State Natural Science Collections of Bavaria

The State Natural History Collections in Bavaria (SNSB) is a research and educational institution as a Safety Authority the Bavarian State Ministry of Education and Culture, Science and art are subordinate. They unite five natural history state collections, eight exhibition collections and the Munich Botanical Garden .

In addition to building, maintaining and scientifically processing the collections, which currently comprise around 35 million inventory units, the SNSB does valuable research and educational work in the field of bio and geosciences. The close connection between collection-related geoscientific and bioscientific, fauna and flora research is an outstanding feature of the SNSB.

Headquarters of the General Management

The general management and central administration of the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections (SNSB) is located in Munich - Nymphenburg , Menzinger Straße 71.

Research institutions and natural history museums

The research institutions of the SNSB include:

The following museums belong to the association:

Museum Mensch und Natur as the central exhibition platform of the SNSB. It is currently planned to expand the museum into a larger natural history museum. An architectural competition has already been held.
Geological Museum Munich as a publicly accessible part of the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology
Museum Empire of Crystals as a publicly accessible part of the State Mineralogical Collection
Paleontological Museum Munich as a publicly accessible part of the Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology
Eichstätt Jura Museum (sponsor: Eichstätt Episcopal Seminar)

Natural History Museum Bamberg (sponsor: Bamberg Lyceum Foundation)

Rieskrater Museum Nördlingen (sponsor: City of Nördlingen)

Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken in Bayreuth (sponsor: City of Bayreuth)

Also part of the network is:

Botanical Garden Munich-Nymphenburg (living research collection and public botanical garden with various greenhouses and exhibitions)

A peculiarity of the organization of the SNSB is that the heads of the state collections are mostly professors of the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) and are part of the collection director. This ensures intensive cooperation between the SNSB and the LMU. The SNSB is a member of the association of natural history museums, the Humboldt-Ring .

tasks

The Bavarian State Natural Science Collections have three areas of responsibility:

Collections: Conservation, recording, expansion and making available the extensive collections. The collections are made available to scientists from many countries around the world, partly through visits, through loan transactions and increasingly also through electronic provision and dispatch of data (e.g. images of collection items).

Education and public relations: Various permanent and special exhibitions convey information about geosciences and life sciences. This is intended to familiarize visitors with their natural environment and its history, and to awaken and promote their understanding of the importance of the environment. The SNSB museums hold around 30 special exhibitions each year and have more than 750,000 visitors. The state collections are also effective in a variety of ways in the education sector through guided tours, libraries, specialist lectures and teaching. At the same time, they are advisors on questions of ecology and provide expert opinions.

Science and research: The employees of the SNSB research the present and past diversity of the living world ( biodiversity ) and the inanimate world ( geodiversity ). Most of the research topics are linked to the collections. Many research projects can only be carried out on the basis of third-party funding and by students as part of their final theses.

history

prehistory

The Bavarian Academy of Sciences was ordered to set up collections when it was founded in 1759. King Max I. Joseph reformed the Kgl. Academy of Sciences Fundamental. The academy was assigned so-called "attributes", that is, a number of collections and institutions. Important additions to the holdings were the zoological , botanical and mineralogical private cabinets of the Wittelsbach family , which mainly consisted of the so-called "Ducal Collection" and the Kurpfälzisch- Zweibrücken "Riedl Collection". The collections of the academy, as well as its library, had been housed in the " Alte Akademie " or " Wilhelminum " in Neuhauser Strasse (now a pedestrian zone) since 1784 . The collections were greatly expanded by the secularization of 1803, and were continuously expanded in the period that followed. In 1811, with the appointment of Johann Baptist Spix as curator, the zoological and zootomic collection (today's Zoological State Collection Munich ) was the first to be spun off and placed under the Academy as an independent institution. A natural history museum in the Old Academy was opened to the public as early as 1809. This can be seen as the predecessor of the Munich Natural History Museum, which existed until it was destroyed in World War II .

Founding until today

After the Ludwig Maximilians University was relocated from Landshut to Munich in 1827 , new statutes were issued in the same year that raised the conservatories ("attributes") to legally independent entities. The joint accommodation in the Old Academy (also called Wilhelminum) ensured an interdisciplinary research approach, which was also expressed in a joint exhibition collection. The natural science collections of the university were combined with the collections of the academy. The scientific collections were subordinated to a "general curator" who was appointed by the king himself and was nominally independent of the academy and university. The first general curator was Schelling . The reorganization of 1827 is considered to be the foundation of the SNSB.

