Antiquities Collection
The Institute's collection of original works of sculpture, ceramics and other genres of ancient arts and crafts dates back to the early history of the University of Göttingen and remains an essential resource for research and teaching at the Archaeological Institute today.
Ethnographic Collection
The Ethnographic Collection of the University of Göttingen is one of the most important teaching and research collections in the German-speaking world. Its beginnings date back to the time of the Enlightenment. The regions of America, Asia, Australia, Oceania and Africa are spread over two floors.
Photographic collection
Under the management of Friedrich Wilhlem Unger, who worked for the art collection from 1863 to 1876, and Rudolf Hermann Lotze (1817-1881), a number of photographs were acquired and accepted as donations. The aim was to use the then still new technology to build up a scientific teaching apparatus of images to supplement the existing collections of paintings, prints and drawings.
Collection of Paintings
Founded in 1770, the art collection of Göttingen University is the oldest of its kind in Germany. The Collection of Paintings dates back to the year
1795. Since then, it has become rich in works by masters dating from the 14th century on to the modern period and comprises a total of around 300 paintings.
Collection of Prints and Drawings
As early as 1736, Johann Friedrich Armand von Uffenbach (1687 – 1769), a wealthy patrician from Frankfurt, had already bequeathed a large part of his art collection to Göttingen University, which was officially founded the following year. His bequests included 10,000 prints as well as 1,000 drawings.
Collection of Sculptures
The Georgia Augusta's sculpture collection can be divided into three different areas. Firstly, it includes busts made of marble and plaster, which depict the important personalities from the university's history that are typical of a university collection.
Collection of Musical Instruments
With 2,164 objects (as of 06/2021), the collection of musical instruments at Göttingen University is one of the largest collections of its kind in Germany. Its holdings mainly comprise musical instruments from Europe, Africa (including ancient Egypt) and Asia.
Numismatic Collection
Consisting of more than 40,000 items, Göttingen University’s Münzkabinett, or Numismatic Collection, is Germany’s third largest academic collection of coins and medals.
The Heinz Kirchhoff Collection – Symbols of Femininity
Figurative representations of women as pregnant women, women in labour or in their role as mothers can be found again and again in the various epochs and cultures of the earth. Naturalistic, stylised, reduced to symbols, formed from clay, stone or wood: their functions and meanings are as different as the times and cultures themselves.
Teaching Collection for Pre- and Protohistory
The collection currently consists of around 8,500 Objects which provide a good overview of central European pre- and protohistory. It is being used primarily as visual and haptic aids for lectures and seminars and as study material.
Property of the von Schlözer family
The Schlözer donation consists of books, manuscripts, sheet music, works of art, furniture and everyday objects from the von Schlözer family.
Paul Arnold Grun seal collection
The "Paul Arnold Grun seal collection" consists of four well-organised cassettes in good conservation condition, each containing 15 to 17 shelves with recessed storage compartments for up to 30 seals.
Collection of Pre-Columbian Objects (bequest Raddatz)
In 2016, the University of Göttingen received a collection of around 300 pre-Columbian artefacts from the estate of the agronomist Erich Carl Raddatz (1924-2010). These are artefacts from the time before the 'discovery' of America by Christopher Columbus and were found on the territory of the present-day state of Colombia.
Collection of algae cultures
The Georg-August-Universität Göttingen's collection of algae cultures (international acronym SAG) is one of the largest and oldest culture collections of microalgae and cyanobacteria in the world. As a biological resource centre, it serves science, teaching and biotechnology worldwide.
Old Botanical Garden
Located in the Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology at the University of Göttingen, the Zoological Museum houses well over 100,000 taxidermied animals in jars, boxes and crates. Many of them are precious treasures.
The Experimental Botanical Garden
The New Botanical Garden is the experimental test garden of the University of Göttingen: scientific research, plant cultivation for teaching, environmental education, conservation of endangered species and information for the population will find their place there.
