Press Releases
Please find detailed press releases about the museum locations of the German Oceanographic Museum below. They are intended to give a quick overview of the museum’s development since its opening until now.
All press releases can also be downloaded from the menu on the page’s right.
(Last updated: December 2023) In 1951, a small municipal natural history museum moved into the former St. Catherine’s Monastery in Stralsund. The museum thrived and quickly developed into East Germany’s internationally renowned Museum of Oceanography and Fisheries. In 1981, the travelling exhibition "Meer und Museum" brought East Germany’s most visited museum to the attention of ocean enthusiasts in West Germany and Denmark.
Following German reunification, the museum was restructured as a foundation in 1994 and renamed Deutsches Meeresmuseum (Ocean Museum Germany) in 1998. A combination of oceanographic research and outreach to the general public are key to the success of the museum, which presents scientific exhibitions and aquariums at four locations as well as on its social media and online channels. The Ocean Museum Germany is one of 23 cultural beacons in Germany’s eastern federal states highlighted in the so-called Blaubuch. It is also one of only a small number of museums worldwide exclusively devoted to the scientific study and the museum presentation of oceans.
In the 1990s, the MEERESMUSEUM in Stralsund's historical city centre was complemented by two new museum locations: The NATUREUM at Darßer Ort in the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park opened its doors with exhibits about the region’s coastal landscape and fauna in 1991. The NAUTINEUM on the isle of Dänholm between Stralsund and Rügen established an exhibition space for fisheries, oceanographic research, hydrography and sea waterways in 1999. The latter location also serves as a depository and has a dissection facility for scientific examinations of marine animals.
In 2008, a fourth museum location, the modern OZEANEUM, opened its doors on Stralsund's harbour island. This location features four permanent exhibitions, including the largest Baltic Sea exhibit in Europe. The OZEANEUM focuses on various aspects of the northern seas, whereas the MEERESMUSEUM highlights the diversity of tropical oceans. In 2009, the Ocean Museum Germany with its four locations ranked third in the list of Germany’s most visited museums, with a total of over 1.2 million visitors.
One year later, the OZEANEUM received a special honour when it was awarded the title "Europe's Museum of the Year 2010".
The last major renovation at the MEERESMUSEUM took place almost half a century ago. An area of 7,500 m² floor space at the MEERESMUSEUM is currently undergoing extensive modernisation. Scheduled for completion in summer 2024, the plans include a redesigned entrance foyer, flowing display cases, life-sized installations of marine animals, and a large aquarium featuring a tropical reef. The aquariums in the historical vaulted cellar of the monastery are being completely overhauled so that visitors can once again embark on a journey through the tropical seas. After completion of the modernisation, popular exhibits, including the Marlene the leatherback turtle and the famous fin whale skeleton in the choir of the former church, will once again be available for viewing. The sea turtles will also return to the stage - swimming and feeding in their 350,000-litre aquarium. All areas of the museum will have access for individuals with limited mobility.
In addition to presenting public exhibitions, the museum’s key tasks include collecting, preserving and researching. The dedicated curators and scientific staff manage growing collections, preserve new specimens and conduct cutting-edge research. The museum’s skeleton collection, for example, is an invaluable record of endemic and transient small whales species in the Baltic Sea. Thousands of preserved fish, crabs, birds and shells are indispensable for scientific research.
Until 1989, new specimens were primarily collected by the crew of East Germany’s fishing and merchant fleet. Collecting trips to the Red Sea in 1976 and 1979 added more than 6,000 specimens to the museum’s collection and made the construction of a unique, life-like tropical coral reef display at the MEERESMUSEUM possible. More recently, the museum has been involved in scientific expeditions to the Mediterranean, Taiwan, Sudan, the Maldives, Antarctica and to the deep-sea corals off the Norwegian coast.
In 1980, the Ocean Museum Germany launched an initiative to register all dead stranded marine mammals along the German Baltic Sea coast, with a special focus on grey seals and harbour porpoises. The findings that now span over 40 years allow scientists to learn more about the species’ distributions. In addition to dead finds, the museum registers marine mammal sightings by watersports enthusiasts in the Baltic Sea via an app. The Ocean Museum Germany is also a leader in the development and use of acoustic measuring devices for harbour porpoise vocalizations in the Baltic Sea. These diverse lines of research help scientists at the museum compile data that are essential to adequately protect marine mammals in the Baltic Sea.
