Geoscientific Collections

BGR maintains collections in Berlin and Hanover, here in cooperation with the LBEG. Further, the GewiS database facilitates online access to the collections.

Extensive collections with countless specimens of rocks, minerals, fossils and drill cores document the structure, history and raw material potential of our planet. Geoscientific collections therefore provide indispensable evidence for science, industry and also for teaching and training.

Collections Berlin-Spandau

The historically grown collections consist of several sub-collections, which are often closely interlinked. Approximately 80 % of the specimens were inventoried in the Prussian Geological Survey and reflect the geological work in the Prussian territory at the time. The collections are closely linked to the geological mapping of Prussia. This also results in the dominant regional classification principle in almost all sub-collections.

The remaining approximately 20 % of the samples were added to the collections between 1945 and 2010. They reflect the intensive search for and exploration of deposits during the GDR period on GDR territory (primarily Saxony and Thuringia) and other, then socialist states. The total inventory of the collections in Berlin comprises around 1 million specimens, samples and preparations, which are housed in around 800 cabinets, display cases and shelves.

Collections Hanover

On May 1, 1934, the Institute of Petroleum Geology with a branch office in Hanover was founded at the Prussian Geological Survey, which was also the starting point for the collection in Hanover. Since then the collection and its sub-collections have been operated as a joint, transnational collection. Today it is the joint collection of BGR and LBEG. The stratigraphy of Lower Saxony is documented in around 220 cabinets. In addition there are numerous sub-collections. These include, for example, the
original collection as well as raw material-related parts of the collection (e.g. approx. 70,000 specimens for drillings from the so-called "Reichsbohrprogramm" and the federal drilling program). It is a scientific document and working collection, which is available to scientists worldwide. The collection's holdings are regularly used to set up thematic exhibitions.