The Geoscientific Collections can be visited upon request. The paleontological and mineralogical collections are also available for external scientific research.
Mineralogical Exhibition Collection, 3rd floor NatFak Building, Room 03-228
Opening hours of the Mineralogical Exhibition Collection during the summer semester:
April: 04-22
May: 05-06, 05-20
June: 06-03, 06-17
July: 07-01, 07-15
on Wednesdays from 2 PM to 4 PM
Additional display cases featuring fossils and minerals can be viewed at any time during the institute building’s opening hours in the ground floor foyer.
The Institute of Geosciences houses several collections in the fields of Mineralogy, Paleontology, and Geology, which are used extensively for research and teaching purposes. Following its founding as the Institute of Geology and Paleontology in the winter semester of 1946/47, many objects were added to the collection through field trips or recovered during the institute’s excavations both domestically and abroad. The first mineral collection was acquired in 1948. The founders of the collections included Prof. Dr. Horst Falke, Prof. Dr. Heinz Tobien, and Prof. Dr. Adolf Helke.
The collections thus represent the (historical) research areas of the Institute of Geosciences and document evidence of regional and global research work spanning nearly 80 years, including the documentation of fossil excavations at home and abroad or of global mineral deposits.
The individual collections consist of more than 50,000 objects in total, including rocks, minerals, pearls, ivory, models, fossils, bones, alcohol specimens, and fossil casts, and are managed by the work groups. The collections house objects dating from 600 million years ago to the present day. Microfossils only a few micrometers in size are displayed alongside rock slabs with a diameter of more than 1 m within the collections.
The Mineralogical Exhibition Collection contains approximately 1,200 particularly beautiful mineral specimens from all over the world. They are displayed in 15 glass cases for teaching purposes and can be viewed upon request. Naturally, the entire collections are available for research inquiries from both domestic and international sources.
Upon receiving his offer of appointment to JGU in 1956, Adolf Helke continued his already established mineral deposit collection. It documents his worldwide research travels and scientific activities with rocks, minerals, and especially ores from global deposits.
The collections are constantly growing in size through excavations, field collections, and targeted purchases. The value of objects from sites that are no longer accessible today is increasing for research. In contrast, material from completed research projects primarily has value for the history of science or documentation and is also frequently used for teaching purposes.
As even more sites will be exploited or become inaccessible in the future, material from these locations serves as important reference material for research and teaching. Furthermore, new research methods can benefit from historical material.
The following major sub-sections of the Geoscientific Collections of JGU can be distinguished:
• General Mineralogy Collection
• Mineralogical Exhibition Collection
• Gemstone Collection
• Pearl Collection
• Ivory Collection
• Crystal Model Collection
• Helke Mineral Deposit Collection
• Petrographic Collection
• Historical Geology Facies Collection
• Osteology Collection
• Mainz Basin Collection
• Sclerochronology Collection
• Paleozoic and Tertiary Fish Collection
• Paleozoic Brachiopod Collection
• Cephalopod Collection
• Fossil Bivalve and Gastropod Collection
• Fossil Arthropod Collection
• Fossil Echinoderm Collection
• Fossil Coral Collection
• Fossil Plants
• Nattheim Collection
• Pleistocene Rhine Gravel Fossil Collection
• Tertiary Vertebrate Collection
Further information on the history of the:
