Collections, Museums and Gardens from Science and Mathematics
Old Botanical Garden
The Botanical Garden was established in the University’s founding days in 1736 by Albrecht von Haller as “hortus medicus”. It is thus one of the University’s oldest historical treasures and has stood its ground for over quarter of a millennium with the same purpose in the same place. More than ever, its collections are available for the botanical research and teaching at the University and play a central role for the students on the Biology course. more...
Experimental Botanical Garden (formerly New Botanical Garden)
The New Botanical Garden is the experimental garden of the University of Göttingen: Its scope includes scientific research, plant propagation for teaching purposes, environmental education, preservation of endangered species and information for the public. It is aligned in an ecological-phytosociological manner. more...
Botanical Forest Garden and Arboretum
The Botanical Forest Garden in Hann. Münden was opened in 1870 under the leadership of master gardener ZABEL (1828-1912). The purpose of the garden was to provide demonstration material to the forestry students and to offer the opportunity of undertaking cultivations as well as other explorations. The current garden management is particularly keen to make this unique collection known to the general public. more...
Museum of Göttingen Chemistry
The “Museum of Göttingen Chemistry” in the Faculty of Chemistry was founded in 1979 and contains in its permanent exhibition and in the storeroom a manifold variety of documents on the history of Chemistry at the University of Göttingen over the past 250 years. This collection is continually being added to and expanded. more...
Museums, Collections and Geopark of the Centre for Geological Sciences
The Museum for Geological Sciences of the University of Göttingen is one of a handful of museums in Lower Saxony with publicly accessible exhibition areas on topics from the areas of geology, mineralogy and palaeontology. It was founded in 1773 together with other departments as “Königlich-Academisches Museum“ [‘Royal Academic Museum’] of the University of Göttingen. more...
Collection of historical physical instruments of the 1st Physical Institute
The collection of historical instruments can be found by the entrance to the new lecture theatres. It reflects the history of physics in Göttingen, spanning from the beginnings of systematic research in the 18th century to its most famous period as world leading centre for physics and mathematics in the first half of the 20th century. more...
Collection of Mathematical Models and Instruments
The University of Göttingen has not only an important collection of historical mathematical models in Germany, but also the most extensive one. Additionally available are educational panels, tools and instruments as well as a collection of slides. These objects include some remains of the small G1, which from 1952 onwards was the first electronic computer in use in Germany. more...
Culture Collection of Algae
The Culture Collection of Algae at University of Göttingen (international acronym SAG) is a biological resource centre for living cultures of microalgae and cyanobacteria that are used in research, teaching and biotechnology worldwide. Founded in 1954 it is among the largest service culture collections of algae in the world today. The SAG holds over 2400 culture strains (with about 500 type references) from almost all algal classes. They were isolated from a large diversity of mainly freshwater and terrestrial habitats.
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Collection of historical objects in the Institute of Geophysics
The oldest instrument in the Institute of Geophysics was built by Reichenbach, Utzschneider, Liebherr in 1813 and is approximately 60 cm tall. In 1813 Gauß reported on the acquisition and first measurements with which he determined the Göttingen Observatory’s distance from the Pole based on observations of the North Star. Today there are still several historical and valuable instruments to be found in the corridors of Geophysics. This is located on the 1st floor, building parts E and F, of the Faculty of Physics. more...
Collection of historical objects at the Institute for Astrophysics
The collection dates back to one of the oldest institutions of Göttingen University, the observatory founded in 1748. It documents two and a half centuries in the history of science and the contributions of outstanding scientists in Göttingen, like e.g. Tobias Mayer (1723-1762), Carl Friedrich Gauß (1777-1855), and Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916). The collection comprises of numerous objects and instruments from the 17th to the 20th century which have been used for astronomical and geodetical measurements and other scientific studies at the University observatory in Göttingen. more...
University Herbarium
The Herbarium (international acronym GOET) has access to over 800,000 herbarium specimens of plants worldwide, of which more than 10,000 are type specimens. The oldest collections to date include those of Friedrich Ehrhardt (1742-1795), which were added shortly after his death in 1795, as well as a collection of plants from the South Pacific, which were collected by Georg Forster (1754-1794) and presented to the University. more...
Zoological Museum
Located in the Johann-Friedrich-Blumenbach-Institute for Zoology and Anthropology of the University of Göttingen, the Zoological Museum contains over 100,000 dissected animals in jars, cases and cabinets. Many of those are valuable treasures, proof of newly discovered species (holotypes), rare or by now extinct species which were compiled in the 18th, 19th and 20th century from many parts of the world and constitute proof for the potential of evolution in the animal kingdom. mehr...
Computer Museum of the GWDG
In the Computing and IT Competence centre for the Göttingen University and the Max Planck Society, the Gesellschaft für wissenschaftliche Datenverarbeitung mbH Göttingen (GWDG), started in 1980 with a collection of parts of computer mainframes, some complete computers, computer peripherals, mechanical calculators and early electric and electronic calculators which are presented in the entrance hall and in the floors of the computing centre. This gives a quite complete overview over the history of mechanical calculating and electronic computing. more...
Anthropological Collections
The department of historical anthropology and human ecology has three large exhibitions, which can be accessed for study purposes. Please contact preparator Eberhard George.
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