Zoological State Collection Munich

Zoological State Collection Munich
Main entrance of the Munich State Zoological Collection
Carrier:	Free State of Bavaria
Facility location:	Munich
Type of research:	Basic research
Subjects:	zoology
Management:	Gerhard Haszprunar
Homepage:	http://www.zsm.mwn.de/

The Zoological State Collection Munich (ZSM) is a research institution of the Free State of Bavaria for zoological systematics and their applications in the broader sense. At the same time, the Zoological State Collection is one of the oldest and most traditional as well as one of the ten most important zoological research collections in the world. It is subject to the service and technical supervision of the General Directorate of the State Natural Science Collections of Bavaria and is therefore integrated into their research network.

location

The Zoological State Collection is located in Munich's Obermenzing district , in Münchhausenstrasse. 21st

collection

The State Zoological Collection has archived almost 22 million inventory units (zoological collection objects), around 90% of the species recorded are insects. Practically the entire animal kingdom is represented in the collections. In the course of the history of the collection, focal points have emerged, for example with invertebrates: cnidarians , crustaceans , mites , echinoderms and millipedes ; among the insects : hymenoptera , beetles , butterflies and two-winged birds ; among the vertebrates : fish , amphibians , reptiles , birds and especially mammals . The oldest objects in the collection include individual specimens from the Wittelsbach natural history cabinet, as well as sea urchins from Jakob Theodor Klein's collection , which he had collected before 1740, and butterflies from Eugen Johann Christoph Esper .

With more than 10 million individual objects, the Zoological State Collection has the largest known butterfly collection in the world. Rare, partially extinct animal species are also archived, such as a quagga that is on display in the Museum Mensch und Natur . Recently, a preparation of a giant alkali was rediscovered.

Other important areas of focus around the world can be found, for example, in herpetology (reptiles from the Himalya region, frogs from Madagascar), mammals (large animals, primates and central European small mammals from crusts), birds (hummingbirds, Darwin's finches, birds of paradise), beetles (ground beetles, black beetles ), Hymenoptera (largest Hymenopterensammlung of Germany) and the mites collection with several thousand types.

Important additions to the collection

• Brazilian research expedition ( Johann Baptist von Spix , 1817 to 1820)
• Collection of Duke Maximilian von Leuchtenberg (acquired in 1858)
• Collection of the Sturm brothers (acquired in 1874)
• Zoological objects from the so-called " American Collection " of Princess Therese of Bavaria (acquired in 1926 by a will)
• Museum Witt (cooperation since 2000)

Library

The reference library comprises more than 120,000 volumes and 1,000 current journals. The State Collection is the publisher of several of its own zoological journals, the most important of which is the " Spixiana ".

Other tasks

In addition to its research assignment, the Zoological State Collection supports the natural history museums with expert advice and, in some cases, with objects that it makes available for exhibition purposes. At the same time, she prepares reports for the Bavarian state government and municipalities.

The ZSM also addresses the public with public lectures, exhibitions, guided tours and an annual open day. Many academic staff are actively involved in teaching at LMU. Internships and seminars are also held on the premises of the ZSM.

structure

The ZSM employs 16 permanent scientists (conservators) who look after the following sections in three departments:

• Vertebrates: herpetology, ichthyology, ornithology and mammalogy,
• Insects: Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Insecta varia and Lepidoptera,
• Invertebrates: Arthropoda varia, Evertebrata varia and Mollusca.

There are shared laboratories (histology, DNA laboratory), shared large-scale equipment (micro-CT, SEM) and others.

history

prehistory

King Max I. Joseph subordinates to the Kgl. Academy of Sciences through its constitutional charter dated May 1, 1807, the zoological , botanical and mineralogical private cabinets of the Wittelsbach house , which mainly consisted of the so-called ducal collection and the Kurpfälzisch- Zweibrücken Riedl collection . The collections were transferred from the residence to the Jesuit college in Neuhauser Strasse (now a pedestrian zone), which was then called the Wilhelminum and which is later also called the academy and therefore also known as the old academy . The collections were continuously expanded by the royal family, so that the collections should become independent.

Founded until 1945

In 1811 a separate conservatory was established for the zoological and zootomic collection of the academy and Johann Baptist Ritter von Spix was appointed the first conservator. This is considered to be the foundation of the Zoological State Collection. Spix expanded the collection considerably, particularly through his research trip to Brazil from 1817 to 1820. Spix formulated principles of collecting and the scientific investigation of the preparations, some of which are still valid today. He died in 1826.

The academy's collection had been open to the public since 1809.

After the Ludwig Maximilians University was relocated from Landshut to Munich in 1827 , new statutes were issued in the same year, which also raised the conservatories to legally independent entities. As a result, the zoological and zootomic collection of the academy also became the home of the university zoology, and the head of the collection was also full professor of zoology. The successor to Spix and first professor was Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert . This was followed by Carl Theodor von Siebold , and Richard Hertwig .

Around 1885 Richard Goldschmidt called today's Zoological State Collection the "largest and most international academic center of zoology".

The end of the monarchy in Bavaria in 1918 brought little change for the Zoological State Collection. In contrast to most countries, where the independent collections that arose from the private cabinets of the ruling houses and the still existing private cabinets were merged with the collections of the respective universities, the status quo in Bavaria remained . The Royal Collection became the "State Collection" in the new terminology. However, due to inflation during the Great Depression, the “Fund for the Scientific Research of the Kingdom”, which King Maximilian II had set up when he ascended the throne in 1848, is completely extinguished . After the personal union between the university and the state collection was abolished under Karl von Frisch from 1925 to 1927 and the organizational separation of the state collection and university institute was implemented, the spatial separation took place in 1932. Since then, the University Institute and the State Zoological Collection have been completely independent research institutions.

