Museum
In the Biodiversitätsmuseum, we will present what biodiversity is, how it evolved and its interactions within ecosystems.
We totally depend on biodiversity
However, it’s in crisis.
We aim to show the significant impact of human activity on the planet‘s biodiversity. Without biodiversity, there is no future for humanity. Understanding this is the key to start acting.
Purpose
To make science accesible.
Science –this is the message– is not happening in an ivory tower, and its findings have relevance for our lives. Starting from there, we want to equip people to become active players within their communities. Beyond individual visitors, we envision the museum as a nexus between different communities.
Subjects
Biodiversity basics and how to act.
We focus on three main subjects: biodiversity and evolution, biodiversity and ecosystems, and biodiversity and human impact. The visitors will explore them through a six chapter exhibition where they will face riddles that have been solved, while others still need to be entangled. They will also meet professional explores: the scientists and their research.
Collections
Knowledge and beauty.
The George-August-University is the home of valuable collections that cover a wide range of topics. The new museum will present part of the biological collections and put them into the context of biodiversity research. There are more than 120,000 specimens ranging from flatworms over extinct birds to the complete skeleton of a sperm whale, which have a scientific value, as well as cultural and historical.
«We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.»
Edward O. Wilson
Space
An impressive historical building in the center of Göttingen.
In the near future, the Biodiversity Museum will occupy most of the second floor of the former building of the Naturhistorisches Museum and today's Forum Wissen in the Berliner Straße. The second floor consists of a suite of adjacent rooms. This layout is the inspiration for the spatial organization in chapters.
We will share this incredible building with the Wissensmuseum, which opened in 2022, and the future Thomas-Oppermann-Kulturforum.
