Germany

The Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin (BGBM) builds upon a history of three centuries and constitutes a Central Facility of Freie Universität Berlin. BGBM holds the largest botanical collections in Germany (plants, fungi and algae) including ca. 20.000 species of living plants, the herbarium (ca. 4 Mio specimens), the Dahlem Seed Bank and the DNA-bank. Research aims at documenting and understanding biodiversity and evolution emphasizing integrated taxonomy, networking collection and research data (biodiversity informatics) and providing a scientific base to conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. BGBM is a major hub for disseminating information on plant diversity (ca. 40 online sources).

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The Center of Natural History (CeNak) at Universität Hamburg was founded in 2014. It encompasses biodiversity and evolution research and houses significant scientific collections at three locations: The Zoological, the Mineralogical, and the Geological-Paleontological Museums with over 10 million specimens. The CeNak is based on the museum of natural history, the Naturhistorisches Museum Hamburg, which was one of the largest Natural History Museums in Germany. The magnificent building was destroyed in the Second World War, although a large part of the valuable collections could be saved. CeNak would like to replace the one destroyed in the Second World War by an “Evolutioneum”. A modern, integrated research center will consolidate research, collections and exhibitions and educate the public on new findings about life on Earth.

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The collection of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz – Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, comprises 30 million objects from zoology, palaeontology, geology and mineralogy. The collection is the core infrastructure of the integrated research museum. As a reference collection for various actual global research activities and questions, the collection is used permanently on an international level with a high degree of interest (600-700 visiting researchers and approx. 2,200 research and lending requests per year). The digital transformation of the collection will further increase its potential for future use and actively promote answers to major societal questions such as biodiversity loss, the availability of resources and climate change. By combining different disciplines and tasks, the collection is also explored as cultural heritage and facilitates dialogue with society.

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The Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung (www.senckenberg.de), with its headquarter in Frankfurt am Main, was founded in 1817 and conducts research in the bio- and geosciences. The focus is on biodiversity and evolution research, ecosystem research and the study of the earth-human system. Senckenberg maintains extensive scientific collections and operates three natural history museums.
With about 300 scientists among a total of about 750 empleyees working at 11 locations, Senckenberg is one of the largest institutes of the Leibniz Association. The scientific collections of the Senckenberg Institutes hold about 40 million so-called series from the fields of zoology, botany, geology and paleontology.

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The Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig (ZFMK) – Leibniz Institute for Animal Biodiversity – is one of the major natural history research museums in Germany and has earned international reputation in the documentation, research, and interpretation of animal biodiversity.

Research is traditionally based on the extensive scientific collections with about 5.8 Million objects including voucher specimens and biobank material. A classical domain of ZFMK is taxonomy with a special focus on systematics and evolutionary research.

More recently, the ZFMK has extended its scope to molecular biodiversity research and biodiversity monitoring. In view of the global biodiversity crisis, the ZFMK has dedicated its work to the application of taxonomic knowledge to better understand biodiversity change and is leading developments of innovative technologies for automated genomic and biodiversity assessments.

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The collections of the SMNS are based on the Kunst- and Naturalienkabinett of the dukes of Württemberg which became an independent institution in 1791 already. Since the early 19th century, the collections serve as a basis for research and exhibitions and get extended purposefully. Today, our collections contain about 12 million objects/series from botany, zoology, paleontology, mineralogy and geology and are of international importance. With our research, we engage in the big challenges of our time: a drastic biodiversity crisis under rapid global warming.

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