Forest Botanical Garden and Plant Geographical Arboretum
The forest botanical garden in Hann. Münden was opened in 1870 under the direction of garden master ZABEL (1828-1912). The garden was intended to provide forestry students with illustrative material and the opportunity to carry out breeding work and other research.
Geoscientific collections
The Geosciences Museum at the University of Göttingen is one of the few museums in Lower Saxony with publicly accessible exhibition areas on geology, mineralogy and paleontology.
University herbarium
The Herbarium (international acronym GOET) has over 800,000 herbarium specimens of plants worldwide, of which more than 10,000 are type specimens. The oldest collections today include that of Friedrich Ehrhardt, as well as a collection of plants from the South Seas, which was collected by Georg Forster and given to the university.
Collection of the Department of Livestock Sciences (DNTW)
Teaching collection that includes animal skeletons, animal skulls, historical animal models, wool and fur samples, glass plate positives and measuring instruments, some of which can be dated to the beginning of the 20th century and come primarily from field research.
Comparative collections of palynology
In the Department of Palynology and Climate Dynamics, pollen and spores are collected to research the history of vegetation. The collection is purely a research and teaching collection and is not exhibited.
Pharmacognostic collection
The collection, founded in 1836, contains medicinal plants from the 19th century. Many of them are preserved in the original jars and boxes. In addition to herbal drugs, there are some animal preparations such as musk glands and elk claws. One of the special features is a piece of bark from the “shirt tree” that Alexander von Humboldt collected in South America.
Biodiversity Museum
Located in the Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Institute for Zoology and Anthropology at the University of Göttingen, the biodiversity museum houses well over 100,000 taxidermied animals in jars, boxes and crates. Many of them are precious treasures.
Wildlife Science
Wildlife science deals with the interactions between wild animals and their habitats in different ecosystems. The origin of the collection goes back to the wildlife biology research and teaching activities of the Forestry Academy founded in Hannoversch Münden in 1868. Today the collection features exhibits of domestic and exotic wildlife, with a focus on mammal antlers and horns.
Astrophysical Collection
The collection goes back to one of the oldest institutions at Göttingen University, the observatory founded in 1748, and documents two and a half centuries of scientific history as well as the work of outstanding Göttingen scientists, such as Tobias Mayer (1723-1762), Carl Friedrich Gauß (1777-1855) and Karl Schwarzschild (1873-1916).
Museum of Göttingen Chemistry
The Museum of Göttingen Chemistry in the Faculty of Chemistry was founded in 1979 and contains a wide variety of documents on the history of chemistry at the University of Göttingen over the last 250 years in the permanent exhibition and in the magazine. This collection is constantly being supplemented and expanded.
Collection of historical objects at the Institute of Geophysics
The Institute for Geophysics has its origins in the Geomagnetic Institute, which was founded in January 1898 as a spin-off from "Department B" of the observatory at the University of Göttingen. The institute's collection primarily contains devices and apparatus for geodetic and geomagnetic measurements from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Collection of mathematical models and instruments
The University of Göttingen not only has a significant collection of historical mathematical models in Germany, but also the most extensive. There are also teaching boards, devices and instruments as well as a collection of slides.
GWDG computer museum
In the data center and IT competence center for the University of Göttingen and the Max Planck Society, the Society for Scientific Data Processing mbH Göttingen (GWDG), work began in 1980 on storing parts from mainframe computers, some complete computers, computer peripherals, computing aids and historical calculating machines Corridors and in the entrance hall.
Physical Cabinet
The Blumenbach skull collection in the Anatomy Center of the University Medical Center Göttingen
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (1752 - 1840), as a young professor of medicine at the Medical Faculty of the University of Göttingen in the 1880s, began to concentrate his anatomical research entirely on the human skull.
Anthropological collections
The Department of Anthropology and Human Ecology (bürgerstr. 50) of the Institute of Zoology and Anthropology has extensive collections, which can be obtained for study purposes upon request from Dr. Birgit Großkopf, are accessible after registration.
