The collections essentially go back to the brothers Duke Ernst II (1818–1893) and Albert (1819–1861), Prince Consort of Queen Victoria of Great Britain. In 1844, the collections, the "Ducal Art and Natural History Cabinet", were made accessible to the public for the first time. The first director from 1844 was Carl Friedrich von Schauroth. After several moves due to lack of space, it was housed in Veste Coburg. Finally, from 1912, the building for the Natural Science Museum was built on the edge of the Coburg Court Garden on behalf of the last Duke, Carl Eduard. The official inauguration was on July 1, 1913, and the opening followed on May 19, 1914. The building was designed by the Berlin architect and court building officer Rudolf Zahn. With a usable area of 1800 square meters, it was one of the largest new buildings for a natural history museum in Germany at the time.[1] The construction costs amounted to 170,000 marks.
The three-storey, historicist old building has a striking three-axis central wing with a dome that was intended as an observatory. The windows on the upper floor are rectangular, and on the ground floor they are round-arched. The basement floor is designed in rusticated ashlar.
The former Hofgartenmuseum, previously the Duke's private property, has belonged to the Bavarian state since 1919, and the collections are owned by the Coburg State Foundation. Hans von Boetticher was the museum's director from 1931 to 1955. In 1987 it was renamed the Coburg Natural History Museum. An extension from 1991 to 1996 gave the museum 4800 m² of usable space, a total exhibition area of 2400 m² and 1000 m² of storage space.
Since 2006, a room in the Natural History Museum, the Duchess Auguste Hall, has been named after Auguste Reuß zu Ebersdorf, the second wife of Duke Franz of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, whose interest in nature inspired a passion for collecting in both her husband and especially her grandchildren Ernst and Albert
Source: Wikipedia
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