Übersee-Museum

The Übersee-Museum Bremen brings natural history, ethnology, and trade history together under one roof, right in the city center next to the main train station. The building, which opened in 1896 and has been a protected landmark since 1993, presents aspects of overseas habitats in an integrated permanent exhibition. There, you can explore the regions of Asia, the South Seas and Oceania, the Americas, and Africa, and discover global connections. The museum's history goes back to 1875, when the city's natural history and ethnographic collections were merged. After a successful appearance at a trade exhibition in 1890, the desire arose for a museum building of its own, and construction was completed in 1893.

Between 1908 and 1911, the building's architecture was expanded with a western extension featuring an additional atrium. During World War II, the building suffered severe damage from air raids, which led after its reconstruction to a new concept focused more strongly on information and education about the Third World. Since 1999, the museum has been a foundation under public law. A special feature is the so-called Übermaxx, a publicly accessible visible storage facility housed in a building across the street and reached via a bridge on the third floor. Here, around 30,000 collection items are arranged thematically in display cases across 2,000 square meters. The natural history department is also housed there, where roughly 10,000 objects from zoology, mycology, and botany are organized according to biological classification.

In addition to its permanent exhibitions, the museum takes a critical look at its own past. Since 2019, the exhibition "Spurensuche" (Tracing the Past) has examined the provenance of objects from former colonies. The museum also offers a wide range of educational programs for schools and adults, from gamelan performances to digital multimedia guides. These offerings aim to combine science and public education and to make the collections accessible to a broad audience.