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The Danzig Research Society (Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Danzig) was founded in 1743 in the city of Danzig (since 1945 Gdansk).
This society was one of the oldest research societies in German-speaking areas. In 1670 the physician Israel Conradi (1634-1715) had tried to organize a society in Danzig, without success. Several others tried after him until the Privatdozent Daniel Gralath (1708-1767) finally succeeded. At the end of 1742 he had gathered a group of learned men for this purpose. Gralath was from a well-to-do Danzig trade family and he had studied in Marburg and Halle. Later he became councilman (Ratsherr) and mayor (Bürgermeister) of Danzig. His father-in-law was Jacob Theodor Klein (1685-1759), city secretary and also a very distinguished scientist. Klein's nickname was Gedanensium Plinius.
In 1845 the society was located in a Renaissance-era building at the Mottlau, an arm of the Weichsel River, next to the Frauentor Gate. In 1840 Alexander von Humboldt accompanied Prussian King Frederick William IV on the way to Königsberg, and Humboldt received an honorary membership in the Danzig Society. Later the society offered Humboldt stipends. The collections of the Society were displayed in the West-Prussian Provincial Museum located at the Grüne Tor Gate.
After 200 years of existence, the society ceased to exist when Germans had to leave Danzig and it's building was destroyed by the Soviet take-over in 1945. Later the building at the Mottlau (now Motlawa) river was rebuilt by Polish architects and today houses the Gdańsk Archeological Museum.
A book was published by the society, by E. Schumann, titled: History of the Research Society in Danzig 1743-1892 (Geschichte der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig 1743-1892).
