… Visit Museum Koenig in Bonn?

What’s it like to visit Museum Koenig in the city of Bonn?

Do you also have a child who loves museums? Lyons Cub was thrilled by the dinosaur exhibition in the Museum of Natural History in Munster and the early humans exhibition in the Neanderthal Museum in Mettmann already, but today, we traveled to the city of Bonn to take his love for ancient and current animals to a new level. The zoological Museum Koenig is just the right place for school children to delve into the realm of animals, aided by interactive games, sounds, and even smells.

On the outside, you see many stone animals on the facade, and when you enter the big hall, there is a hippo children can sit on:

Then, you stand in a big atrium, surrounded by taxidermied animals in their natural habitats, such as grasslands and deserts, while over your head, there are huge birds of prey sitting on pipes and beams, or flying over an enormous baobab tree:

This research museum was built by the zoologist Alexander Koenig in order to keep his growing scientific collection, and its foundation was laid on September 3rd, 1912, on the birthday of his wife, Margarethe.

Alexander Koenig was the son of a Russian sugar producer, Leopold Koenig, who back than owned the famous Villa Hammerschmidt, which used to be the primary official seat and primary official residence of the president of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1950 – 1994. Since 1994, it has been the secondary official seat and secondary official residence of the president of Germany. The president’s standard is flown above Hammerschmidt Villa when the president is in Bonn.

Differently themed exhibitions in the museum tell about the research work of Alexander Koenig, the architecture of the museum, its opening, its fate during the Nazi era, its role after World War II, its collections, etc. and shows original pieces from the time and age of Alexander Koenig, including huge photographs and animations.

The children can try out binoculars and headphones to access as much information as possible while having lots of fun. Even 3D headsets are available for the visitors. There was a huge, artificial termite mound with peep holes in it, through which the children could watch films about termites. And there was an anteater (suborder “vermilingua,” meaning “worm tongue”), of course, too!

There was a gruesome scene of a leopard having dragged its prey up a tree:

And a cute, small lynx looks at the visitors. Behind it crawls a huge snake!

There were butterflies sitting on branches:

After having left the entrance hall with the taxidermied animals, we ventured into an artificial tropical rainforest behind glass. The children could press buttons to read stories about certain animals of the rain forest, or to throw light on specific insects, snakes, birds, lizards, etc. to hear or see information of them. There was one interactive station where the kids could pull out drawers, so that certain critters would light up, such as centipedes and bugs.

Bats, monkeys, parrots — a beautiful recreation of a world of wonder!

Then, we climbed up a secret staircase hidden in an artificial tree (bats included!) to access the exhibits on the top floor.

The view from the top was splendid:

The top floor contained many specimen conserved in jars with alcohol. They were a bit gruesome at times, but Lyons Cub didn’t mind. He was more interested in the magnifying glasses and microscopes, anyway.

One interactive station explained the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies:

Another station taught the kids about the harvest of rubber from rubber plants:

Furthermore, the kids can click on buttons, pump air out of bottles to sniff at different smells, scan barcodes, turn a wheel of fortune to find out their ecological commitment, watch short films, and play interactive games on tables and behind glass cases.

We walked past some animal skeletons, taxidermied birds and antilopes, but the most dramatic scene was an eagle killing a young fox:

Closer to the end of the exhibition, there were beautiful displays of butterflies and colorful bugs:

This concludes our excursion for this day. We had picnic in the car and drove home just before the bad weather hit.

By the way, the Koenig Museum in Bonn is very close to Drachenfels in Koenigswinter, so if you want to visit it some day, plan in a few extra hours to take the little, ancient train up the Dragon Rock hill and explore Castle Dragon Rock, too!