Climate Journey Around the World

Be amazed, sweat and freeze in the Klimahaus

Bremerhaven, September 2023. Take a trip around the world and experience it´s climate zones: From the refreshing coolness on the alp in Switzerland, through the scorching heat of the Sahel to the iciness of the Antarctic as well as the heavenly climate of the South Seas and the unsettled weather in Northern Germany. On the “Journey” in the Klimahaus Bremerhaven visitors can experience first hand how the people live in the Earth’s most important climate zones. The tour along the eighth degree of longitude East leads through sceneries that are built true to original locations.

Visitors to the “Switzerland” station can observe how climate change has already altered the lives of the people living in Isenthal today. A few exhibition sitesfurther on, visitors to the “Cameroon” station are met with tropical heat. At night the West African rainforest offers fascinatingly exotic smells and sounds – and an insight into the deforestation industry. Cloudbursts and luscious green gorges await visitors in Satitoa on Samoa, before their route takes them through an impressive aquarium sea-world, which gives a fascinating view of a fringing reef of live corals. “This journey reveals spectacularly how the lives of the humans on our planet are influenced by the climate and which changes are in store for us. This sensitises our visitors to targeted environmental and climate protection,” explains Arne Dunker, former Managing Director of the visitor attraction in Bremerhaven.

The “Perspectives” is another major section of the exhibition, which takes a look at past and present climates, and the impacts on the future.

The “World Future Lab”, the latest exhibition of the Klimahaus is an interactive game room that deals with the topics climate and
sustainability.

Dunker: “In the Klimahausvisitors can enter a multi-faceted adventure world, which is made up of room staging, sensory stations, multimedia installations, exotic animals and plants, and lots more. Tourists, families and school classes will turn into discoverers, researchers and climate allies – a concept which is unique worldwide.” Protecting the climate from a drastic, man-made change is currently one of the largest political and social challenges worldwide. It is no coincidence that this theme has found its home in Bremerhaven, in the centre of a new category of recreational attractions. “The Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, one of the leading institutions for international climatology, is based here,” explains Dunker. In addition: “Here on the North Sea Coast the climate phenomena can be particularly spectacular; on top of this, weather from all the Earth’s climate zones can be experienced here.”

Both of these aspects were inspiration for Petri & Tiemann, the renowned designers of innovative attractions, when they drafted the first ideas for the Klimahaus atthe end of 2000. Since the opening in June 2009 the Klimahaus offers unique experiences and well-founded information on approx. 11,500 m² of exhibition space. The project is the first knowledge and adventure world that devotes itself to such a complex subject as the climate.

The Klimahaus Bremerhaven works closely with partners such as the world-famous Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and the Deutscher Wetterdienst (The German Meteorological Service).