History of the museum

The mineralogical collections were originally housed together with the other natural science collections of Hamburg in the Natural History Museum Hamburg at Steintorwall, but had to be relocated with the Mineralogical-Geological State Institute to Lübecker Tor already in 1907 due to lack of space. There, in 1910, a Mineralogical-Geological Museum was inaugurated by Senator Werner von Melle.

In 1933, the display collections were moved to Esplanade 1a. After the removal of the collections during the war, the reopening also took place here in 1950. Due to war-related damage, the attractive building (see illustration) had to be abandoned later. The mineralogical collections were finally moved to the newly built Mineralogical-Petrographical Institute, Grindelallee 48, in 1958. A public display collection could only be reopened here in 1969.