Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
One of Europe's great meteorite collections, which includes the collection of Ernst Chladni, the father of meteoritics.
Key facts
- Where
- Berlin, Germany
- Kind
- Museum
- Visiting
- Public galleries
Berlin's collection holds about 18,000 specimens from roughly 5,400 different meteorites, including some 1,300 thin sections. It is one of the oldest and most important in Europe.
It grew from the mineral collection of Carl Abraham Gerhard in the late 18th century and expanded through gifts from Tsar Alexander I of Russia and purchases of private collections. Above all it received the bequest of Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni, whose book of 1794 first argued that meteorites come from space and who built what was then the world's largest private meteorite collection. In 1864 the mineralogist Gustav Rose used the Berlin holdings to publish the first scientific classification of meteorites.
Among its early treasures is a piece of the Krasnojarsk pallasite, the iron and olivine mass described by Peter Simon Pallas, which the Tsar gave in 1803. The museum concentrates on falls from Germany and the rest of Europe and holds the main masses of many German meteorites. Recent additions include the Ribbeck aubrite, a rare kind of meteorite that was spotted as a small asteroid before it hit the atmosphere over Brandenburg in January 2024.
Highlights
- Krasnojarsk the Pallas iron, given in 1803 Pallasite, PMG-an
- Ribbeck aubrite seen in space before its fall in 2024
- Ensisheim fragment of the 1492 fall LL6
- Nakhla Martian meteorite Martian (nakhlite)
Related pages
Opening times, what is on display and access to research collections change over time, so check with the institution before you visit.