Scientists at the Ocean Museum Germany are also successfully investigating evolutionary relationships among fish species and regularly publishing papers about undescribed fish species.
Many years of experience and impeccable specimen preparation by the in-house taxidermy department are prerequisites for many of the museum's unique exhibits, including the whale skeletons in the foyer of the OZEANEUM.
Science public relations is the central task of the Ocean Museum Germany and takes place via exhibitions and aquariums and well as through panel discussions, collaborations and events for adults, families with children and school classes. The museum is active in numerous associations, including the German Marine Research Consortium (KDM), the German Marine Research Alliance (DAM), the European Cetacean Society (ECS), the European Association of Aquarium Curators (EUAC), the German Museums Association and the International Council of Museums (ICOM).
On 01.01.2019, the Ocean Museum Germany Foundation became operator of the OZEANEUM (previously an independent, non-profit GmbH). Unlike most museums in Germany, the Ocean Museum Germany is now more than 80% self-financed. Additional funding comes from the Hanseatic city of Stralsund, the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the German federal government. The Hanseatic city of Stralsund and the Friends of the Ocean Museum Germany (established in 1991) are the two founders of the Ocean Museum Germany - northern Germany's most visited museum.
(Last updated: December 2023) On 11 July 2008, former Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the OZEANEUM on Stralsund's harbour island, the largest new museum building funded by the federal government at that time. The spectacular building, designed by Behnisch Architekten, gave the harbour panorama of the UNESCO World Heritage City a clear, contemporary accent. With over half a million visitors a year, the OZEANEUM has become a first-class visitor magnet. In May 2010, it was awarded "Europe's Museum of the Year" and in September 2022, the directors welcomed the eight millionth guest since its opening.
The building’s structure is made up of four amorphously formed building complexes that resemble rocks being washed around by the sea. Each complex is connected by one light-flooded foyer made of glass. When entering the building, three original whale skeletons already catch the visitor’s eye. An unsupported escalator leads to the exhibition areas. It is 34 metres long – as long as a blue whale. About 50 partly huge sea water aquaria will take the visitor on a unique journey through the underwater world of the northern seas. The discovery tour starts with Stralsund’s harbour basin in the Baltic Sea aquarium. All the way through bodden waters and eelgrass meadows, past the chalk coast and across Scandinavia’s Archipelago Sea, the visitors experience the diverse local flora and fauna.
The biggest fish on display on the Baltic Sea tour are sturgeons which are shown in their natural habitat – the mouth of a river. In the spring of 2013, OZEANEUM’s aquarists succeeded in breeding common jellyfish for the first time. Since then, these fascinating beauties can be marvelled at independent of the seasons in the Baltic Sea exhibition.
The tanks of the North Sea aquarium show the biosphere of the North Sea and the North Atlantic. An elaborately designed tunnel aquarium is dedicated to Heligoland, Germany’s only rocky island. OZEANEUM’s largest tank contains 2.6 million litres of water. It is part of the “Open Atlantic” display and is home to schools of mackerel, two nurse sharks and various species of rays. Two 20-ton acrylic panes, each 30 centimetres thick, provide an 80-square-metres panoramic view on two levels.
Since 2015, specially built aquaria display cold water corals. In front of and behind the scenes, more than 4 million litres of water permanently rush through the aquaria’s water circulation systems. The initial filling of the tanks required 150 tons of salt. According to the exhibition organisers’ concept, the aquaria are the living completion of all five exhibitions and their numerous original and rare pieces put on display such as various self-made zoological and botanical preserved specimens. OZEANEUM also presents Europe’s biggest Baltic Sea exhibition including a plankton installation, a Baltic Sea relief to touch and elaborately arranged typical living environments displayed in large, triangular showcases.
A permanent exhibition on the Exploration and Utilisation of the Sea as conceived by the German Marine Research Consortium, the World Wide Fund for Nature and other partners was opened in July 2011. Among others, it involves a deep-sea diving trip, shows original exhibits and focuses on aspects of German marine research as well as overfishing and methods of sustainable fishing.
