jahresbericht 2012 - Naturhistorisches Museum Wien

english summary
8.1. natural history museum vienna
annual report 2012: english summary
08
The Natural History Museum in Vienna (NHM) is one
of the largest and most significant natural science
museums in the world. Today it houses a collection
of about 30 million specimens and artifacts. The
collections of the NHM were founded in 1750 by
Emperor Franz I. Stephan of Lorraine, the husband of
Maria Theresa. The current building was completed
in 1889. The museum has a total staff of around 300,
including about 60 scientists. Research departments
and collections include anthropology, botany, geology,
meteorites, mineralogy, petrology, paleontology,
prehistory, and zoology, as well as an archive and
extensive libraries. Several technical departments,
scientific laboratories, and taxidermy facilities complete
the portfolio of the museum. The NHM Vienna
is one of the largest and most important research
institutions in the geological and biological sciences
in Austria.
Since 2010, the museum has been led by Prof. Dr.
Christian Köberl as director general and CEO and
Dr. Herbert Kritscher as vice director and CFO. Since
that time, many changes and new features were
put in place at the museum. In 2012, the museum
had 564,512 visitors; of those, 24,263 visited the
pathological-anatomical collection in the so-called
“Narrenturm”-building in the 9 th district, a new
branch of the museum. This collection used to be
a very small federal museum until the end of 2011;
then it was integrated into the anthropological department
of the Natural History Museum. Because
of long neglect and lack of funds, the building is in
bad shape; however, the NHM succeeded, with the
dedicated help of the Ministry of Education and Culture,
to raise the necessary funds for renovation of
the building; after an intensive phase of planning in
2012, the actual work will start in 2013.
Several other changes concerning the internal structure
of the NHM were implemented in 2012. New
departments of “communications and media” and
“event management and tourism”, partly replacing
the earlier department of PR & marketing, were founded.
The taxidermy facility was placed under the administration
of the department of vertebrate zoology.
As a result of the scientific evaluation that took place
in late 2010, the former, rather small department of
karst and cave research was merged with the department
of geology and paleontology, and the former
scientific department of ecology was restructured and
converted into an outreach department. Finally, the
most important scientific laboratories of the museum
– electron microscopy and electron microanalysis,
and the DNA lab – were merged into a facility called
the “central research laboratories”, to emphasize that
these laboratories are central to the whole museum,
and can provide services even to outside institutions.
The most important event for the museum in 2012
was the re-opening of its famous meteorite hall,
which contains the world‘s largest meteorite display,
on November 13, 2012. Currently, after a thorough
renovation and modernization in 2012, there
are about 1,100 meteorites on display. The Natural
History Museum of Vienna owns one of the largest
meteorite collections in the world. With over 7,000
catalogued objects (which represent about 2,400 different
meteorites), the Viennese collection is not only
large; it also has the longest history of all meteorite
collections and it remains an important research
center for meteorites and associated impact rocks.
The earlier display in hall 5 contained a systematic
meteorite display but hardly any information; consequently,
it was certainly of interest for experts, but
held little attraction for the general public. Thus alrea-
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