The Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography (IfL) is the only non-university research institute for geography in Germany. The institute’s origins date back to 1896, when the Leipzig Museum of Ethnology displayed the collection of geologist Alphons Stübel, which became an independent Museum of Regional Geography in 1907. The institution flourished, and by the 1930s, the museum had also become a research institute. From 1950 onward, the institute evolved into the central geographic research institute of the GDR. In 1976, it was integrated into the Academy of Sciences of the GDR as the Institute for Geography and Geoecology (IGG). After German reunification, it was re-established as the Institute for Regional Geography. Since 1996, it has been located at its current site in Leipzig-Paunsdorf.