Exhibition
The exhibition on the ground floor
The ground floor contains the precious historic pieces of the Landgraves and a presentation of the riverside habitats of Kassel's river "Fulda". There is also a lecture hall and a room for special exhibitions.
Standing in the middle of the groundfloor, the dominating skeleton of the so called "Goethe Elephant" forms a transition to the two rooms at right, where the historic pieces of the Landgrave's cabinet of rarities lead you through the centuries.
The first room contains the oldest preserved pieces: hunting trophies and ancient paintings with bird-motifs, initially decorating the walls of the Landgraves hunting lodges. Well protected against light under big hinged lids you can find one of the oldest herbal collections in Europe, the 16th century Herbarium Ratzenberger. One showcase presents various fossils and the teeth of narwhales, attributed with magic powers in former times.
One big attraction is the octagonal cabinet of the famous "Schildbach Wood-Library" in the second room, encompassing 530 wooden volumes of 441 different tree and shrub species. They were manufactured by Carl Schildbach, the Landgrave's park administrator at the end of the 18th century. During the 18th and early 19th century, this library was used by the regional forestry school.
The little wooden cabinet with rock strata was presented by the copper-schist miners of the Richelsdorf area to Landgrave Friedrich II at the occasion of the opening of the Fridericianum. The showcases along the wall illustrate the history of the museum's geology collection, beginning with the 18th century.
A very life-like diorama to the left of the front room gives an impression of the regional biotope of the Fulda banks.
The exhibition on the first floor
Beginning in the stairwell and on the first floor, regional natural history is presented in large show cases and by other exhibits, starting with historic finds of the Permian (280-245 mio. years). Saurian footprints, numerous fossils, models and taxidermal exhibits lead you through evolution, a journey taking you from the Paleozoic to the habitats of today. Particular emphasis is given to regional evolutionary and climatic conditions.
A huge, life-sized mammoth surrounded by reconstructions and finds from the Ice Age is an interesting center piece of this section. Dioramas illustrating aqueous life during marine periods offer an impression of the region's appearance while flooded by the ocean.
Regional beech forests and their denizens, like wild boars, red and roe deer, foxes and a large variety of birds are presented in a huge diorama.
The exhibition on the second floor
On the second floor we present special exhibitions.
