Museum für Haustierkunde

Description

As part of the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences of Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, the Museum of Domestic Animal Science "Julius Kühn" preserves collections that originated from the historic Haustiergarten of the Agricultural Institute.

The exhibition rooms are located in the heritage-listed horse stable of 1884, a long timber-framed building that belongs to the Steintor campus and lies between Ludwig-Wucherer-Straße, Emil-Abderhalden-Straße and Adam-Kuckhoff-Straße. This building, together with a small brick structure of the former fish-breeding aquarium, constitutes the last architectural testimony of the Haustiergarten; the exhibition area covers around 300 square metres and is divided into five consecutive sections.

The collections derive from the Haustiergarten that Julius Kühn established between 1865 and 1888 to display numerous domestic animal breeds. Stables, farm buildings, an animal hospital and a veterinary clinic were operated there; the garden existed until 1969 and at times housed more than 1,000 animals. Scientifically valuable individuals yielded skeletal and skull finds, taxidermy mounts, spirit-preserved specimens, wool samples and hides, some of which were prepared for museum purposes and have been on public display since 1988.

In the entrance area, visual and informational material dedicated to Julius Kühn is presented. An earlier exhibited, life-size papier-mâché instructional model of a horse after Auzoux was conserved and is now housed in the central storage of the Natural Science Collections. The following rooms are devoted to sheep and goats, cattle, horses, as well as pigs and dogs; primarily on display are skeletons, skulls, taxidermy mounts and historical photographs, often of old or no longer widespread landraces.

The stored holdings comprise about 7,000 domestic animal skeletons, skulls and taxidermy mounts (including approximately 100 horses/donkeys, 600 cattle skulls, over 2,000 sheep specimens and more than 600 pig skulls). They are complemented by an extensive wool collection, one of the three largest German comparative collections in archaeozoology, and a photo archive with roughly 100,000 images, including over 6,000 glass negatives from 1900–1930. Two parts of the collection — the Auzoux horse and Julius Kühn’s historical photographic glass plates — have been listed as nationally valuable cultural property since January 2012. The holdings are housed in rooms above the exhibition and in the central storage (Domplatz 4).

The museum and its collections are used primarily for university teaching, scientific research and as a complement to school education.