Urwelt-Museum Hauff

Description

In Holzmaden, the Urwelt-Museum Hauff preserves an extensive collection of fossils from the Posidonia Shale Formation of the Swabian Alb.

The museum originated from a preparator’s private collection and was established in 1936/37. A new building was erected between 1967 and 1971 by the next generation of the family. In the 1990s another family member took over management; the fourth generation joined the family firm’s leadership in 2018 and 2022. Since 2016 the museum has been designated a Geopoint of the UNESCO Geopark Swabian Alb.

The exhibition displays particularly well-preserved finds from the Holzmaden and Ohmden localities. The genera on show include ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, crocodiles, pterosaurs, fish, as well as crinoids, ammonites and belemnites. The most striking objects are a fossilized crinoid colony measuring 18 by 6 metres, considered the largest of its kind, and an almost four-metre-long ichthyosaur documenting a pregnant female with an already-born juvenile and five embryos visible in her body.

In 1993 the museum was expanded as part of an extension, increasing the exhibition space to 1,000 m² and making it one of the largest private natural history museums in Germany. Life-like models, films and computer animations illustrate the Jurassic Sea and support the educational concept.

In 2006 the Holzmaden fossil site was honoured by the Academy for Geosciences and Geotechnology in Hannover as one of Germany’s most significant national geotopes and was named as a possible candidate for UNESCO World Natural Heritage.