Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig

Description

Located in the Bundesviertel building, the Museum Koenig Bonn (ZFMK) belongs to the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change, a public-law foundation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and conducts research and exhibitions on biodiversity.

The distinctive museum building stands on Bundesstraße 9 at the edge of the Bundesviertel, is a listed building and is designated as a station on the historic Route of Democracy, because the ceremonial event marking the convening of the Parliamentary Council took place in the large hall on 1 September 1948. The foundation is based in Bonn; since the renaming in July 2021 the institute has also included the Museum der Natur Hamburg as a second site. The museum is a member of the Leibniz Association and is jointly funded by the federal government and the states. Research focuses on extant vertebrates and arthropods.

The collection goes back to the private natural history museum of the ornithologist Alexander Koenig, which he donated to the state in 1929. The present building was begun in the early 20th century, was used for military purposes during the First World War and, after varied uses, was eventually completed; the house has been altered several times, was extensively renovated in the late 1990s, extended from 2003 to 2006 and had its roof restored in 2012. In the post-war period the building served at times as the office of the Federal Chancellery and housed offices of federal ministries, which is why it was included in Bonn’s route of political history.

Today the museum is organised into four centres: the Centre for Taxonomy and Morphology (ztm) with the Vertebrates and Arthropods departments, the Centre for Molecular Biodiversity Research (zmb), the Centre for Biodiversity Monitoring and Conservation Research (zbm), and the Centre for Knowledge Transfer (zwt) with public relations and exhibitions. The natural history collection comprises approximately seven million specimens. Major holdings include beetles (Coleoptera, approx. 2.5 million), butterflies (Lepidoptera, approx. 2 million), Diptera (approx. 300,000), Hymenoptera (approx. 153,000), as well as extensive collections of birds, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and arthropods.

Since 2004 the permanent exhibition "Our Blue Planet – Life in the Network" has illustrated the functioning of large habitats through large-scale dioramas. In the atrium a staged African savannah forms the centre; other themes include rainforest (with the additions "Understory" from 2016 and "Rainforest Canopy" from 2022), the Arctic/Antarctic, Central Europe, birdlife and a vivarium.