Human Embryology Collection / Blechschmidt Collection
Over a period of 25 years, from 1946 to 1973, under the direction of Prof. Blechschmidt, 120 embryos from the first trimester of pregnancy as well as over 200 organs or body parts of human embryos and fetuses from all phases of pregnancy were collected as accidental finds from gynecological operations.
Collection of Medical Moulages
The collection includes nearly 80, mostly well-preserved moulages of high quality, depicting skin diseases in general as well as findings of the diseases syphilis, gonorrhea, and tuberculosis, which were widespread at the time.
Collection of Historical Books for Children and Young Adults
Children's and youth literature is equally interesting for children and adults. Discover valuable and amazing things from the world of children's books with us.
University Archives
The university archive functions as a state archive for the university. Its task is to take over the archive material from all the university's facilities, to index it and to make it usable. This includes all administrative documents that are of lasting value for the fulfillment of public tasks and historical research.
Diplomatic apparatus (Apparatus diplomaticus)
The Apparatus Diplomaticus was founded in 1759 as a »Diplomatic Cabinet« and consists of more than 1,600 written documents dating from Late Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Early Modern periods. It is the largest apparatus diplomaticus that is still used for teaching in Germany.
Collection of botanical wet specimens
In addition to the Botanical Garden and herbarium, the Botanical Institute had extensive collections of wet specimens, woods, seeds and fruits around 1900. The collection of wet specimens has survived to this day. Similar to human anatomical or zoological specimens, plants, plant parts and fruits were permanently preserved in their full plastic form and - for a limited period of time - also in their colour by soaking them in alcoholic or formalin-based solutions.
Palaeo-Ethnobotanical Collection Willerding
From 1960 to 2010, the palaeo-ethnobotanist Prof. Dr Ulrich Willerding collected botanical material from archaeological excavations himself or received it for processing.
Collection at the Department of Egyptology and Coptology
The collection at the Göttingen Department of Egyptology and Coptology consists of around 100 original artefacts and is used as a teaching collection. The objects are primarily amulets, scarabs, ushabtis and ceramics.
Cast Collection of Antique Sculptures
Göttingen University’s Institute of Archaeology is home to the oldest university collection of plaster casts in the world. Consisting of more than 2,000 original-sized reproductions of antique sculptures from over 150 museums, the collection is also amongst the largest of its kind in international comparison.
Map collection
Since its foundation, the SUB Göttingen has collected maps and atlases at great financial and personnel expense. In addition to individual purchases, the acquisition of generous donations and important bequests laid the foundation for one of the most important map collections in Europe.
Ancient History Film Archive: Tom Stern Collection
Partial estate of the film scholar, archaeologist and museum educator Tom Stern (1958-2016). The collection includes approximately 800 films, 1,500 books and magazines, and 100 other objects such as supplements and projectors.
Agronomy Collection
Objects: storage and demonstration containers with original seeds (1900); about 100 large-format, hand-made teaching posters from the end of the 1950s; about 80 weed posters by Emil Korsmo from the 1930s
Royal Model Chamber
Used in the teaching of national surveying, astronomy and technology as well as for preparing excursions, which were designed to give students their first practical insights into mining and manufacturing.
Botanical Wall Charts
The University of Göttingen preserves a collection of over 2000 educational charts that have been used in the teaching of botany since the end of the 19th century. On the one hand, published series of teaching charts were acquired, on the other hand, individual charts were continuously produced for use in the lecture theatre, partly by the researchers and lecturers themselves, mostly by the institute's draughtsmen.
Collection on the history of obstetric medicine (medical history)
The collection of around 1,200 objects relating to the history of obstetrics (instruments, models, preparations, etc.) dates from the 18th and 19th centuries. The academic teachers of obstetrics and the respective heads of the Accouchierhaus in Göttingen - including Friedrich Benjamin Osiander (1759-1822) and Eduard von Siebold (1801-1861) - built it up as a teaching and research collection.