The Jesuit College ( Wilhelminum ) around 1700 after Michael Wening

The end of the monarchy in Bavaria in 1918 brought little change for the scientific state collections. In contrast to most countries, where the independent collections that arose from the private cabinets of the ruling houses, as well as the private cabinets that were still in existence, were merged with the collections of the respective universities, the status quo remained in Bavaria . The royal collections became the "state collections" according to the new terminology. However, the “Fund for the Scientific Research of the Kingdom”, which King Maximilian II had set up when he ascended the throne in 1848, was completely extinguished due to inflation during the Great Depression.

From 1927 the administration of the state collections was separated from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. The SNSB received a general director and were subordinated directly to a state ministry as an intermediate authority. After some restructuring and outsourcing, the SNSB has been known as the “General Directorate of the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections” as the official name of the authority.

During the Second World War , most of the collections and the library were relocated in the summer of 1943, despite the ban on relocation, which was intended to preserve access to the collection by the population. During the Allied bombing raid on Munich's old town in 1944, the Old Academy was also badly hit. Despite the selfless efforts of the employees, the permanent collection was lost. After the end of the war, the state collections moved out of the destroyed academy and moved into their provisional accommodations that were scattered across the city, some of which they still have today.

The desire for a new common home with a common museum therefore soon awoke. The plan of the 1950s and 1960s to move into the Turkish barracks in Maxvorstadt could not be realized. The Natural History Museum also did not get beyond a planning stage at first.

In 1967 the General Directorate of the State Natural Science Collections of Bavaria was founded as a new middle authority . The main aim was to build a natural history museum for Munich. The planning for the “Natural History Education Center” could be advanced up to an architectural competition for a new building in the so-called Ackermannbogen in the southern Oberwiesenfeld ; However, the tight budget situation did not permit a new building. The museum was then opened in 1990 under the name Museum Mensch und Natur in a provisional facility in the north wing of Nymphenburg Palace . A noteworthy expansion is currently being planned (“NaMu” = Bavarian Natural History Museum).

As the last institution, the General Directorate of the State Natural Science Collections of Bavaria took over the supervision of the Urwelt Museum in Bayreuth in 1997.

The Bavarian State Natural Science Collection has been a founding member of the Humboldt Ring since September 24, 2009 .

Curiosities

The General Directorate of the State Natural Science Collections of Bavaria is the smallest medium-sized authority in the Free State of Bavaria, but has the longest name.

Web links

Website of the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections
Structural Commission Bavaria 2013 (Ed.): Evaluation report Structural Commission Bavaria 2013 (StrukBY2013). Results of the assessment of 13 non-university research institutions financed by the Free State of Bavaria. Bavarian State Ministry for Science, Research and Art, Munich 2013, see in particular pp. 169–198.

Individual evidence

↑ Namu Bayern ( Memento of 31 March 2014 Internet Archive ). At muenchen-querbeet.de
↑ M. Apel (2015) The architectural competition for the expansion of the Museum Mensch und Natur to the Natural History Museum Bavaria; Nature and Museum, No. 5, 59–61
↑ Structural Commission Bavaria 2013 (Ed.): Evaluation Report Structural Commission Bavaria 2013 (StrukBY2013). Results of the assessment of 13 non-university research institutions financed by the Free State of Bavaria. Bavarian State Ministry for Science, Research and Art, Munich 2013, p. 173 ff.
↑ From the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections (SNSB). ( Memento of March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 2010/2011, ISSN 1861-3071 .
↑ Dietmar Willoweit : Science out of a thirst for knowledge - The Bavarian Academy on the way into the age of science. In: Tobias Schönauer, Dietmar Willoweit (ed.): Wissenswelten. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the scientific collections of Bavaria. Exhibitions for the 250th anniversary of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Catalog. Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 2009, pp. 10–44.
↑ Reinhard Heydenreuter , Sylvia Krauss: Bright heads. The history of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1759–2009. Exhibition by the Bavarian Main State Archives, Munich, March 28 to July 5, 2009 (= exhibition catalogs of the Bavarian State Archives. No. 51). Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2223-8 .
↑ Wolf Bachmann: The Attributes of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1807-1827 (= Munich historical studies. Department of Bavarian History. Vol. 8, ISSN 0580-1303 ). Lassleben, Kallmünz 1966, (at the same time: Munich, university, dissertation, 1963).
↑ Klaus Schönitzer: A life for zoology. The journeys and research of Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (= reports of the friends of the Zoological State Collection Munich. Vol. 3). Allitera-Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86906-179-5 , pp. 34-40.
^ Richard Kraft: The natural science collections in the old academy in Munich. In: Reinhard Heydenreuter, Sylvia Krauß: Bright heads. The history of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1759–2009. Exhibition by the Bavarian Main State Archives, Munich, March 28 to July 5, 2009 (= exhibition catalogs of the Bavarian State Archives. No. 51). Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2223-8 , pp. 153-155.
^ Certificate of incorporation. In: Government sheet for the Kingdom of Bavaria. No. 12, 1827, ZDB ID 502174-1 , col. 205-216.
↑ Wolf Bachmann: The Attributes of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1807-1827 (= Munich historical studies. Department of Bavarian History. Vol. 8, ISSN 0580-1303 ). Lassleben, Kallmünz 1966, p. 45 f., (At the same time: Munich, University, dissertation, 1963).
^ Annual report 1977 of the General Directorate of the State Natural Science Collections in Bavaria. ISSN 0302-6442 .
↑ Freddy Litten: The separation of the administration of the scientific collections of the state from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In: Journal for Bavarian State History. Vol. 55, No. 2, 1992, pp. 411-420, online .
^ Homepage of the SNSB .
↑ Greetings from prehistoric times. The new natural history museum should be a great success. There will finally be enough space to display the treasures of the state collections. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , 14./15. June 2014, p. R5.

