Chair for Geology

Like all other geoscience institutes and state collections, the Institute of Geology and Paleontology was housed in the Old Academy at Neuhauserstraße 51 until April 1944. The Academy of Sciences (far left in the picture) after its destruction by a bombing raid during World War II.

The situation improved significantly from 1948 onwards, when the institute was allocated several rooms in the library building of the Deutsches Museum. The Institute of Petrology, the Institute of Mineralogy and Crystallography, and the Geophysical Institute subsequently also moved there. After the war, Prof. Maucher provisionally reestablished the completely destroyed Geological Institute in the rooms of the Deutsches Museum. The picture shows Prof. Maucher in conversation with the architect and the builder, 1948.

One of MAUCHER's great achievements, who was also Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at the time, was the construction of a spacious new building at Luisenstraße 37 for all geoscience institutes: at a time when the construction industry was still in decline and there were hardly any funds available for reconstruction. The new building for the institutes at Luisenstraße 37 during its construction in 1950. The remaining parts of Luisenstraße, which were still completely destroyed, are clearly visible, with the geoscience institutes being the only new building to signal a new beginning.

From 1950 onwards, the institute and the state collection were gradually able to move into the new rooms on the first and second floors of the building. At that time, the attic housed the apartments for the professors. The new building stands on the site where August Voit's Royal Stained Glass Institute, founded by Ludwig I, was built between 1844 and 1846, consisting of a factory building and a large exhibition hall. This renowned institute, initially headed by MAX EMANUEL AINMILLER, later became an arts and crafts school; during the war, it fell victim to a hail of bombs.