Chapter 53 STUTTGART: The Zoological Collections of the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History Stefan Merker and Arnold H. Staniczek Abstract Emerging from the sixteenth century “Cabinet of Arts and Natural Curiosities” of the Dukes of W€ urttemberg, the Stuttgart State Museum of Natural History (SMNS) ranks among the oldest and most prominent natural history museums in Europe. With its collections, libraries, laboratories, and other research facilities, the museum comprises two building complexes both with extensive exhibition and storage areas. The permanent exhibitions at Museum Schloss Rosenstein and Museum am L€ owentor are tightly interwoven in form and content. Today, the SMNS collections hold more than 12 million specimens and other natural objects as well as numerous associated data on taxonomy, genetics, ecology, and geography. Together these comprehensive records and archives of life on Earth and its history constitute a large-scale research infrastructure used by research scientists and the international community. Characteristic of the SMNS is the tight collaboration between its paleontologists and researchers working on extant fauna. Keywords SMNS • Museum am L€ owentor • Schloss Rosenstein • Naturkundemuseum • Willi Hennig • W€ urttemberg 53.1 The Museum’s Infrastructure The museum is carried by the Federal State of Baden-W€ urttemberg. In 2014, its annual balance amounted to 8.3 million euro, of which government funding made up 7.0 million euro. The remaining budget was acquired by external funding and S. Merker Department of Zoology, State Museum of Natural History, Rosenstein 1, Stuttgart 70191, Germany e-mail: stefan.merker@smns-bw.de A.H. Staniczek (*) Department of Entomology, State Museum of Natural History, Rosenstein 1, Stuttgart 70191, Germany e-mail: arnold.staniczek@smns-bw.de © Springer International Publishing AG 2018 L.A. Beck (ed.), Zoological Collections of Germany, Natural History Collections, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-44321-8_53 621