One billion years in 20,000 square meters. History, people and animals – all are united under one roof in the DARWINEUM, additionally providing the apes with a fitting new home. This 20,000 square meter area both consolidates a breathtaking nature experience and world of knowledge and invites you to discover, to learn and to marvel. From 2012, visitors will find answers to the questions of how the wonder of “humanity” developed out of single-cell life over millions of years.

The beginning of life itself is presented in a rotunda at the entrance of the exhibition; an evolutionary educational overview then compresses time to illustrate the developments. Roughly 15 different kinds of animals can be found in the largest exposition area, including mudskippers, leaf-cutting ants, horseshoe crabs, and echidnas that have innocuously survived one billion years of evolution. The centerpiece of the exhibition area is a research laboratory that reflects the unbelievable potential of modern research and our responsibility for the environment.

With terrariums, a bright foil roof, and an open aviary with a suspension bridge, a 4,000 square meter tropical house will provide an appropriate setting for our apes. The gorillas and orangutans will live here in a nature-oriented ecosystem, cohabiting with fruit bats, pygmy marmosets, gibbons, guenons, and tortoises, among other animals