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Ambatoarinite from Abi-Kambana, Madagascar; phos-
genite from Monteponi, Sardinia; shimmering green malachite
from the Shaba province in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
or simply iron from Bühl near Kassel in Hessen. These wonderful
names bear witness to things near and far. The mineralogical-
petrographic collection at the Berlin Museum of Natural History
holds 312,000 samples. Although one would expect the room
to smell of history, dust and times gone by, the current cleaning
staff will not allow this.
Still, the awe-inspiring cabinets filled with carefully labelled
displayed items transport visitors back to the nineteenth century.
Small knobs adorn the wooden cabinet frames, behind the
panes of which the various minerals are presented. Some
documents or exhibits are stored on pull-out shelves. Very
special exhibits, such as a giant, violet amethyst from Brazil,
are enthroned on dark wooden pedestals. Every cough and
sneeze, however small, echoes loudly through the tall room.
Close to the bone
But the largest exhibit in the Natural History Museum will
not fit on a wooden pedestal. The head of a Brachiosaurus
skeleton, towering 13.27 metres in height, looks tiny above the
dinosaur’s mighty torso. It is only by bending your head back
and looking upwards along the thin, skeletal neck that you
can see where the brain of this ancient animal once was. A
400-kilogram heart once beat in its chest. This remarkable
specimen, the largest complete dinosaur skeleton in the world,
was discovered during an expedition to Mount Tendaguru in
today‘s southeast Tanzania, between 1909 and 1913, after
which 250 tons of fossilised dinosaur bones were brought back
to Berlin. An official certificate states that this Brachiosaurus has
been awarded a Guinness World Record. The giant bones of the
herbivore, which take up nearly the entire length of the main
hall’s opaque glass ceiling, look like polished wood.
The Museum avoids overwhelming people with vast
numbers of facts. The label for the Brachiosaurus explains the
dinosaur‘s immense dimensions – as tall as a four-storey
building and as heavy as 10 adult elephants. At the time of its
death, the creature would have weighed around 50 tons. This
vivid comparison of the dinosaur with elements that visitors are
familiar with gives a clear sense of the scale of the animal.
The Natural History Museum (Museum für Naturkunde) in Berlin was founded on the Unter den Linden in 1810. By 1880,
the collection filled up two thirds of the Berlin University Building – it was bursting at the seams. Kaiser Wilhelm II
personally opened the new museum building on the Invalidenstraße. Since then, the Natural History Museum has been
successfully pursuing two main goals – collecting and researching. Over 30 million objects are showcased in the public
exhibit area or slumber in collections that can only be accessed by researchers: 10 million invertebrates, 15 million
insects, 130,000 fish, 180,000 mammals, 120,000 audio recordings in the animal noise archive – and the list goes on.
Amazingly, throughout its 200 years of existence, the institution has succeeded in maintaining the atmosphere of a
time in which museums educated and amazed the public.
A stroll through the Natural History Museum in Berlin
By Manuela Braun
A curious collection
The Museum is particularly well known for
its 13-metre-tall dinosaur skeleton, which
has made it into the Guinness Book of
World Records.
The Museum of Natural History also skilfully manages to
bridge the gap between old exhibits and modern requirements.
Besides avoiding tedious facts, the Museum has marshalled
technology to convey information. An excellent example is the
‘Jurascope’, a pair of binoculars that, when pointed towards a
skeleton in the hall, identifies which dinosaur you are looking at.
Then, an animation begins in which the dinosaur is virtually
covered in flesh, from joint to joint. Finally, the visitor can see
the complete animal walking and grazing through a simulated
landscape.
Another example of the use of modern techniques can be
seen at the display of the relief-like fossil of the primitive bird
Archaeopteryx lithographica. By alternating the direction of the
light – sometimes from the left, and sometimes from the right –
the primitive bird looks more vivid and almost lifelike. Not bad
for the 150-million-year-old link between birds and dinosaurs.
Journey into space
The Museum even introduces its visitors to the wonders of
the Universe – using a very unique method. Space enthusiasts
can lie down on a large, round bench in a darkened room while
an image of space is projected onto the dome above. A
comforting voice narrates how the Universe formed and what
the various planets are made of. The light stays dim throughout
– the illuminated planets on pedestals and the light from the
space film become the only points of reference in the room. This
provides the perfect atmosphere to lie back, relax and take in
the images and facts, as well as giving the visitor an opportunity
to rest during the museum visit. Afterwards, one can marvel at
the bits of meteorites – pieces from space – in small illuminated
cases.
The illuminated ‘wall of life’
Each gallery has a different atmosphere – after travelling
through the Universe, the multi-metre high ‘Biodiversity Wall’
rises before the visitor. This mosaic of colourful animals, ranging
from fish, starfish and crocodiles to snakes, birds and butterflies
offers a tantalising glimpse of nature‘s enormous diversity of
species. The size of the exhibit makes it hard to see everything
at a glance, which is why the Museum has provided a small
version so that you can take a closer look at the animals that
you are interested in on a table with a magnifying glass. Images: Museum für Naturkunde
AT THE MUSEUM | DLR maGazıne 136 · 137 | 59