History of the museum

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

In 1933, the collections were moved to Esplanade 1a. After the collections were moved during the war, they were reopened 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 at Grindelallee 48 in 1958. A public display collection could not be reopened here until 1969.