Reutlingen Natural History Museum

Naturkundemuseum Reutlingen places the region’s rocks, fossils, plants, and animals inside a restored half-timbered house. The building dates from 1728 and frames the museum’s natural-history displays. Across four floors, the permanent exhibition connects local landscapes with the wider Swabian Jura. Glowing minerals and sparkling crystals make geological history visible. The geological displays examine ground around 190 million years old and evidence of volcanic activity from 14 million years ago. Jurassic fossils extend the story into a vanished marine world. A five-metre-long Reutlingen sea crocodile forms the collection’s most striking fossil, alongside a cave bear skeleton. Detailed habitat reconstructions show a floodplain forest beside running water, an orchard meadow, and a beech forest. Each habitat presents different plants and animals, while the orchard meadow supports more than 5,000 species. The juniper heaths of the Swabian Jura reveal a cultural landscape shaped by long-term human use. Interactive stations connect illuminated stones and fossils with questions about changing habitats and living species. Since the late nineteenth century, the museum has collected, documented, and studied natural-history objects. Guided tours, talks, excursions, and children’s programmes add human interpretation to the permanent and temporary exhibitions. The displays turn a local meadow, a mineral, or a fossil into evidence of changing landscapes.