Talk:Natural History Museum, Berlin

... the first national museum in the world.
Should this be the oldest, or does it mean foremost? Lupin|talk|popups 17:26, 21 February 2006 (UTC)

The Museum of Natural History in Berin and the Senckenbergmuseum in Frankfurt both claim to be the largest museum of their kind in Germany? Please compare both articles and add references concerning this topic. Elatrin (talk) 12:11, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

new setion detailing the exhibition?
I think that a section briefly describing the exhibition either room by room or by "topic" would be nice. However, this task is beyond my available time. Would one or two others be willing to cooperate, and take over certain parts? HMallison (talk) 09:00, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

discussion around Brachiosaurus' generic name
This one needs to be addressed in the Brachiosaurus lemma, not here. In any case, neither Paul's nor Olkhevsky's suggestions have gained enough support to warrant the present turn of phrase. User:Ilja.nieuwland (talk) 9:11, 7 August 2009 (GMT+1)

wait until Taylor et al.'s paper is out - I have read it and the current turn of phrase is much too weak (see also Brachiosaurus page). Once the paper is officially published, I will update Brach and this page accordingly.HMallison (talk) 13:48, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

image copyright problem
Under German copyright laws museum insides are not public domain (outsides are), unless transferred to public domain by the museum. This is not generally the case in Berlin. Thus, the individual files would have to have notes showing release by the MFN on their image pages, which they lack. removed for now. HMallison (talk) 15:08, 23 January 2010 (UTC)
 * update here: talk:DiplodocusHMallison (talk) 19:23, 23 January 2010 (UTC)

Renaming the article
I cannot believe the English-speaking world REALLY uses the original German name, constantly mentioning this museum as the Museum für Naturkunde in English texts, speechs, lectures or simple conversations. And I assume that Google shows a majority of Museum für Naturkunde results because of a ten-year-during Wikipedia influence (or because languages around the world tend to mention the original German term after mentioning their own proper term). Going back to the article itself, the history of renames is as follows: In German, the official name changed over the years. I'm not sure about the names between 1810 and 1889 (apparently, until 1945 it has been named Zoologisches Museum der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin), but as of 1889 the current building was inaugurated with the term Museum für Naturkunde clearly visible on the façade, and for many years, as in the present day, this is the usual name when German-speakers refer to the Berlin museum of natural history. This is ok. But this is ok regarding German-speakers, not regarding English-speakers. If you go back to the history of renames, you'll notice that in 2011 the article was named as "Museum of Natural History, Berlin" by user Bermicourt. This lasted 46 minutes because another user, HMallison, reverted the rename. But I agree with Bermicourt and disagree with HMallison. I really think we have to rename into English. Proper titles could be Museum of Natural History, Berlin, Museum of Natural History of Berlin, Berlin Museum of Natural History or Berlin's Museum of Natural History. I like the latter (395,000 results in Google for "Berlin's Museum of Natural History" against 101,000 results for "Berlin Museum of Natural History" and 118,000 for "Museum of Natural History of Berlin").
 * 06:52, 20 December 2004 = Anonymous IP 68.81.231.127 creates the article, then titled "Humboldt Museum"
 * 19:27, 15 April 2007 = user Marcus Cyron moved "Humboldt Museum" to "Museum für Naturkunde" over redirect
 * 22:25, 29 November 2011 = user Bermicourt moved "Museum für Naturkunde" to "Museum of Natural History, Berlin"
 * 23:11, 29 November 2011 = user HMallison moved "Museum of Natural History, Berlin" to "Museum für Naturkunde" over redirect

Otherwise, apart from the above, please note that the term "Humboldt" is no longer related to this museum of natural history. This is a 207 years old museum, founded in 1810, and the term "Humboldt" was in connection with it only 60 years during, from 1949 to 2009. The Museum never was named accordingly to a term officially containing the Humboldt name and had been founded 139 years before the "Humboldt rename" of the university of Berlin in 1949. Thus, the "Humboldt Museum nickname" should be mentioned as an abandoned (although persistent) term, belonging to the past only. Regards. Kintaro (talk) 11:50, 15 October 2017 (UTC)


