About Us

Museum history

The House of 1,000 Lakes, clad in charred larch wood, towers proudly over the outskirts of Waren’s Old Town. Its unique architecture emerges from the small Lake Herrensee to greet its visitors from afar. Since the Müritzeum first opened its doors in summer 2007, the impressive building in the centre of Waren has become an attraction and information centre for holidaymakers, locals and day trippers.

From the Maltzaneum via the Müritz Museum
The Müritzeum’s Origins

1866

The Müritzeum’s history begins as far back as 1866 with the founding of the Maltzanean Natural History Museum for Mecklenburg, also known as the Maltzaneum. Established by Hermann Freiherr von Maltzan, it is the first museum of its kind in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

1929

Since 1929, the former school building on the outskirts of Waren’s Old Town, now the House of Collections, has housed exhibitions and collections. In the same year, the Local Heritage Museum moved into the same building.

1957

The Local Heritage Museum and the Maltzaneum merged in 1957 to form the Müritz Museum. The museum was known by this name until 2006.

1982

The opening of the aquarium under the Herrensee Bridge in 1982 as a new component of the Müritz Museum marked a further important step in the institution’s development. Combining natural history collections and various exhibition sections with live animals in the public aquariums and the Museum Garden around Lake Herrensee enabled wide-ranging and unique insights into the region’s indigenous nature.

2003

Due to the old aquarium’s run-down location under the Herrensee Bridge and the need to renovate the old building housing of the Müritz Museum, the idea of creating a new venue as a nature experience centre was put forward for the first time. An interest group was formed. Its members included the chief district administrative officer, Jürgen Seidel, Waren’s mayor, Günter Rhein, and the director of the Müritz National Park Office, Ulrich Meßner. They came together with very different objectives and plans, but they ultimately drew up a shared goal: to create a new, extensive nature experience centre that presents the region’s unique natural treasures in an entertaining and innovative way.

The aquarium was to be moved to a new location and be developed into the most modern and largest centre of its kind in Germany. In the first stage of the construction work, the old building of the Müritz Museum was comprehensively renovated. It became an established part of the nature experience centre as the House of Collections.

2006

Since 2006, the beautiful old building, hidden behind the more than 150-year-old horse chestnut in the Müritzeum park, has shone with a new splendour. Following careful refurbishment, the House of Collections presenting the extensive State Natural History Collections of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania now has twice as much space and offers its researchers outstanding working conditions. Alongside research rooms and a substantial holding of natural history exhibits, the building houses the fascinating permanent exhibition Nature in the Collection Cabinet – Collecting, Preserving and Researching for the Future.

2007

The Müritzeum first opened its doors in summer 2007. Since then, the House of 1,000 Lakes – an impressive building beside Lake Herrensee in the centre of Waren – has become an attraction and information centre for holidaymakers, locals and day trippers.