2004 until 2019: Funding of the scholarship programme by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation
The founding director, Prof Dr Peer Schmidt, Professor of Latin American and Southwest European History at the University of Erfurt, was head of the research centre until 2008.
Martin Mulsow, previously Professor of History at Rutgers University (USA), is appointed Director of the Research Centre when a professorship for Cultures of Knowledge in the European Modern Era is established at the University of Erfurt. In line with the Gotha collections, the centre is now primarily dedicated to the cultural and knowledge history of the early modern period from around 1500 to 1800.
In 2013, the now ‘Gotha Research Centre of the University of Erfurt (FZG)’ is given a new statute. A a second department is established to research the 19th/20th century and the Perthes Collection under the direction of Prof. Dr Iris Schröder, who also becomes deputy director of the FZG.
After two site visits to the Gotha Research Library and the Gotha Research Centre on 16-17 December 2014 and 14-15 April 2015, the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat) has praised the research achievements of both institutions. The report considers long-term and reliable cooperation between FBG, FZG and the Friedenstein Gotha Castle Foundation to be essential in order to fully exploit the scientific potential of the location.
The historical ensemble, which dates back to the 17th century and has been extensively restored by the city of Gotha, forms the main building of the FZG, which houses not only the management and administrative offices but also, in particular, the event rooms and some DFG projects. The centrepiece of the building is the two-storey lecture hall with around 70 seats from the 19th century, where the state parliament of the duchy used to meet and where the parliament of the Free State of Saxe-Gotha met from 1918 to 1920.
After the scheduled expiry of the 16-year funding by the Thyssen Foundation, the Jena-based Ernst Abbe Foundation took over responsibility for the continuation and further development of the scholarship programme coordinated by the FZG, which has since been continuously expanded and diversified.
The Academic Senate of the University of Erfurt decided that, starting in 2021, the research centre should in future focus on profiling itself as an early modern centre and that the second of the two departments previously under the roof of the Gotha Research Centre should become institutionally independent. As a research college for transcultural studies and the Perthes Collection, it should in particular raise the profile of the Perthes Collection, which is part of the research library, among the national and international scientific community.
The Friedenstein Castle Foundation, the Gotha Research Library, the Gotha Research Centre and the Research College for Transcultural Studies/Perthes Collection are working together with their project partners, such as the Thuringian State and University Library in Jena, to launch the online portal ‘GOTHA.digital’ as a digital search, presentation and research space for the Gotha collections.
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University of Erfurt (Campus)
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99089 Erfurt