[1] Namu Bayern ( Memento of 31 March 2014 Internet Archive ). At muenchen-querbeet.de

[2] M. Apel (2015) The architectural competition for the expansion of the Museum Mensch und Natur to the Natural History Museum Bavaria; Nature and Museum, No. 5, 59–61

[3] Structural Commission Bavaria 2013 (Ed.): Evaluation Report Structural Commission Bavaria 2013 (StrukBY2013). Results of the assessment of 13 non-university research institutions financed by the Free State of Bavaria. Bavarian State Ministry for Science, Research and Art, Munich 2013, p. 173 ff.

[4] From the Bavarian State Natural Science Collections (SNSB). ( Memento of March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) 2010/2011, ISSN 1861-3071 .

[5] Dietmar Willoweit : Science out of a thirst for knowledge - The Bavarian Academy on the way into the age of science. In: Tobias Schönauer, Dietmar Willoweit (ed.): Wissenswelten. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the scientific collections of Bavaria. Exhibitions for the 250th anniversary of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. Catalog. Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 2009, pp. 10–44.

[6] Reinhard Heydenreuter , Sylvia Krauss: Bright heads. The history of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1759–2009. Exhibition by the Bavarian Main State Archives, Munich, March 28 to July 5, 2009 (= exhibition catalogs of the Bavarian State Archives. No. 51). Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2223-8 .

[7] Wolf Bachmann: The Attributes of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1807-1827 (= Munich historical studies. Department of Bavarian History. Vol. 8, ISSN 0580-1303 ). Lassleben, Kallmünz 1966, (at the same time: Munich, university, dissertation, 1963).

[8] Klaus Schönitzer: A life for zoology. The journeys and research of Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix (= reports of the friends of the Zoological State Collection Munich. Vol. 3). Allitera-Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-86906-179-5 , pp. 34-40.

[9] Richard Kraft: The natural science collections in the old academy in Munich. In: Reinhard Heydenreuter, Sylvia Krauß: Bright heads. The history of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1759–2009. Exhibition by the Bavarian Main State Archives, Munich, March 28 to July 5, 2009 (= exhibition catalogs of the Bavarian State Archives. No. 51). Pustet, Regensburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-7917-2223-8 , pp. 153-155.

[10] Certificate of incorporation. In: Government sheet for the Kingdom of Bavaria. No. 12, 1827, ZDB ID 502174-1 , col. 205-216.

[11] Wolf Bachmann: The Attributes of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences 1807-1827 (= Munich historical studies. Department of Bavarian History. Vol. 8, ISSN 0580-1303 ). Lassleben, Kallmünz 1966, p. 45 f., (At the same time: Munich, University, dissertation, 1963).

[12] Annual report 1977 of the General Directorate of the State Natural Science Collections in Bavaria. ISSN 0302-6442 .

[13] Freddy Litten: The separation of the administration of the scientific collections of the state from the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. In: Journal for Bavarian State History. Vol. 55, No. 2, 1992, pp. 411-420, online .

[14] Homepage of the SNSB .

[15] Greetings from prehistoric times. The new natural history museum should be a great success. There will finally be enough space to display the treasures of the state collections. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , 14./15. June 2014, p. R5.