Further expositions show the biodiversity of the world oceans or feature a more hands-on approach to marine life for children at the Children’s Sea area, which was completely redone in 2017. One of the main attractions is the Humboldt penguins on the museum’s roof terrace. These agile feathered swimmers can be observed through large windows. Visitors may witness the daily commented penguin feeding at 2 pm and enjoy a unique view of Stralsund’s old town from a height of 14 metres at the same time. Dr. Angela Merkel, bestselling author Frank Schätzing and other supporters took on animal sponsorships for these endangered animals.
The tour ends in the impressive exhibition "1:1 Giants of the Seas", which was created in cooperation with the environmental protection organisation Greenpeace. Full-size replicas of whales and other sea giants float across the entire height of the room. The largest exhibit is a blue whale with a length of 26 metres. Also on display are a diving sperm whale fighting a giant squid, a killer whale and a humpback whale with its young. The dramatic highlights are the songs of the humpback whale and the clicks of the sperm whales, which they use to track down their prey at depths of up to 3000 metres. A multimedia presentation also provides information about whales, their endangerment and protection options.
OZEANEUM is certified as family-friendly by the Mecklenburg-West Pomeranian tourist association and barrier-free by the German seminar for tourism.
(Last updated: December 2023) The MEERESMUSEUM in Stralsund's historic city centre is housed in the former St. Catherine's Dominican Monastery built in 1251. This location is the oldest affiliate of the Ocean Museum Germany.
In the 1990s, the MEERESMUSEUM was complemented by two new museum locations: The NATUREUM at Darßer Ort in the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park opened its doors with exhibits about the region’s coastal landscape and fauna in 1991. The NAUTINEUM on the isle of Dänholm between Stralsund and Rügen established an exhibition space for fisheries, oceanographic research, hydrography and sea waterways in 1999. The latter location also serves as a depository and has a dissection facility for scientific examinations of marine animals.
In 2008, a fourth museum location, the modern OZEANEUM, opened its doors on Stralsund's harbour island. This location features four permanent exhibitions, including the largest Baltic Sea exhibit in Europe. The OZEANEUM focuses on various aspects of the northern seas, whereas the MEERESMUSEUM highlights the diversity of tropical oceans. In 2009, the Ocean Museum Germany with its four locations ranked third in the list of Germany’s most visited museums, with a total of over 1.2 million visitors.
The main hall of the church St. Catherine, in which the MEERESMUSEUM is located, was subject to extensive renovations from 1972 to 1974, during which a unique metal frame was installed in the interior. The main hall was divided into three levels to provide space for the exhibits of the museum. Now MEERESMUSEUM will be modernized by mid-2024. Die Werft - Munich was contracted for exhibition design. The plans include a redesigned entrance foyer, new flowing display cases and original-sized installations of marine animals in the exhibitions, as well as an impressive large aquarium with a reef. The total usable floor space is 7500 m². The aquariums in the historic vaulted cellar of the monastery will be restructured to provide visitors again the opportunity to travel through the warm seas of our planet. Audiences favourites such as Marlene, the leatherback sea turtle, and the fin whale skeleton suspended from the arch of the former choir, will be presented again after the modernisation. The sea turtles will also continue to fascinate visitors while feeding and swimming in their 350,000 liter aquarium.
Reichel Schlaier Architekten in Stuttgart won the European-wide architectural competition for the modernisation of the MEERESMUSEUM in 2017. The winning design combines a careful approach to the museum's valuable historical structures with confident new architectural concepts - a balancing act between monument preservation in this world heritage site and the demands of a modern museum with a well-developed brand identity. The focus lies on sustainable building, including the energetic renovation of the aquariums. Furthermore, many improvements are planned to make visiting the MEERESMUSEUM even more enjoyable and to provide accessibility.
The cost of the measure before the start of construction was around 40 million euros. The Federal Ministry of the Interior and Community and the Ministry of Economics, Infrastructure, Tourism and Labor of the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern handed over the grant notifications for half of the construction costs each in June 2020. The Hanseatic City of Stralsund is participating by donating a plot of land worth just under 70,000 euros. In July 2023, the federal and state governments signaled further support of 11.1 million euros to offset the increased construction costs as a result of the Corona pandemic and the Ukraine war. The Federal Ministry for Housing, Urban Development and Building and the state government of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are each providing half of the total sum required.