About the LIB: Goals, organisational structure, employees

The three pillars of the LIB

In the two museums of the LIB, the Museum Koenig Bonn and the Museum der Natur Hamburg, research, collection and knowledge transfer are closely interlinked. Here we combine science with society and get to the bottom of questions of evolutionary biology and applied ecosystem research. Our exhibitions inspire and thus actively contribute to the transformation towards a sustainable future. We use our exhibitions as places of experience, entertainment, fascination and participation. This also includes passing on our knowledge to schoolchildren, students and employees of partner organisations around the world. The focus is on the task of preserving and documenting knowledge about the biodiversity of our planet and making our valuable collections of 16 million objects from the fields of zoology, geology, palaeontology and mineralogy accessible.

Our goal: exploring nature, sharing knowledge, shaping the future

Even in the 21st century, we only have a rudimentary understanding of the role of individual species in the ecosystem and what the disappearance of certain species really means for the system as a whole. Our specialists are working on this by describing species and their characteristics and analysing their genomes.

They measure, document and analyse biodiversity over space and time. Using genetic and morphological methods of biodiversity monitoring, they research its evolution and change in order to develop perspectives for the future.

In dialogue and cooperation with society, politics, business and culture, we provide knowledge-based proposals for solutions on how we as a global society can further develop the intensively used space for the protection of biodiversity and take responsibility for our own role in this change. We use various dialogue programmes in museums and on excursions to generate enthusiasm for the diversity of nature.