What a night it was! Scorpions crawled over researchers' hands, minerals glowed in the dark and our dinosaur researcher told us what dinosaurs did to pass the time at night. Almost 4,500 night owls stopped by the Museum der Natur Hamburg on 22 April for the Long Night of Museums - a record! At 2,899, the zoology department alone attracted almost twice as many visitors as the last Long Night in 2019. 900 interested visitors came to the geology-palaeontology department in search of traces of times gone by, while 700 guests came to the mineralogy department.
Under this year's motto "We stay awake!", many people let themselves drift from 6 p.m. until the early hours of the next morning and set off on a journey to see nocturnal animals, test their knowledge of species or discover exciting things about the animal kingdom in our guided tours, talks and hands-on activities. Others came specifically for the guided tours of the scientific collections, which were quickly fully booked. When else do you have the opportunity to follow the scientists into the otherwise closed realm of spiders, worms, snails and other animals? Or to talk to specialists about minerals in everyday objects?
Our colleagues from Bonn organised an interactive animal journey with FÖRTAX. The Loki Schmidt Foundation offered an expedition into the plant kingdom. Beginners and professionals were welcome. And even those who had not found all the butterflies in the Museum of Nature by the end of the night went home rich: rich in impressions, new insights and the experience of a special night in the museum.