The natural history museum acquired the mineralogical-petrographic collection of the TU Braunschweig in 2018 and is currently working on a modern permanent exhibition to give an overview of the collection’s range.

The predecessor of this mineral collection was made accessible to the public through the ducal “Kunst- und Naturalienkabinett” as early as 1754. In 1877 the collection was given to the mineralogical-geological institute of the TU Braunschweig but was later destroyed during an air raid in 1944.

A significant part of today’s collection, which was compiled by the professor of mineralogy Dietmar Reinsch, originated in the private collection of the Brunswick businessman Walter Richard Kahn, who donated it in 1982. It includes, among other things, one of the most extensive compilations of minerals from the Tsumeb Mine in Namibia.