Scientific research accounted for a steady increase of the Emperor’s collections, which subsequently became the property of
the State of Austria. After the death of Franz I. Stephan his wife initiated a renewed exhibition of the collection in the
imperial library. In 1836 Paul Maria Partsch used parts of the Emperor’s collections to form a thematic collection dedicated
to geology and palaeontology. Until 1876 it was part of the Imperial Mineralogical Collection.
With the foundation of the k.k. Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum on the 10th of August 1889 these collections were separated from
Mineralogy and formed the base of the new Department of Geology & Palaeontology at the museum. It was transferred into the
new imperial building on the Viennese “Ringstrasse”, built by Gottfried Semper and Carl von Hasenauer in the years 1871 to
1881.
Several famous palaeontologists have been working in the Geological-Palaeontological Department of the NHM Vienna: Eduard
Suess, Moriz Hörnes, Theodor Fuchs, Franz Wähner, and Julius Pia.
