About the LIB: Goals, structure, staff

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. The three pillars form a unity in our endeavour to actively accompany the process of social transformation with fundamental research questions in evolutionary biology, applied ecosystem research, exhibitions and educational and event programmes. 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 and the information they contain freely accessible.

Our primary goal: the preservation of our nature

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. We are developing methods of biodiversity monitoring in order to understand the genetic, morphological and diversity of the ecosystem and its changes. We use various dialogue programmes in the museums and on excursions to inspire enthusiasm for the diversity of nature and explore visitors' ideas. All of this takes place in a networked process - in an integrated research museum in which all employees work towards a common goal: the preservation of our natural world.