Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum (DBM) – Leibniz Research Museum for Geo-resources
The Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum – founded in 1930 – researches, teaches and preserves the history of the mining, processing and use of geo-resources across all of the relevant time periods. Its research areas include: archaeometallurgy, mining history, materials science, and mining archaeology, together with the research laboratory, and the Montanhistorische Dokumentationszentrum.
There are four tours guiding visitors through the building: Hard Coal, Mining, Mineral Resources and Art. The visitor’s mine also provides glimpses into the diverse facets of underground mining activity. Stretching over 1.2 km, the underground network of passageways gives visitors an insight into everyday life underground and about historical technical developments in (coal) mining.
At the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum, the focus of the current Aktionsplan is primarily on a stronger presence in the digital space as well as an innovation-oriented knowledge transfer and formats for citizen participation.
Through 3D digitization of museum objects, for example, exhibitions can be seen and experienced from other perspectives. At the same time, researchers and the public can learn more about the diversity of the museum's own collections. New, innovation-oriented knowledge formats also create a contemporary museum experience. By closely linking exhibition and research, the Museum aims in particular to make its research activities more widely known in civil society than before. In the OpenLab, employees from the research departments therefore present their scientific work on museum artifacts live in the museum, thereby providing a glimpse behind the scenes of a research museum. International cooperations and collaborations are also in focus, currently especially the Leibniz Network Conservation/Restoration (i.G.). For this purpose, the Deutsches Bergbau-Museum Bochum is in exchange with the Leibniz Research Museums as well as other research museums and research institutions worldwide.
