Saturday, 1 March to Monday, 31 March
Interactive exhibition: Museum experience
Location: TIETZ, Museum of Natural History Chemnitz, 1st floor
Admission: Visits to the interactive exhibition are free of charge, an admission ticket is required for the permanent and special exhibitions.
A forest that stretches back 291 million years into the Earth's history and a permanent exhibition that has been standing for 20 years - time to change something in our museum! We want to retell the stories about the life and death of our fossilised tree giants and bring much more from the collections to light. Over the past few years, children and young people have been thinking about what our museum should offer in the future. Using games, animated films and audio contributions they developed themselves, they brought prehistoric dinosaurs, scorpions and giant dragonflies to life for the experience level of the new permanent exhibition. The resulting interactive stations were tested by young and old alike. We have taken these requests for changes on board and now it's time to discover, play and dream again.
Saturday and Sunday, 1 and 2 March
Special exhibition: Wild neighbours - animals of the Ore Mountains
Location: TIETZ, Museum of Natural History Chemnitz, 1st floor
Admission: 4 euros, concessions 2.50 euros, children and young people up to the age of 18 free of charge
From the water bat measuring just a few centimetres to the 300-kilogram red deer and from the nocturnal predator eagle owl to the slender diurnal adder - the fauna of the Ore Mountains is diverse and has many a surprise in store alongside the well-known representatives of the four-legged and bird world. For example, the crane, which is considered a bird of happiness in many cultures: breeding cranes were observed on the Ore Mountain ridge for the first time in 2021. Or the shy pine marten, which looks very similar to its cousin, the stone marten - but unlike the latter, avoids human settlements. Or the black grouse - a chicken bird threatened with extinction, whose largest habitat north of the Alps is the moors and sparse forests of the Ore Mountains. And last but not least, the wolf - a success story, as the reintroduction of wolves is a natural process that humans are only supporting by not intervening.
The exhibition "Wild Neighbours - Animals of the Ore Mountains", which the Museum of Natural History Chemnitz opened at the TIETZ in March 2024, portrays a total of 28 animal species.
On display are fascinating images by six animal photographers, flanked by original specimens of the animals. Wildlife camera footage from various locations in the Ore Mountains, which was set up as part of the wolf monitoring programme, is also shown in a continuous loop on four screens. The exhibition takes visitors through the typical habitats of the animal species, from urban areas to the heavily over-developed cultural landscape to near-natural forests and mountain regions. In addition to native animal species such as the wild boar and the cuckoo, the exhibition also includes invasive species such as the raccoon and the raccoon dog, which were introduced by humans and have been spreading in Central Europe for several decades. This also applies to two of the four deer species presented: While the roe deer and the red deer are indigenous, the fallow deer and the sika deer came to Germany as hunting game.
Note: The exhibition ends on 2 March 2025.
Friday, 14 March, from 6 pm
Presentation of the fossil of the year 2025
Location: TIETZ, Museum of Natural History, 1st floor
Admission: free of charge
Every year, the Palaeontological Society honours special fossils with the title "Fossil of the Year". This not only emphasises their importance for science, but also recognises the people and institutions that find, research and exhibit these fossils.
In 2025, the choice fell on the fossil shark egg capsule Fayolia sterzeliana from the Lower Carboniferous of Chemnitz-Borna and Chemnitz-Glösa. The deposit in the north of the cultural capital has yielded even more sensational finds, including the oldest evidence of the giant centipede Arthropleura and the oldest quadruped remains in Germany. The shark eggs, which come from two different species of freshwater shark, are also the oldest finds of their type. A new special exhibition shows the habitat from 330 million years ago (and thus 40 million years before the Petrified Forest), when Chemnitz was not only on the equator but also in the southern hemisphere.
The special exhibition will be opened with a welcome address by the President of the Palaeontological Society. Lectures by Prof. Dr Jürgen Kriwet from Vienna and Dr Jan Fischer from the Palatinate - both proven experts on sharks and shark egg capsules - will provide a popular scientific introduction to the topic.
Music, snacks and drinks will ensure a successful Capital of Culture event in a festive atmosphere. The presentation is the prelude to the 50th annual meeting of the Vertebrate Palaeontology Working Group of the Palaeontological Society, which will take place on 15 and 16 March at the Museum für Naturkunde.
Wednesday, 19 March, 6.30 to 7.30 pm
"Namibia 2022 - Collecting under the African sun, Part II: Around the Brandberg"
Lecture by Mathias Sehrig, Chemnitz
Venue: TIETZ, Museum of Natural History, Museum Education, 1st floor
Admission: free of charge
An event organised by the Friends of the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz e. V.