What happens behind the doors of a research museum?

Curtain up for preparation!

What appears alive at first glance is the result of an elaborate interplay of craftsmanship, science, and design. In our preparation workshops, objects are created that permanently preserve animals and plants – for research, collection, and exhibition. The new exhibition section of the "People Making Museums" series is dedicated to this often hidden work and the people who perform it.

Our biological preparators work with materials such as skin, bones, plaster, silicone, resin, and paint. They restore historical animal specimens, create research objects for the collection, and design exhibition pieces that convincingly reproduce the size, posture, and expression of an animal. The spectrum ranges from the smallest details, such as eyes or skin structures, to large-format models of entire animals and their habitats.

The new part of the special exhibition shows how specimens are created – and at the same time asks the question of what "real" means. Some objects consist of original animal material, others are completely modeled or cast. Eyes are replaced, bodies reconstructed, surfaces painted. The goal is not deception, but understanding: access to the diversity of nature that is as accurate and vivid as possible.

At the same time, it becomes clear that specimens always reflect the time in which they were created. Historical hunting trophies, early dioramas, and older preparations tell of changing ideas about nature, power, and knowledge. Modern preparation, on the other hand, understands animals as part of complex ecosystems and as living beings worth protecting.

Thus, the exhibition opens up a view of preparation as a cultural and scientific practice – and of the people whose work makes it possible to make nature visible, tangible, and researchable in the museum.