History

The roots of the Dresden Natural History Collections go back to the 16th century. At that time, naturalia were already collected in Saxony in the electoral art cabinet. The oldest pieces are mentioned as early as 1587 in the first collection directory of the Electoral Saxon Court.

The year 1728 is often cited as the actual founding year of a natural history museum, the year in which the famous Saxon-Polish Elector-King Augustus the Strong separated his natural history collection from his art objects. The fact that August the Strong chose the most modern and beautiful building in Dresden at that time, the Zwinger, shows the importance he attached to the natural history collection objects!

Since 2009, the former Dresden State Natural History Collections, together with the Museum of Zoology and the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology, have been part of the research institutes and natural history museums of the Senckenberg Senckenberg Nature Research Society, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main.

Under the name Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, the institution is a member of the Leibniz Association through the merger with the Senckenberg.

The Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden, with the museums for mineralogy and geology as well as for zoology, belong to the oldest natural science museums worldwide.

Today, these institutions benefit from their immense collection holdings and from state-of-the-art technical equipment that allows first-class geoscientific as well as zoological cutting-edge research.