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Gotha Research Campus opens its doors to mark the city's anniversary

The presentation of the first volume on the "History of the City of Gotha" by Mayor Knut Kreuch today marks the start of the celebrations for the 1250th anniversary of the City of Gotha, which will be celebrated with many other events and activities over the next twelve months. The Gotha Research Centre and the Gotha Research Library of the University of Erfurt will also be taking part with a programme that includes both academic events and events for a wider public, thus once again taking the opportunity to present their work on and around the Friedenstein in the anniversary year.

Friedenstein Castle Gotha
Friedenstein Castle Gotha

For example, the Workshop "Gotha globally networked" workshop organised by the Gotha Research Library and Gotha Research Centre on 14 and 15 November 2024 will demonstrate the potential and prospects for digital collection research using the example of urban history projects, including with so-called "citizen scientists".

From 4 to 6 December 2024, the conference "The 'Gotha' between publishing, aristocratic and media history of modernity" will take place at the "Landschaftshaus" on Schloßberg: Hosted by the Gotha Research Library together with the Gotha Research Centre and Hannah Boeddeker from the University of Hamburg the event is also part of "The Gotha – A study of the most important genealogical reference work in modern Europe" project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

The conference thus already points to the research library's next annual exhibition. It will run from 7 September to 2 November 2025 under the title “Adel macht Staat”. The exhibition will be dedicated to the Gotha Court Calendar and its history, one of the top products of the former Justus Perthes Gotha publishing house, which is now preserved and researched in the Gotha Perthes Collection. For the exhibition in the “Spiegelsaal” at Friedenstein Castle, the Gotha Research Library is once again cooperating with the European History Department at the University of Hamburg.

On 4 April 2025, a Germany-wide Day of Libraries will take place for the first time, in which the Gotha Research Library will also participate with a small programme.

On the occasion of the Thuringia Day which will take place in Gotha from 2 to 4 May 2025 as part of the city's anniversary celebrations, the Gotha Research Centre will take part in the planned "Politics Mile" on the Schloßberg and open its headquarters – the former "Landschaftshaus" – to visitors and present it as a historical site of parliamentarianism.

In autumn, on 17 October 2025, the Gotha Research Library and Gotha Research Centre will jointly host the conference “Historia Gothana”. It will focus on the heyday of research into Gotha's history 1680–1720.

And of course, the Gotha Research Library will also be opening its doors regularly during the anniversary year to guide visitors through its historical rooms and collections, including UNESCO World Documentary Heritage.

All events on the Gotha research campus in the anniversary year can be found on the websites of research centre and research library and in the event calendar of the University of Erfurt, which is continuously supplemented and updated.

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