Geology & Historical Geology

The collections of the Geology and Historical Geology Section document over 175 years of geological collection activity, research and teaching. They primarily contain the scientifically valuable material for research projects and theses that were and are carried out at the State Collection itself and at cooperating and donating institutions (universities in Munich and Würzburg, Technical University of Munich; former Bavarian Geological Survey), as well as specific acquisitions that were and are used in teaching and public relations work. Of particular importance are sample rocks from the Bavarian type localities of geological formations and geotopes as well as from deposits that are important for the Bavarian economic development.

The collection focuses on recording the Bavarian geology:

• Eastern Bavarian bedrock with deposits;
• Rock types and stratigraphy of the Franconian strata, the southern Bavarian-Swabian Molasse region and the Bavarian Alps including strata-bound deposits;
• Impact rocks and related geological phenomenology of the Nördlinger Ries
• Loose solid rocks of the glacial periods;
• natural building stones.

Further focal points are the regional collections on the general geology and mineralogy of Europe, South America and Africa, and a teaching collection oriented towards geological processes.

The SNSB-BSPG currently holds about 60,000 inventory units of various rocks ranging from pinhead-sized mineral grains to massive rock blocks, about half of which are archived in external storage facilities or in exhibitions. Most of the samples are hand specimens, but there are also polished sections, thin sections, profiles, drill cores and loose sediments. Data from about 25,000 objects have been digitally recorded so far. Well-known contributions to the collection – arranged chronologically – are due to the researchers Karl Emil Schafhäutl, Gustav Georg Winkler, Karl Alfred Zittel, Max Schlosser, Fridolin Sandberger, August Rothpletz, Kurt Leuchs, Erich Kaiser, Karl Boden, Albert Maucher, Werner Zeil, Herbert Hagn, Hans Pichler, Irmin Fruth, Dietrich Dankwart Klemm, Bernd Lammerer and Hubert Miller, among others.