permanent exhibition
The next room is devoted to the biodiversity of the city of Magdeburg. Because of the particular settlement structure, which changes continuously from the rural areas on the outskirts to the densely built-up centre, very typical animal communities can be found in the different habitats. The aim of the exhibition is to provide more detailed information about the animal species, to dispel prejudices and to invite visitors to observe more closely. Surprisingly high biodiversity European cities are characterised by a surprisingly high level of biodiversity. Due to the peculiarities of the settlement structure, which changes continuously from the outskirts to the centre, and the various integrated green spaces, very typical animal communities can be found. For most of the year, the urban population experiences nature within the city limits. Green... read more
The wide open fields of the Magdeburg Börde and the mountainous Harz region, with its forests, caves and old mine workings, are presented in the largest exhibition hall of the Natural History Museum. In the front area, showcases display important bird species of the fields, such as the common buzzard, Montagu's harrier, grey partridge and the great bustard, which is almost extinct in Saxony-Anhalt. Giant trees and rock landscape Stairs lead to a second accessible level, which is surrounded by an artificial rock landscape. The cast of an old beech tree, 7 metres high, with the black stork and black woodpecker, and the trunk of an ash tree tower above the rocks. Typical animal species of the Upper Harz, such as mouflon, lynx and the almost extinct capercaillie, can be... read more
Due to the great variety of biotopes, the floodplains along the Middle Elbe are among the most species-rich habitats in Central Europe. The wildlife along the river and in the adjacent oxbow lakes and backwaters is shown. You can observe the beaver building its dam and in its beaver lodge. Waterbirds and amphibians benefit from the dammed-up water areas and are shown in special display cases with animal sounds. Two large display cases provide an overview of the most important fish species in the Elbe and the region's rich bird life. In the river plain, which has been shaped by humans, man is of course not absent from the display. Two naturalistic figures show the contrast between a Stone Age human and a modern human of the consumer age. read more
The first section of the permanent exhibition is divided into two large exhibition rooms. More than 1400 individual objects are on display here, ranging from small, fossilised shark teeth to a 6-metre-long plateosaurus, and from hundreds of beetles to a real specimen of a giraffe. The highlights of the exhibition are the life-size sculptures of two whales diving through the room. The exhibition tour begins with a journey through the cosmic foundations of our world and leads to the geological processes on our earth that are the basis for the emergence of life. In the following, important stages of evolution - the adaptations to life in the water, the step on land and the conquest of the airspace - are explained by means of spectacular fossil finds, reconstructions, models and... read more
In the second room, the extinct organisms are followed by a selection of important animal groups living today, with striking examples from around the world. At the centre of the modern biodiversity display, visitors are confronted with a life-size sculpture of a 13.5-metre-long humpback whale and a leaping, 6.5-metre-tall orca. Next to these, the mainland giants, a mounted specimen of a male giraffe and a cast of an African forest elephant, appear rather small. The “March of the Animals” also shows dwarfs, such as a mouse-sized elephant shrew, or strange creatures such as a pangolin or an aardvark and provides insights into the great diversity of forms and species of mammals living today. In the outer display cases, visitors will find the other vertebrates such as birds, reptiles, amphibians and... read more
Ice Age – climate change and evolution to the present day is the topic of the last exhibition room in the permanent exhibition. It is an exhibition about the Ice Age, geological landscapes, erratic boulders, fossils of extinct large mammals and specimens of animal species from the tundra and taiga that survived the Ice Age. Alternating cold and warm periods The exhibition provides information about the changes to our landscape and its flora and fauna during the various glacial advances of the Pleistocene ice ages. Between the cold periods, there were also warm epochs, during which warm-period animals such as the forest elephant or water buffalo migrated. In the anteroom, the most recent stage of the earth's history, the Holocene, is examined and the climate and vegetation changes that have... read more
© KHM, Foto: Charlen Christoph
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ALL EVENTS
26.11.
2025
Event | Discussion - 26. November 2025 7:00 PM
Film und Gespräch
Das Museum für Naturkunde Kooperiert mit dem Moritzhof Magdeburg für einen spannenden Filmabend
Eintritt frei
02.12.
Senior Academy - 2. December 2025 2:30 PM
Seniorenakademie
Führung mit Dana Fabienne LiebkeMuseum für Naturkunde Magdeburg,
Treffpunkt Foyer, regulärer Eintritt, Führungsgebühr entfällt
