Senckenberg-Museum

Seit einigen Jahren sind wir regelmäßige Besucher im Senckenberg Naturkunde Museum und Mitglieder mit Jahreskarte.
Neben den permanenten Ausstellungen, die alleine schon einen Besuch wert sind, gibt es immer wieder temporäre Installationen, aber auch neue Erweiterungen, wie zum Beispiel die Tiefsee Ausstellung, die dieses Jahr eröffnet wurde.
Daneben werden ebenfalls Vorträge und Partnerausstellungen angeboten und ein Highlight für Familien mit Kindern sind Aktionen wie die nächtliche Halloween-öffnung, die mit viel Liebe zum Detail vorbereitet wird.
Wer nach Stunden des Besuchs eine Pause braucht, findet im obersten Stockwerk ein Bistro, was neben einigen wenigen Speisen auch sehr leckere Kuchen anbietet. Die Kellner wirken leider immer etwas gestresst, auch bei geringer Belegung, aber wer Zeit mitbringt, kann darüber hinweg sehen.
Im Erdgeschoss befindet sich außerdem ein kleiner aber gut sortierter Shop, der vor allem Kindern Einiges zu bieten hat.

Observations:

We saw bunch of school kids with teachers/adults come on Sunday. But they were quite and well behaved. No one very excited about it like what we saw at LA or London where they are more interactive games. This place feels
like and an outdated science lab with a smell of decay.

What is great:

Earth crust and wall of difference crystals are well described and with many information not seen elsewhere, and with extra description, you can see what stone/crystals are form at each layer.

What cause fossils form in 3D vs the more bend 2D version. We didn't even learn this at Tar pit museum where tons of fossils are still being dig today. Excellent!

Museum platform style chairs like art museum. Since AC is almost not existed there, those chairs let's you sit down and read each description leisurely.

Issues:

We went to LA and London's natural history museum, this is not quite as big and as imaginative. First many exhibits came from NY, second the way Frankfurt present is very textbook and boring glass boxes, while in LA, you see each animals in their fake habitat. London's displays is a more artistic approach.

Museum only label 50% of its exhibits with English.

Description of exhibits are not very well thought out. Dinosaurs are not to scale but they won't tell you what the scale so you think why 50ton animal is same as the 5ton one.

For exhibits with English, description is much less. Theme of each room and wall has not much thoughts
puts to it.

Price:
10€ for adults and 5€ for kids.

This is one of Europe's foremost natural history museums, famous for its stunning (and world-class) collection of dinosaur remains, and a leading international centre of research.


The origins of the museum owe much to Goethe, Frankfurt's most famous citizen, who proposed the idea of a natural history collection, and a generous legacy from the eponymous Dr Senckenberg in 1817. This led to the development of the collection from 1822, for which the present building was completed in 1907.


The prize of the museum has to be its display of dinosaurs, the skeletons of which dominate the main hall. Here you find all the childhood favourites: the long-tailed Diplodocus, a Stegosaurus with its famous back-plates, the three-horned Triceratops and a terrifying Tyrannosaurus rex. But equally important are the large collections of swimming dinosaurs and other fossilised marine life from all over the world, fossils of early flying birds and the collection from the Grube Messel pit, which include fossils of early relatives of the horse, the size of a small dog!


Other displays include impressive reconstructed skeletons of elephants and their ancestors and of several whales, and well put-together galleries covering astronomy, geology, and invertebrates. Less attractive in my book are the traditional galleries featuring huge numbers of stuffed birds and mammals, although the reconstruction of a python eating a Coypu is a grisly favourite of school parties. An odd though fascinating addition is a small gallery dedicated to mummified people and animals from ancient Egypt.


As you'd expect, the museum caters very well for children and families, and has an excellent shop. Most of the galleries (though not all) are accessible by wheel-chair. Many of the interpretations have English translations, and there is an extensive range of leaflets in other languages. There is also a small cafe/self-service restaurant, although it was closed when we visited.


Nearest U-bahn: Bockenheimer Warte, 3 minutes' walk.

I _really_ liked this museum, don't get me wrong. It's beautifully curated and the exhibits are well thought out and informative. The small exhibit on human evolution is especially thoughtful and complete. Really, really well done. And the wonderful exhibit on local paleontology was absolutely excellent... as was the evolution narrative.

However, after reading the unnecessarily fulsome reviews below, a few words of caution are needed for people who go to a lot of natural history museums. This is more on the scale of the Royal Ontario Museum or the Yale Peabody Museum (or Oxford's natural history museum or even Harvard's) than a major, international museum. And, unlike the Brussels natural history museum, which houses the Bernissart iguanodons, there isn't really a special collection like that that might be of interest.

