The Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK) and its Federal Ex situ Gene Bank collections are maintained at three sites. The main site in Gatersleben (Saxony-Anhalt) curates 128,000 accessions of various crop species: these comprise 66,000 accessions of cereal species, almost 28,000 of legume species and 20,000 of vegetable species.

The other two sites are both within the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Groß Lüsewitz is home to the potato collection, which consists of >6,000 accessions, while the Malchow site, located on the Baltic Sea island Poel, curates the collection of almost 14,000 accessions of oilseed and forage crops.

The collection of potato genetic resources was originally established by the GDR Academy of Agricultural Sciences Institute for Potato Research, founded in 1949 at Groß Lüsewitz. Similarly, the Malchow collection was curated by the Institute for Oil and Forage Crop Breeding. Together with the Gatersleben accessions, both collections were merged into the IPK Federal Ex situ Gene Bank following the reunification of Germany.