 * I would clearly support renaming this to the English title for this sort of museum. Wikipedia typically uses "Museum of Natural History, Foo" (e.g. Museum of Natural History, Belgrade) or "Foo Natural History Museum" (e.g. Beijing Museum of Natural History or "Natural History Museum of Foo" (e.g. Natural History Museum of Nantes). Looking at online stats "the" + "Museum für Naturkunde" + "Berlin" had 39k book hits and 382k Google hits, while "the" + "Natural History Museum" + "Berlin" had 32k book hits but a massive 1 million google hits. Of the English variants "Natural History Museum, Berlin" had the most hits on Google Books and Google, with "Berlin Natural History Museum" coming a fairly close second (half as common in books though). HTH --Bermicourt (talk) 19:36, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you, Bermicourt, I agree with you. I look forward to others' opinions. Kintaro (talk) 20:13, 15 October 2017 (UTC)
 * I agree with you both. English language Wikipedia, English language name. I'm indifferent to whether it ends up as Berlin Museum of Natural HIstory or Museum of Natural History, Berlin but suggest a redirect from the one not chosen as both valid searches per Bermicourt's research StarM 02:15, 20 October 2017 (UTC)
 * Hi Bermicourt and Star Mississippi. Well, I suggested the rename one month ago... What should we do now ? I think that "Natural History Museum of Berlin" is the most appropriate title. Kintaro (talk) 01:40, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I think the general rule was the English common name of the museum, so anything listed in lonely planet or English newspaper should be the new namespace. Matthew_hk   t  c  12:55, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Only if we change Museo storia naturale di Pisa to "Natural History Museum of Pisa"  User:Dunkleosteus77 &#124;push to talk 15:19, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Let's stay with the Pisa museum example : "Natural History Museum of Pisa" is used by the tourist office in the affected region (for example, here), and also by NBC News (over there). Not surprising. In addition, after a few more Google tests/combinations, I found we obtain 116,000 results when looking for "Museum of Natural History in Berlin". NBC News used such name for the Berlin Museum. Kintaro (talk) 16:23, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Note: a search with "Natural History Museum in Berlin" reaches 2,690,000 Google results. I'm not sure if it's a realistic number or how this has to be read. Kintaro (talk) 16:53, 15 November 2017 (UTC)
 * No it's not. If you put it in quotes - "Natural History Museum in Berlin" - you get 287,000 results. Meanwhile "Natural History Museum, Berlin" gets 104,000 and both "Berlin Natural History Museum" and "Natural History Museum of Berlin" get 94,000 and 97,000 respectively. The only caveat about "Natural History Museum in Berlin" is that you could argue that, in many articles, the proper name they're using is "Natural History Museum" and they're locating it in "Berlin" i.e. it's not really a title.
 * However, we tend to prefer Google Books as a guide. If we search on that we get the following results:
 * "Natural History Museum, Berlin" 2,890
 * "Berlin Natural History Museum" 1,370
 * "Museum of Natural History, Berlin" 1,310
 * "Natural History Museum of Berlin" 1,020
 * "Natural History Museum in Berlin" 649. --Bermicourt (talk) 18:53, 15 November 2017 (UTC)

Ok then, let's move back again to Natural History Museum, Berlin over the redirect. Kintaro (talk) 00:35, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Sorry for that, I was thinking about Museum of Natural History, Berlin. Anyway, I prefer "Natural History Museum of Berlin". Kintaro (talk) 00:37, 16 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Makes sense. I think maybe the help tag will flag someone who can. I think I can, technically, as admin but I'm rusty and I !voted so prefer not to StarM 03:17, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I've just added the stats for "Museum of Natural History, Berlin" above. It falls in the middle. --Bermicourt (talk) 13:45, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Renamed. Vsmith (talk) 14:15, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
 * side note. The google hit itself have to separate German-language hit from German-speaking countries in order to find the common name of the museum in the English world. Matthew_hk   t  c  15:22, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

I don't get it. Moved to Museum of Natural History, Berlin? Not to Natural History Museum, Berlin? Kintaro (talk) 19:48, 17 November 2017 (UTC)

Thank you Vsmith! StarM 04:01, 18 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Hey, you people, Marcus Cyron, Bermicourt, HMallison, Star Mississippi, Matthew_hk, Dunkleosteus77, Vsmith: following the data shown by user Bermicourt (just see above), don't you think the best title for the article is definitely "Natural History Museum, Berlin"? Kintaro (talk) 23:41, 22 November 2017 (UTC)
 * sounds good to me, just make sure all of the other proposed titles are redirects  User:Dunkleosteus77 &#124;push to talk 00:56, 23 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Done! Kintaro (talk) 14:07, 23 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Thanks to all. --Bermicourt (talk) 17:15, 23 November 2017 (UTC)

