Over the next few years, we will be working on our Future Plan and turning our building upside down: the museum will be renovated, the scientific collection objects will be catalogued and digitized and new exhibitions will be created with the participation of the public.

Large transport boxes are stacked in four places in the museum space and provide information about our Future Plan. So much in advance: there will be a lot of movement here in the coming years. In the various installations, we will show you our plans for construction, collection development and knowledge transfer.

Construction Since the building opened in 1889, the Museum für Naturkunde has been collecting, researching and exhibiting socially relevant artefacts. While way we work and methods we use have constantly evolved over more than 120 years, the building has suffered from a renovation backlog lasting decades. Two thirds of the building is as it was back in 1945. By implementing the Future Plan, we are also taking the Museum für Naturkunde into the 21st century in structural terms. In this installation, visitors can take a closer look at the winning design of the international architectural competition and the plans for the new collection building in Berlin-Adlershof and find out how the museum will develop physically in the coming years.

Collection development The collection are the centrepiece of the Museum für Naturkunde. They comprise over 30 million objects of all kinds. Many of the objects in the collection are still housed in historical cabinets and under inadequate conditions. As part of the Future Plan, the collection will be conserved: all objects will be checked, cleaned and transferred to secure, contemporary storage systems. In addition, the collection will be digitized, which will enable better networking of knowledge and easier access for researchers and all interested parties.

Knowledge transfer At the core of knowledge transfer is the expansion of structures that enable the exchange of knowledge: through new exhibitions, participation formats and collaborations, in physical and virtual space. Our aim is to bring people together, experiment together, share knowledge and bring perspectives from the community into the museum. This includes not only visitors and citizens, but also partners from the arts, politics or science who are working on nature and environmental issues. After all, topics such as climate change, species conservation, globalization and digitalization make it clear: problems can only be solved together.

Join us and help shape the future of the Museum für Naturkunde! If you would like to find out more about the construction, the collection development and the knowledge transfer, look out for the giant transport boxes in the exhibition.

We also regularly provide information on our social media channels about opportunities to get involved and the YouTube series "Museum Evolution" provides insights into processes that are taking place behind the scenes. For example, a camera accompanies construction work, watches the digitization of snails or the installation of exhibitions.