Germans and the forest—a love story? A new exhibition at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin will explore this question starting in November. We know what it’s all about.
A new exhibition at the Deutsches Historisches Museum (DHM) in Berlin, opening on November 14, 2025, will focus on nature in German history. It will span 800 years of history, going back to the nun and abbess Hildegard von Bingen. Whose name, by the way, is still known today in Germany and associated with herbal medicine.
But the medieval botanist is just one of five sections into which the exhibition “Nature and German History. Faith – Biology – Power” is divided. Her idea that people can encounter a divine power in nature is the basis for a tradition that continues to this day. And it is explored further in the following sections.
Nature and History at a Glance
Other prominent figures appear in the exhibition in the form of Johannes Kepler, Ernst Haeckel, Otto von Bismarck, and Friedrich Fröbel. The focus is always on the question of how Germans viewed and tried to understand nature. Why, for example, did the relationship between Hildegard von Bingen’s divine nature change to the contrast between nature and industrialization in the 19th century? The exhibition also explores the question of how the National Socialists incorporated their understanding of nature into their constructed mythology and committed the worst crimes on the basis of a believed “natural” order.
Finally, the exhibition concludes with the environmental movement of the 1970s, which was triggered by increasing pollution of nature and the decline of natural habitats for plants and animals. Demonstrations against nuclear power plants, a dedicated environmental protection department in the Federal Ministry of the Interior, the sustainability debate. All of these issues are still relevant today.
What Else Do You Need To Know
Visitors to the DHM can learn about these topics through some 250 exhibits. Ranging from paintings and maps to models and specimens to films and video interviews. And don’t worry, there’s no lecture-style teaching here. Interactive and multisensory stations ensure that the topic can be explored with almost all the senses, for example at a herb smelling station. For young guests, there is a special children’s trail through the exhibition, which is also largely inclusive and barrier-free. We are already looking forward to the opening and are gathering inspiration on a walk in the woods until then.
What? Exhibition: “Nature and German History: Faith, Biology, Power”
When? November 14, 2025 – June 7, 2026
Where? Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
Admission? €7 (reduced €3)
Website: www.dhm.de/en
