Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig in Bonn: Transformation from Natural History Museum into Biodiversity Research Institution

Natural history museums have their origin in times when scientists started to explore unknown landscapes where they collected specimens for scientific study and to demonstrate the general public the wonders of our world. Researchers usually were also hunters and gatherers. The “Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig” in Bonn was built on this tradition by a wealthy naturalist at the end of the nineteenth century. Today, this institute has a very different profile. It is a research institute with a focus on biodiversity studies at species level, with a strong taxonomic tradition and a special expertise in molecular studies that are relevant for phylogenetic inference, population genetics, speciation research, and molecular taxonomy. A major challenge for the future is to bridge the gap between knowledge about species taxonomy and biology and the application of this knowledge in ecological research and in applied conservation biology.

In this contribution, we explain the historical background and the use of collections for the case of the bird and reptile departments, the challenges for molecular research, the necessity to build new types of collections (biobanks), the use of collection data for macroecological research, and some examples for knowledge transfer to the general public.