The Museum Witt Munich (MWM) is a department of the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology. It is located in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany, and has the world's leading collection of moths

Moths

Moths may refer to:* Gustav Moths , German rower* The Moths!, an English indie rock band* MOTHS, members of the Memorable Order of Tin Hats...

.

Establishment

The museum was established in 1980 by Thomas Witt.
His well-known family founded Witt Weiden

Witt Weiden

Witt Weiden is a mail-order house, located in Weiden, Germany.The company is a 100% subsidiary of the Otto Group.- History of Witt Weiden :Witt Weiden is the oldest mail-order house for clothes in Germany. The company was founded in 1907 by Josef Witt...

, one of Germany's oldest mail-order houses.

Collection

Since 2000 the museum is part of the Zoologische Staatssammlung München

Zoologische Staatssammlung München

Zoologische Staatssammlung München or ZSM or The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology is a major German research institution for zoological systematics. With over 20 million zoological specimens it is one of the largest natural history collections in the world. The sections are Entomology,...

 (The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology) in Munich. The collection consists of about 10 million specimens from all over the world. It is worldwide the largest collection of moths. The Museum Witt has a collection of 2.5 to 3 million butterflies, and The Bavarian State Collection of Zoology additional 7 million butterflies. A crew of permanent scientists work at the museum and it has an impressing library.

Thomas Witt was awarded with the Ritter-von-Spix-Medal

Ritter-von-Spix-Medal

The Zoologische Staatssammlung München awards the Ritter-von-Spix-Medal to distinguished donors and benefactors of outstanding zoological collections...

in 2001.

External links

• Museum Witt Munich (English)