The German Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund, the largest and most popular natural history museum in northern Germany, is in a class of its own. Visitors get exciting glimpses of all aspects of life beneath the seas and learn how the ocean is utilised and researched by humans.

Insights into life beneath the sea
The museum in the centre of Stralsund is worth a visit for its building alone. In 1951, Otto Dibbelt founded a modest natural history museum in the 13th century brick building which was formerly St Katharine's Abbey, and this became a fascinating museum for oceanography, marine biology and deep-sea fishing in 1974. Visitors get a feel for the oceans, the earth's largest habitat, in a maritime setting linking man, nature and technology. Spacious, state-of-the-art displays bring the underwater world to life in vivid detail, with the added attraction of 45 aquariums illustrating the fascinating diversity of native and tropical marine creatures.

This fascinating, 3,000m² specialist museum houses impressive specimens of various creatures – including the giant long-legged spider crab, the giant octopus, the walrus and an amazing whale skeleton - and also documents the entire history of the fishing industry. Approximately 300,000 litres of sea water flow through the individual tanks, with 50,000 litres in the main shark tank alone. As well as creatures native to the Baltic, there are also sea horses, moray eels, lionfish, coral and octopus. Themed tanks house creatures from northern seas, the Mediterranean and the tropics and large new tanks containing sea turtles, sharks and coral fish were opened in 2004. Octopus feeding time every Sunday is particularly popular with families.
» www.meeresmuseum.de

A selection of other zoology museums in Germany.