Maybe, just fuckin' maybe, wikipedia might listen to what the actual fuckin' subject of its articles has to say? The MfN insists in all its English communications on using Museum für Naturkunde Berlin - Leibniz Institute for Research on Evolution and Biodiversity (short: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin). That's what they wanna be called. Period. --HMallison (talk) 22:47, 24 November 2017 (UTC)
 * As with everything else, we have to follow WP:Common name, not personal preferences. If the German name is the common name in English too, that's what we have to follow. In any case, a formal move request should have been made, and this should have been discussed before'¨moving the article. FunkMonk (talk) 05:55, 25 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Hey, HMallison, watch your language... you came to this discussion after the debate was settled! Note that from the very beginning I was including your user name among all the other notifications destined not only to you but also to all the other participants. Kintaro (talk) 10:46, 25 November 2017 (UTC)
 * When I changed the article way back, I gave a reason for the change. Which got totally ignored by you and in the discussion. You "disagree" with me - on what? On what the article should be named? Feel free. What the museum WANTS to be called, though, you have no position to have an opinion on that is based on Google. That can only be based on the museum's wishes.
 * Go figure why I find this frustrating. And yes, thank you for tagging me. You and the rest of wikipedia users can name this page any way you like. What remains is what I gave as a reason back when: "(removing wrong EN name; museum officially wants "Museum für Naturkunde" kept and not translated) "
 * and yes, I should have been more polite. Sorry. --HMallison (talk) 13:11, 25 November 2017 (UTC)
 * I wrote to the museum's PR people to ask what they actually want. Then, you can all decide whether to follow the official name or go with the name that is commonly used - but then, which one of the many? Humboldt is still being used a lot, but clearly nonsense . Confusing.... --HMallison (talk) 13:15, 25 November 2017 (UTC)
 * This is the English Wikipedia, not a museum in continental Europe. We are not a department of the Museum für Naturkunde. The museum's wishes do exist and this is fair enough... but we are not forced to take them into account. Kintaro (talk) 00:00, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Well yes, you must take them into account. Doesn't mean you need to follow them. But the arrogance of your statement speaks for itself. It basically states that YOU get to decide how things are called, no matter what they are actually called. Now, can you provide an English name that is unversally accepted? As your own research shows - no, you can't! There are many versions, all of them used, and many clearly off the mark. But hey, the Great Kintaro knows the eternal truth :rolleyes: --HMallison (talk) 16:05, 26 November 2017 (UTC)
 * Ridiculous and childish, this is what you are: shame on you. I suggested a rename on October the 15th, 2017. And I didn't impose my views: everybody agreed with a name in English. Then the rename was done and only after that, with a two-month delay, you came to the discussion. So: look for more wikipedians and try to convince them about your proposed title. Furthermore: as a staff member of this museum (a vertebrate paleontologist, currently employed at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin) I demand you don't go to any vote in Wikipedia, at least in this particular instance. This must be some kind of joke... Kintaro (talk) 17:46, 26 November 2017 (UTC)

MfN PR head Gesine Steiner wrote: "unser MfN heißt im deutschen und englischen Text: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (ohne Komma)." --HMallison (talk) 08:27, 27 November 2017 (UTC)
 * as you see, I am not active on WP much anymore - mostly because of people like you. And thus my page is out of date (I stopped working there mid-2016). --HMallison (talk) 22:04, 3 December 2017 (UTC)

I just brought some corrections to Galerie de paléontologie et d'anatomie comparée, which in fact is the wrong orthotypography for this museum. In proper French this should be spelt galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée (begins with a lower case "g" in galerie and only the main nouns begin with a capital: Paléontologie and Anatomie). But before renaming I'll suggest a debate, as I did here. Anyway, I prefer to rename with "Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy". And I think there are a lot of other similar cases: English should be the first choice. But also, of course, there are certainly some exceptions. Why should we accept that Museum für Naturkunde is an exception too? Do native English-speakers, among the scientists community, use this German term more than "Berlin's Natural History Museum" for example? Kintaro (talk) 02:49, 9 December 2017 (UTC)

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Need more details about the building itself
The building that the museum is housed in should be addressed. Basic information about it for starters.

Having visited I would also like to know why the museum has restricted itself to using just one floor, closing off the first floor exhibition space. Amedeofelix (talk) 06:51, 9 September 2023 (UTC)