Hugo Ruehle von Lilienstern and his palaeobotanical collection; an East-West German story

The "Ruhle collection" is one of the largest remaining historical collections of Central European Triassic fossils and is now located at the Berlin Museum of Natural History (MfN). The collector, Hugo Ruhle von Lilienstern, a medical doctor who lived in southern Thuringia, was a dedicated palaeontologist. From the 1950s his home and collection area were situated in a region that became the borderland between the two German States. The fate of the collection was thus closely interwoven with East-West German history after World War II. The scientific value of these mostly Middle to Late Triassic Central European fossils and its standing compared to other late Triassic palaeobotanical collections is evaluated.