I always enjoy going to museums when I visit other cities and have always been fascinated by dinosaurs. When a buddy and I visited Frankfurt in June 2013, besides going on a Rhine River Tour, we also went to check out Senckenburg Museum. This museum is only a 15 minute walk/stroll from Mövenpick Hotel which is the hotel we were staying at and happen to pass by almost every day.
Getting There
Since Senckenberg Museum is so close to our hotel, my buddy and I walked and rolled there in no time at all. There is even a giant life-size dinosaur replica outside the museum tempting visitors to come in. They do offer special discounts on those who are disabled or are in wheelchairs. Regular price for adult admission wasn’t expensive anyways and is a great deal to see this awesome museum.
this giant Tyrannosaurus Rex is outside at the entrance of the museum
About Senckenberg Museum
Senckenberg Museum was founded in 1914 and is a natural history museum and is the second largest in Germany. The museum is very popular with families and kids with the largest dinosaur exhibit in Europe. Other permanent exhibits include: Bottled Anatomy, Human Evolution, Green Evolution, Ocean Habitats, Mammals, Insects, Birds, World Heritage, Dioramas and Shifting Earth.
another Tyrannosaurus Rex at Dinosaur Unlimited Exhibit
Exhibits
There are 3 floors at Senckenberg Museum with easy access to an elevator. There was a lot to see at this museum so I will just cover the main highlights of our visit.
Main Floor
We started with the main floor since that was where the entrance was and also where the dinosaurs were. Dinosaurs Unlimited exhibit had huge sculptures like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops and more.
Brontosaurus
We then checked out Shifting Earth exhibit where we learned about the Earth’s crust and plate tectonics. There are some really cool information about volcanoes and the history of our landscapes. The models of the solar system was quite interesting too.
learning about the Earth’s core
There were also replica bones of some elephants as we saw Ocean Habitats right beside it. There were bones of whales, alligators, and some sculptures of turtles, fish and other sea creatures. Bottled Anatomy exhibit is something that was a bit different. There are over 300 items preserved in these little jar bottles including a giraffe’s heart, a penguin’s tongue and a whale’s heart.
Ocean Habitats Exhibit
lots of bottled specimens
Second Floor
lions
The second floor had exhibits that had taxidermy. The Mammals Exhibit had such a wide range of mammals including lions, bears, mountain sheep, kangaroos, giraffes, monkeys and many more. All these animals looks to be preserved really well and look so realistically alive in their giant glass displays. There were so many to look at that we did skim by a few of them.
kangaroos
Birds exhibit was another huge exhibit displaying over 1100 birds over 832 species. We were surprised at all the different kinds of birds that can be viewed in one place. There were different kinds of finches, sea gulls, ducks, geese and even a few extinct ones like the dodo, the great auk and the passenger pigeon. These were done by artists recreations.
sea gulls
Third Floor
The third floor had Insects Exhibit which we looked through quickly. Dioramas Exhibit shows animals in their natural environments. Instead of stuffed animals being in glass displays, it was cool to see what the animals would look like out in the wild. Here we saw bears in a forest setting, wolves playing in the snow, moose near some dirt and more. Both of us preferred this over the glass displays.
ibex diorama
Senckenberg Museum was really wheelchair accessible and I feel I didn’t really miss out on anything. There were so many exhibits at this museum and I really enjoyed everything I saw. From seeing dinosaur bones to learning about the Earth to seeing stuffed animals, you could easily spend many hours at this place.
