A valuable resource:
“Visits to the Übersee-Museum have sparked my passion for travel since the 1970s. Since then, I’ve been able to experience many of the world’s continents, landscapes, cultures, and natural areas firsthand. Afterward, just as before, I’ve been able to deepen or refine my impressions at the museum. That’s a valuable resource.”

A Glimpse into Another World:
“A visit to the museum when I was a child was like a glimpse into another world: I hadn’t seen much back then, and my farthest trip had been to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Cloppenburg. The museum seemed enormous to me—the largest room I’d ever seen, even bigger than the church we used to go to. Sunlight streamed in through the high ceilings of the atriums, and there were palm trees and exotic plants everywhere, interspersed with huts from the South Seas and figures of people that looked astonishingly real. I could have just stood there looking for hours.”

“I could have just sat there watching for hours.”

Stars in the night sky:
“As a child, I loved the display cases at the front right of the entrance: the bazaar and, above all, the nighttime scene in which Black people sit around a fire while a medicine man dances. I had to cup my hands over my eyes on both sides so no light could get in; then I could make out everything — even the stars in the night sky.”

Irreplaceable despite digitization and the Internet:
“As a child, the museum opened my eyes to the fact that there are other countries in the world. I’m glad the museum is still here and that the ongoing digitalization and use of the Internet aren’t keeping visitors away. Actually seeing the originals — that’s something the Internet can’t replace.”

Rediscovering Bremen:
“Sometimes you forget that there are beautiful places right here in your own city! That’s exactly what happened to us with this museum. We came here to support the museum during the pandemic. We left with lots of wonderful memories and a desire to experience culture more often. Thank you for that!”

“The memories keep coming back.”

A Glimpse into Another World:
“As a native of Bremen, visiting the Übersee-Museum was always a highlight. It offered a glimpse into another world, into so many different religions, and into history you could touch. The memories continue to resonate.”

I found true love:
“At the youth forum, I made friends and found the love of my life. People still look at us funny when we say, ‘We met at the museum,’ but it was the greatest luck of my life!”

“We met at the museum.”

Captivated by the exhibits:
“I remember the Long Night of Museums, which I used to attend every year with my father. The Übersee-Museum has always been my favorite museum. We always saved it for last, because my father knew he wouldn’t be able to pry me away from the fascinating exhibits.”

Family tradition:
“My dad always told me that he used to come here as a kid. Now he can finally show us kids the things he loved. I’ve learned so much this way — thank you!”

A Little Trip Around the World:
“I have the fondest memories of the Übersee-Museum, which I often visited with my father on rainy Sundays. It was always like a little trip around the world.”

“I learned to walk here — thank you, Übersee-Museum.”

Lost in the Whale’s Heart:
“On my first visit here, my friend suddenly disappeared — he had hidden himself inside a model of a whale’s heart…”

A Night at the Museum:
“Whenever it rained outside, we’d go to the Übersee-Museum. And since it rains quite often in Bremen, there were many museum visits in the late 1960s for the little girl holding her father’s hand. The highlight was the African huts (which at the time still reflected an unbroken colonial-racist perspective): a dollhouse, much larger than I was, that could come to life at any moment. At night, I imagined, once everyone had gone home, the inhabitants would come out and go about their lives in the museum: they’d cook their meals on the fire pits, chat, and interact with the others from America or Asia, who, after all, also had their tents or pagodas further back. So when twilight set in and the shadows grew longer, I was desperate to get out of the museum. Who knew what really happened there at night?”

Art Field Trips to Asia:
“In 1960, I was in the 6th grade at Karlstraße High School, which was a girls’ school at the time, no longer exists, and was located on what is now Hillmannplatz. In art class, we frequently went to the nearby Übersee-Museum to sketch on-site; I especially enjoyed visiting the Asian section, which was already located on the ground floor back then. I was fascinated by the Japanese Shinto shrine and the Chinese merchant’s house with its magnificent furnishings. Both seemed foreign and very exotic to me, because in 1960 the world was not yet as accessible through the media as it is today. I took great care to capture every detail in pencil, which wasn’t easy given the many carvings and ornamentations and required a lot of patience. Time and again, I would look at my drawings at home and look forward to the next art field trip to the Übersee-Museum.”