The dinosaur exhibits are nearly all reproductions (and most of those are from New York--in fact, I'd seen almost all of the originals elsewhere). It's interesting to see how the exhibit was composed and the combination of reproductions is unique, but if you want to compare with New York or the Smithsonian or London or the Field Museum (or Los Angeles County or Vienna, which has that wonderful animatronic allosaurus), it's not of the same caliber for those exhibits.

For North Americans, the display cases with taxidermy animals will be interesting, but some are visibly deteriorating (like they were exposed to light over a long period of time), so if you're making a special trip for a natural history museum in Europe, this is not what I'd pick.

This place is amazing! I was lucky enough to attend an evening event in this beautiful building during which we got a guided tour of the museum from the most chirpy and knowledgeable elderly biologist I've ever met. Ok I haven't met many elderly biologists but this woman was incredible. She took us around the animal exhibits with such enthusiasm you couldn't help but pay attention to her, and I totally loved her never-ending stream of weird and wonderful facts (such as how baby komodo dragons have to run up trees as soon as they hatch to avoid being eaten, and stay up there until they're FOUR YEARS OLD).

Ok I found the taxidermy a little spooky given the multitude of mammals and birds in the upstairs galleries, but then it was night-time and I do have a pretty vivid imagination hmm... I definitely marvelled at the sheer extent of the collection (they have everything!) and the life size of some of these creatures. I'm also a total dino-geek so the skeleton exhibits in the main atrium were a real treat, particularly as that's where they'd set up the drinks area!

Frankfurt has the second highest concentration of museums in Germany after Berlin. A lot of those museums are on Museum Row (Museumsufer) and it's very easy to spend a day or two walking from one to the next. The Senckenberg Natural History museum is NOT on Museum Row...but it definitely demands your attention. Almost hiding in one of Frankfurt's university neighborhoods (Bockenheim) and not quite close to the Fairgrounds (Messe), the museum might seem out of the way. Don't let that stop you because it is both a wide open and densely packed museum with a lot of natural treasures from the animal kingdom. A great weekend spot for families with children, but also a quiet spot to soak up culture during the week for people without children.

Top Three Highlights:
1.) Easily accessible by public transit (U4/U7 subway trains).
2.) €6 adult entry is very reasonable considering how much time you can spend inside.
3.) Many exhibits feature English translations.

Admission here is very low for all the stuff you can see here. I spent around 4 hours here. There is so much to see. I enjoyed everything from the animal exhibits to the dinosaurs, which are huge. It's a must-see in Frankfurt for both children and adults.

It is the holidays and my sons owed me an educationally worthwhile family outing. Frankfurt being rather close, the weather suggested an indoor activity and my childhood memories of the place pushed us in the direction of the Senckenberg Natural History Museum.


Unfortunately, we were sorely disappointed. I remembered the museum much bigger, more beautiful and much more interesting. My son, drawing on his worldly experience, meant laconically: You were little. All things seem bigger when you are little. He is, of course, dead on.


Only I am left with the question where my childhood memories of a marvellous place come from. Certainly not from the Senckenberg. Like one of the German reviewers, I also noticed quite a lot of dust on several of the exhibits, which might be a metaphor on the whole place. In my mind, it needs a lot of dusting, metaphorically speaking as well as actually.


There were many visitors, mainly families with children of all ages, and maybe this enormous interest and the reputation of the Senckenberg Museum is the reason, why nobody seems to notice the need to liven up the place. There are hardly any interactive sections, which is surprising considering the possibilities. In the stuffed animal section (the location is quite curious) an alcove gives a hint of what could be achieved with a little imagination. This little room has the development of a human being in the uterus as its subject. While watching nine windows with texts and models, one constantly hears a heartbeat reminiscent of that might be heard by a foetus. However, even this is only the beginning of an idea, not a fully-fledged exciting display.


There are many taxidermy exhibits in class cases, and one is hard-pressed to find connecting threads or keep up the interest of accompanying children. Yes, the entrance hall with the dinosaur bones and reconstructions is impressive. We also liked the exhibits about prehistoric man. But that's more or less where it ends.


Overall, the museum seems rather old-fashioned; I almost want to use the word boring. To somebody already interested in the subject, it is no doubt rewarding, but we missed enthusiasm, something to inspire the visitors.


As mentioned before, there are no parking spaces in the near vicinity; public transport seems the logical approach. Most of the exhibits have English texts accompanying the German explanations, there are English guide booklets available as well.

My family and I had a Great time here. Plenty to see! And you are so close you could touch the museum pieces. I wouldn't touch as I'm sure they are fragile artifacts. But definitely a good see if you can go!

This has to be Frankfurt's best 6,00€ value. If you're in town it's a must. Just be sure you have a lot of time.