Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem (BGBM) forms a central facility of Freie Universität Berlin. The institution's goal is to maintain and enlarge botanical collections both living and preserved, to promote research and to act as a centre for education and information in botany. BGBM comprises (1) one of the largest and most diverse botanical gardens in the world, (2) an extremely rich herbarium, (3) a magnificent library and (4) one of the extremely view botanical museums in existence. Founded in 1679 by the Great Elector and becoming part of Berlin University upon its foundation in 1810, the institution was moved to much larger premises in Dahlem becoming operational on the new site in 1910. After substantial destruction in 1943-5 both garden and museum were restored and form today one of the largest institutions of its kind in Europe