The research institute

The State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe is one of Germany's largest natural history museums. Our research focuses on documenting our planet's biodiversity, i.e. describing species and their biology as well as classifying them. Research museums are of critical importance here, a field which is being neglected by universities. We also use our collections to record the distribution of species. The findings of our research are made available to the scientific community, the appropriate authorities, and the general public through publications and presentations.

The insights we provide into global biodiversity are indispensible for monitoring ecosystems and understanding their functional contexts. Thus, natural history museums make a major contribution to safeguarding the survival of mankind. Our future depends on having an intact environment and ecosystem services (such as clean water, fertile soil, pollination, etc.) as well as the viability of many genetic and biochemical resources.

In addition to our general research on biodiversity and ecosystems, we also have a local focus on southwestern Germany's historic and contemporary flora and fauna as well as its geoscientific phenomena.

Our research tasks are inextricably linked to maintaining, expanding and using our scientific collections, which are an irreplaceable cultural heritage. The collections of the Karlsruhe Museum comprise several million specimens which provide information on the characteristics and distribution of species in the past and present.