vertebrate Präparatorium three experts will show preparations up to the size of elephants ago.

research

One focus of the museum's work is research, which is mainly carried out in the areas of biodiversity , taxonomy , geozoology and eco-faunistics . The Saxon fauna and the history of science are also special topics . Ten scientists are employed in the museum.

With around 60,000 volumes and 60,000 other items, the museum library is the largest zoological specialist library in the Free State and is part of the Dresden Central Natural History Library . The museum publishes five series of animal science magazines.

Modern research methods are also increasingly being used in the Dresden Museum of Animal Science. The focus is no longer only on the comparison of morphological features, but also on the molecular biological analysis, for the purposes of which the museum maintains its own laboratory with extensive blood and tissue samples from many animal species.

history

Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach

Similar to the State Art Collections , the Museum für Tierkunde Dresden originally goes back to the Kunstkammer in the Dresden Residenzschloss , a universal treasury set up by Elector August in 1560 .

Often trophies or specimens from animals that had been hunted in numerous court hunts were incorporated into the holdings of the Kunstkammer. So it grew quickly. In the castle fire of 1701, many parts were saved, but then had to be temporarily stored in the former main station on Neumarkt for several years . Since there was not enough space there to store or look after the exhibits properly, many were lost.

In 1728, Elector August the Strong separated the natural objects from the art collections and housed them in the Zwinger . This is considered to be the actual foundation of the Natural History Collections .

Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach was director of the Royal Natural History Museum between 1820 and 1874 and also has services to the establishment of the Dresden Surgical and Medicinal Academy , the Botanical Garden and the Dresden Zoo . During his tenure, the Dresden May Uprising broke out in 1849 , during which the kennel burned down. As a result, the museum was completely lost, with the exception of a small remnant of the bird collection. After initial resistance from the state government, it was only able to reopen in 1857 with numerous new acquisitions. In the same year, the Royal Mineralogical-Geological Museum split off.

Adolf Bernhard Meyer

In 1874, Adolf Bernhard Meyer followed as museum director. One year later the ethnographic collections were founded and the museum was renamed the Royal Zoological and Anthropological-Ethnographic Museum in Dresden . The botanical collections previously contained in the holdings, on the other hand, were given to the Royal Polytechnic in Dresden , while the Royal Library took over the specialist botanical library . This ended at the latest the unity of the natural history collections that had grown over several centuries and was replaced by independent specialist institutes. In 1875 he published a museum magazine for the first time.

After Meyer had undertaken two longer study trips to other European and North American natural history museums around 1900 , he had the Dresden Museum brought up to date with the latest research. Among other things, he divided the objects into a permanent collection for the public and a scientific collection for research purposes, and he also introduced dust and fire-proof steel cabinets. The Austrian zoologist Karl Maria Heller was the custodian during this period .

In the mid-1930s, the museums in the Zwinger suffered from an enormous shortage of space and had to be relocated. During this time, Willi Hennig , the founder of cladistics , also worked as a volunteer in the museum. When the Freemasons were banned and expropriated in 1937, the zoological department of the State Museum for Animal and Ethnology moved into the house of the Lodge Zu den drei Schwertern und Asträa zum greening diamond on Ostraallee in the Wilsdruffer suburb , opposite the Zwinger. For the first time, the zoologists had their own museum building, as the ethnological department moved into the orangery in the Duchess Garden right next door . Due to the air raids on Dresden , on October 7, 1944, the lodge house and with it the exhibits were destroyed. However, the scientific research holdings and the specialist library had already been moved to 16 different locations. For example, many insects and the bird egg collection were secured at Weesenstein Castle, the skeleton and parts of the mollusc collection at Kriebstein Castle and the coral collection and animal preparations in the Baroque Rammenau Castle . Only twelve boxes with the most valuable items that had been kept at Königstein Fortress were brought to the Soviet Union as spoils of war . A total of around two thirds of the objects survived the Second World War, the rest fell victim to looting and vandalism.

Robert Reichert, who was taxidermist in the 1930s and 40s, inspector or provisional director after the end of the war, and finally director of the museum between 1950 and 1957 was commissioned with the war-related outsourcing. On July 2nd, 1949, under his direction, the first exhibition ever to be opened by a Dresden museum in the Zwinger; The theme was the fauna of the Dresden Heath . Further exhibitions in the kennel followed. After the end of the war, the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden split off.

In 1957 the Museum für Tierkunde moved to the Ständehaus , which had been poorly restored after being destroyed in the war. However, the building was not suitable for the proper accommodation of the inventory. Two years later, the zoo's largest special exhibition to date in the post-war period took place in the north hall on the occasion of Charles Darwin's 150th birthday . As part of the 250th anniversary of the museum, the boxes brought to the Soviet Union were returned in 1978 and 1980, respectively. Another large special exhibition was held in 1995 exactly 120 years after the joint museum was founded together with the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden on the subject of Africa in the Ständehaus. The interim use of the Ständehaus by the Tierkunde Museum was only completed in February 1999 with the final move to the new Klotzscher depot building.

Since July 1, 2000, the Museum of Animal Science has been combined with the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology to form the Dresden State Natural History Collections. In 2003 they celebrated their 275th anniversary. On January 1, 2009, they were merged with the Senckenberg Research Institute and Nature Museum in Frankfurt am Main and the Görlitz State Natural History Museum . This means membership in the Leibniz Association as well as joint funding by the federal and state governments.

Moritzburg branch

Pheasant castle

The zoological museum has operated a branch in Moritzburg since 1956. This was initially located in the pheasant castle and was dedicated to ornithology. It had to be closed in 1996 due to the acute dilapidation of the building. A small cavalier house at Moritzburg Castle was used as an interim solution .

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Coordinates: 51 ° 7 ′ 44 ″  N , 13 ° 47 ′ 24 ″  E