Welcome to the Anthropocene. 

The Earth in Our Hands

December 5, 2014 until January 31, 2016

Special exhibition area, first floor

Welcome to the Age of Humans! Agriculture, trade, transportation, and industry: As long as humans have existed we have been utilising and altering our environment. Industrialisation, in particular, has contributed to the unmistakable and often irreversible fingerprint that we are making upon the Earth. Today, the human imprint is so deep and pervasive that scientists, policymakers, and society are considering whether human-caused changes are affecting the geological record over the long term – whether we are, in fact, living in a new geological era.

This exhibition, covering 1,400 square metres, is the first major exhibition in the world to look at an issue that will be decisive for the future: the Anthropocene. Through selected topics such as urbanisation, mobility, nature, evolution, food, and human-machine interaction, the exhibition explores the past, present, and future of humanity. Historical artefacts trace the technology that put us on the path to the Anthropocene, while current research presents the challenges we are facing today, as well as possible solutions. Artistic interpretations provide visions for the future and ask us to look at the world in new ways.

An exhibition catalogue is available in German. The english catalogue is coming soon.

This special exhibition is a joint project of the Deutsches Museum and the Rachel Carson Center.

Films

more films to the exhibition Anthropecene

Visions of the Future –
read about visitors
opinions in the 
guestbook