The mineralogical collections were originally housed together with the other natural science collections in the Natural History Museum Hamburg on Steintorwall, but had to be moved to the Mineralogical-Geological State Institute at Lübecker Tor as early as 1907 due to a lack of space. A Mineralogical-Geological Museum was opened there in 1910 by Senator Werner von Melle. In 1933, the display collections were moved to Esplanade 1a. Following the removal of the collections during the war, the museum was reopened here in 1950. Due to war-related damage, this building later had to be abandoned. The mineralogical collections were finally moved to the Mineralogical-Petrographical Institute, which was newly built in 1958. A public display collection was only reopened in 1969 at Grindelallee 48 and is still open to the public free of charge today.