During the Second World War , despite the ban on relocating, which was intended to preserve access to the museum for the population, most of the collections and the library were relocated in summer 1943. During the Allied bombing raid on downtown Munich on April 25, 1944, the Old Academy was also badly hit. The employees of the Zoological State Collection, including the herpetologist Lorenz Müller , saved as many objects in the collection as possible during the attack. However, the fire destroyed the display collection, the fish department, numerous valuable skeletons and raw skeletons were destroyed. The herpetological stocks relocated in Planegg were decimated by a direct hit, so the turtle collection was completely destroyed. The alcohol preparations in the invertebrate collection were then looted by unknown persons during the invasion of the US occupation forces.

After the Second World War

After the old academy, where it had been located since 1807, was destroyed, the zoological state collection moved into the shell of the hunting museum planned at that time in Nymphenburg Palace (now the German Hunting and Fishing Museum on Neuhauser Straße), a temporary arrangement.

The Munich State Zoological Collection was temporarily housed in a side wing of Nymphenburg Palace from 1946 to 1985.

Walter Forster shaped the Zoological State Collection in the years up to the 1980s. He was at the ZSM since 1931, as director from 1965 to 1975. His activities particularly promoted the butterfly collection and the library. Under his successor, Ernst Josef Fittkau , the new building in Obermenzing was completed.

In 1981 the foundation stone was laid for a separate collection building, which could be moved into in 1985. The building has placed its storage rooms semi-underground (partly for energy reasons) and is equipped with modern technology.

There are 25 storage rooms with more than 5,100 square meters available, which are fully air-conditioned and equipped with a fire alarm and alarm system. In addition, 70 work and other rooms (workshops, laboratories, function rooms) are available. Despite the generous planning, several magazines had to be compacted by installing movable shelves due to the ongoing increase in collections (library, butterfly and large fur magazines), and a number of magazines were compacted by conversion.

Since 1995 Gerhard Haszprunar has been director of the ZSM and professor for systematic zoology at the LMU. Through this personal union there is again a close connection between the ZSM and the Faculty of Biology at the LMU.

DNA barcoding at the ZSM

Since 2009, the ZSM scientists have been working on the entire animal world of Bavaria and its neighboring countries in a special program that has received worldwide attention, in order to create a genetic "library of life" by sequencing the mitochondrial COI gene ( DNA barcoding ). Building on this, work is now being carried out on the genetic recording of the entire fauna of Germany together with several German research institutes.

Prices

The Zoological State Collection has a funding company, the "Friends of the Zoological State Collection eV". Since 1981, it has been awarding the Ritter von Spix Medal to patrons and donors of particularly valuable collections . Since the year 2000, the funding company has been awarding the RJH Hintelmann Science Prize , endowed with 5000 euros, to outstanding young scientists from the field of zoological systematics .

literature

Literature on history

• Heinrich Balss: The Zoological State Collection and the Zoological Institute. In: Karl Alexander von Müller (Ed.): The scientific institutions of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. Chronicle of the centenary. Oldenbourg and Wolf, Munich 1926, pp. 300-315.
• Ernst Joseph Fittkau: From Natural History Cabinet to Modern Research Institute: History and Significance of the State Zoological Collection. In: Chronicle of the Zoological State Collection Munich. Festschrift for the farewell to the director of the Munich State Zoological Collection Prof. Dr. Ernst Josef Fittkau, 1976–1992. (= Spixiana. Supplement. Volume 17). Published by the staff of the Zoological State Collection. Pfeil, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-923871-62-7 , pp. 24-34, (online) .

Literature about the new building

• Hubert Fechter: The new building of the Munich State Zoological Collection. In: Chronicle of the Zoological State Collection Munich. Festschrift for the farewell to the director of the Munich State Zoological Collection Prof. Dr. Ernst Josef Fittkau, 1976–1992. (= Spixiana. Supplement. Volume 17). Published by the staff of the Zoological State Collection. Pfeil, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-923871-62-7 , pp. 176-188, online .
• Klaus Schönitzer , Michael Wolf, Liu Lan-Yu: Energy Efficiency by Means of Architecture and Engineering: The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology. In: Museology Quarterly. (Taichung), Volume 23, No. 4, 2009, pp. 23-42, (digital version , PDF; 2.5 MB) .

Web links

Commons : Zoologische Staatssammlung München  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Internet presence of the Zoological State Collection Munich
• Blog of the Zoological State Collection Munich

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Walter Huber: The Münchner Quagga - a zoological rarity. (Mammalia, Equidae). In: Chronicle of the Zoological State Collection Munich. Festschrift for the farewell to the director of the Munich State Zoological Collection Prof. Dr. Ernst Josef Fittkau, 1976–1992. (= Spixiana. Supplement. Volume 17). Published by the staff of the Zoological State Collection. Pfeil, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-923871-62-7 , pp. 155-160, online .
2. ↑ Christina Warta: Strange birds. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 17, 2013, p. R5.
3. ^ The Munich State Zoological Collection (ZSM). In: Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau. Volume 64, No. 9, 2011, ZDB -ID 2275210-9 , p. 471.
4. ^ 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.
5. ^ Fechter: The new building of the Munich State Zoological Collection. 1992;
6. ↑ K. Schönitzer, M. Wolf & Liu Lan-Yu: Energy Efficiency by Means of Architecture and Engineering: The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology . In: Museology Quarterly (Taichung) . tape 23 , 2009, p. 23 -42 ( mwn.de [PDF]).
7. ↑ DNA barcoding at the ZSM .
8. ↑ GBOL. German Barcode of Life.

Coordinates: 48 ° 9 ′ 52.8 "  N , 11 ° 28 ′ 55.8"  E