Photos Make History: Students of the University of Erfurt in Search of Clues

In this collaborative project between the University of Erfurt and the Department of Science and Collections of the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha, the participants joined forces with Gotha citizens to search for clues: How have festivals changed over time? How free are people in festivals? The basis for this was a photo collection of the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha, which has hardly been catalogued to date. It includes numerous photographs depicting various celebrations from around 120 years of the city's history. The joint research work on the photographs had already begun in the summer semester of 2024. In the winter semester, the students then conducted life history interviews with Gotha residents about previously selected photos. In this way, they helped to make individual photographs accessible and at the same time shared their personal memories of historical events in the city. The conversations were recorded and archived and will now lay the foundation for the creation of an audio collection at the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha.

Find out what exciting stories the project participants came across, what discoveries they made, what insights they gained and what the Kelly Family has to do with all of this in the new episode of the Friedenstein Podcast.

Listen to the podcast here!