Nierstein Paleontological Museum
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The Paleontological Museum Nierstein is a museum founded by the amateur paleontologist Arnulf Stapf , in which around 2,000 fossils from different eras are exhibited. It is housed in the old town hall of Nierstein .
The museum founder Arnulf Stapf
The history of the Paleontological Museum began in the late summer of 1945. At that time, the nine-year-old student Arnulf Stapf from Nierstein accidentally discovered scree with tinsel of gold leaf while fishing on the Rhine . This was the trigger that he carefully observed the rubble on the banks of the Rhine in the following period. Arnulf Stapf no longer found gold, but instead found mussels and snails , which soon interested him more than the fish he caught. On the railway line between Nierstein and Nackenheim , as a ten-year-old, Stapf came across gravel for the substructure of the track system, which came from the overburden of the Saarland coalfield and contained plant fossils from the carbon . During a summer vacation with his uncle in Alzey , the student Stapf also got to know the fossil fauna of the Oligocene . The uncle's lodger had taken the boy to the sand and gravel pits in the Alzeyer area, where he was able to find fossilized shark teeth , snails and mussels. From then on, Arnulf Stapf never let go of his love for fossils. He was particularly impressed by the often high geological age of many millions of years of these witnesses to geological history . Over time, the parental home in Nierstein turned out to be too small for the ever-growing fossil collection.
founding
The mayor of Nierstein, Paul Hexemer, recognized the importance of Arnulf Stapf's fossil collection. After the completion of the New Town Hall in the early 1970s, Hexemer made a room in the Old Town Hall available for the Stapf collection as an exhibition space. Thanks to donations from private individuals and companies, the first showcases could be purchased. Arnulf Stapf's father developed into an accomplished museum guide through the exhibition. In 1973 the Nierstein Paleontological Museum was officially opened. Today it has four showrooms on the first floor of the old town hall of Nierstein. The exhibition has been open every Sunday since it was founded and the visit is free. While looking for fossils, the electrician Arnulf Stapf, who among other things repaired washing machines, met many like-minded people at home and abroad. His trips to fossil sites have taken him to Gotland , Scotland , Wales , France , Belgium , Austria , Czechoslovakia and North Africa .
Support association
In 1974 the “Association of Friends of the Niersteiner Paläontological Museum e. V. ". The association had around 250 members in 2005, including committed fossil collectors and renowned scientists. The members meet on the first Friday of each month for a regular table and scientific lectures. His son Harald, who works as a designer, developed into Arnulf Stapf's most capable colleague. He hid and prepared numerous important fossil finds, earned services at the presentation of the Paleontological Museum Nierstein and is considered a renowned amateur paleontologist.
Honors for Arnulf Stapf
In 1978, the great achievement of Arnulf Stapf, to have collected numerous witnesses from all epochs of the earth's history and to show them in a museum, was honored. He received the Federal Cross of Merit . Arnulf Stapf also went down in the annals of paleontology : a fossil clam ( Chlamys stapfi ) from the Oligocene and the oldest mayfly ( Misthodotes stapfi ) in Central Europe from the Permian are named after him. The Nierstein Paleontological Museum has often been reported in newspapers, on the radio and on television. Arnulf Stapf and his son Harald guide visitors through the palaeontological museum free of charge every Sunday - or otherwise by appointment. By 1993, the exhibition had already been visited by more than 250,000 people, including many professors and students.
exhibition
The Paleontological Museum Nierstein presents around 2000 fossils from all periods of the earth's history. For more than 30 years, the exhibits were collected by Arnulf Stapf alone and later with the help of his son Harald and many friends. The focal points of the remarkable show are plant and animal fossils from the Rotliegend period (Permian) from Nierstein in Rheinhessen as well as from the Saar-Nahe region ( Odernheim , Jeckenbach , Sobernheim ), fish from the Devonian of Scotland, molluscs from the Old Tertiary of Paris Basins, insects and fish from the Tertiary of southern France and Rheinhessen, plants and insects from the Pliocene of Willershausen and petrified wood from the Leipzig area .
literature
Fossils from the Nierstein Paleontological Museum have been described and illustrated in popular science books and scientific treatises:
- Heinz Malz: Fossil treasures. 98 p. Friends of the Nierstein Paleontological Museum eV, Nierstein 1992
- Bärbel Oftring : The Dinosaur Street . 31 S. Grebennikov Verlag GmbH, Berlin, 2012
See also
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 52 ′ 29.7 " N , 8 ° 20 ′ 11.9" E