Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

The MfN is an integrated research museum within the Leibniz Association. Our mission is to discover and describe life and earth – with people, through dialogue. As an excellent research museum and innovative communication platform, we want to engage with and influence the scientific and societal discourse about the future of our planet, worldwide. We have research partners in Berlin, Germany and approximately 60 other countries. Over 700,000 visitors per year as well as steadily increasing participation in educational and other events show that we have become an innovative communication centre that helps shaping the scientific and social dialogue about the future of our earth. Alongside knowledge transfer, our research and our collection are the main pillars of the museum’s work. The collection is a unique natural and cultural asset, inextricably linked to our research, comprises over 30 million items covering zoology, paleontology, geology and mineralogy, and is of highest scientific and historical importance. Additionally, the MfN is using an interdisciplinary approach to examine the history of the institution and the collection with a strong focus on collections from colonial contexts. The permanent exhibitions together with regular special exhibitions give the public insights into current research at the museum and highlight original research objects.