Theater at the Asia Exhibition:
“I worked as an extra at the Bremen Theater for seven years. That was a long time ago, but I still remember the 1989–1990 season when the “Theater am Goetheplatz” was being renovated and the Übersee-Museum served as a temporary venue during the renovation. At the Übersee-Museum, Ralf Nürnberger staged Franz Lehár’s “Das Land des Lächelns” in the Japan section. The premiere was on December 20, 1989. There were 52 (!) performances.”

“I’m about to go on a short vacation.”

A Short Getaway to Denali National Park:
“For me, the most beautiful of all the dioramas in the Übersee-Museum is the ‘Dall schaf im Denali-Nationalpark’ The last diorama created by Erich Böttcher is also his masterpiece. You can practically feel the freshness and coolness of the air. Mount McKinley glows clearly in the distance in the evening light. The attentive viewer will spot eagles circling, snow goats climbing, and a female bear with her cubs in the painting. I stand in front of it and feel like I’m on a short getaway.”

An Iguanodon for my daughter:
“I used to love coming here with my parents when I was a kid, and I was really happy to see the Iguanodon on display again. Now I can show it to my daughter, who’s a big dinosaur fan.”

“Now I can show it to my daughter, who’s a big dinosaur fan.”

Feeling small:
“I still remember very well visiting the dinosaur exhibit with my parents when I was a toddler. It was really impressive; I felt so small.”

We really missed him:
“It’s great to see the Iguanodon again — we really missed it. We hope it will be given a permanent place in the exhibition.”

A Passion for Archaeology:
“I think it’s great that the museum has shown me just how much I’m interested in archaeology. There are so many old things that are so fascinating, like the dinosaur!”

Like a journey into infinity:
“When I was 6 years old, I visited the Übersee-Museum for the first time with my father. That was in 1962, and we continued to visit regularly until 1968. I remember that even the entrance area was a challenge. There, I had to make my way past the giant sequoia, but for a child, the tree rings were like a journey into infinity. How could a tree possibly get that old? I loved the glass display cases with the processions, the large panoramic paintings, the wonderful chaos, and the exotic houses on the ground floor. But that’s nothing compared to my wonderful memories of the first floor. To me, it was pure adventure — a labyrinth, dark and a little dusty.”

“The large tree stump in the entrance always fascinated me; to me, that was what the ‘Übersee-Museum’ was all about.”

Article on Career Choice:
“Is it possible to write something like this without falling too deeply into clichés? On my first visit to the Übersee-Museum, I was impressed by the cross-section of the tree. I was 5 years old, and the attendant said that if I could carry the tree out, I could keep it. To this day, every time I’m here, I try to lift the tree. Today, I’m a scientist myself — not solely because of my childhood days at the Übersee-Museum, but they certainly played a part.”

Goldfish provided a sense of time and leisure:
“My husband and I always love to reminisce about the goldfish tank at the museum. Thirty-four years ago, when the weather was bad, it was our then-two-year-old daughter’s favorite Sunday outing. She wanted to go there again and again to marvel at the fish — it felt like hours. One of us adults always had the time and leisure to look around the rest of the exhibition. A very fond memory!”

“The world was much more colorful at the museum.”

In color instead of black and white:
“When I was a child, back in the 1960s, the world was still very black-and-white. There was no Internet, and I hadn’t traveled yet. There were three TV channels, all in black-and-white, of course. Even the photos my father took and the pictures in the books I leafed through—everything was black-and-white. At the museum, the world was much more colorful. At the aquarium, whose entrance hall was designed to look like a grotto, there were tropical fish that practically glowed. I’d never seen colors like that before! My brother and I spent many hours there. When the aquarium finally closed, it was a real loss.”

Dangerous Alligators:
“Almost fifty years ago, as a little kid of 4 or 5, I couldn’t bring myself to walk past the Übersee-Museum. I’d been told that there were alligators in the museum’s basement. Just the thought of that made me so uneasy that my family always had to cross the street with me, because I knew from the TV series ‘Tarzan’ how dangerous — even life-threatening — crocodiles could be. And even today, every time I walk past that building, that memory brings me joy and puts a smile on my face.”

Fascinating tarantula:
“I have fond memories of when, as a little boy, I used to go to the aquarium with my father all the time, because there was a tarantula there that I found really exciting. I also loved the arm bone of a duck-billed dinosaur on display on the first or second floor, since I was devouring the ‘Was-ist-Was’ book about dinosaurs at the time.”