"The time in which we live demands that the treasures of knowledge gained by mankind should not be sheltered alone in the narrow circles of the individual brain, they must become common to all the people and penetrate through all strata." georg philip holscher, 1850 in the new hannoverian magazine, calling for the founding of a natural history museum
The Landesmuseum Hannover originated as a "Hannoverian Museum for Art and Science" from bourgeois roots: The "Naturhistorische Gesellschaft Hannover", the "Historical Association for Lower Saxony" and the "Association for the Public Art Collection" had decided to bring 1852 together their collections. 1856 was then able to present the new museum in the Sophienstraße 2, today's Künstlerhaus, until 1902, as provincial museum, received its new location at the Maschpark.
A multi-department building since the beginning, the new building made it possible to divide it into three departments: on the one hand, the historical one with archeology collections, from the history of Hanover, a coin collection and ethnographic exhibits, as well as the natural history part and finally the art department. With its name, the “Museum of Art and Science” was already way ahead of the older royal chambers of art and curiosities when it was founded, and today it seems downright forward-looking. For Wilhelm Leibniz, the great Enlightenment thinker of the century, museums were “theaters of nature and art,” spaces in which art and science meet.
The new concept, which has been successively implemented since 2013, is based on the history of the museum with three departments and on the architecture of the house as an image of the world. On the ground floor, for example, you can now find the »NaturalWorlds« as a link between the hitherto separate areas of vivarium and natural history. On the first floor you can experience the unique combination of archeology and ethnology, old and new worlds in the »HumanWorlds«. And above all, the »ArtWorlds« floats with paintings and sculptures from the Middle Ages to the 20. Century.
»In the hannover state museum you can find apparently incompatible and are invited to discover and reflect in a variety of ways.«
prof. dr. katja lembke
director of the landesmuseum hannover
whether piranhas, dinosaurs, the history of humanity or the high art - they embark on one trip around the world at the landesmuseum hannover!
