Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
, Germany, west of
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
and east of
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the
district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine
Wettins from 1640 until the end of monarchy in Germany in 1918. The
House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
The House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (; german: Haus Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha) is a European royal house. It takes its name from its oldest domain, the Ernestine duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, its members later sat on the thrones of Belgium, Bu ...
originating here spawned many European rulers, including the royal houses of the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
,
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
,
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
(until 1910) and
Bulgaria
Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...
(until 1946).
In the Middle Ages, Gotha was a rich trading town on the trade route ''
Via Regia
The Via Regia (Royal Highway) is a European Cultural Route following the route of the historic road of the Middle Ages. There were many such ''viae regiae'' associated with the king in the medieval Holy Roman Empire.
History Origins
The ...
'' and between 1650 and 1850, Gotha saw a cultural heyday as a centre of sciences and arts, fostered by the dukes of
Saxe-Gotha
Saxe-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Gotha) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in the former Landgraviate of Thuringia. The ducal residence was erected at Gotha.
History
The duchy was established in 1640, when ...
. The first duke,
Ernest the Pious, was famous for his wise rule. In the 18th century, the ''
Almanach de Gotha
The ''Almanach de Gotha'' (german: Gothaischer Hofkalender) is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published ...
'' was first published in the city. The publisher
Justus Perthes
Johann Georg Justus Perthes (11 September 1749, Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – 2 May 1816, Gotha, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg) was a German publisher and founder of the publishing house that bears his name. Life
He was born in the Thuringian to ...
and the encyclopedist
Joseph Meyer made Gotha a leading centre of German publishing around 1800. In the early 19th century, Gotha was a birthplace of the German insurance business. The
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
was founded in Gotha in 1875 by merging two predecessors. In that period Gotha became an industrial centre, with companies such as the ''
Gothaer Waggonfabrik
''Gothaer Waggonfabrik'' (''Gotha'', GWF) was a German manufacturer of rolling stock established in the late nineteenth century at Gotha. During the two world wars, the company expanded into aircraft building.
World War I
In World War I, Got ...
'', a producer of trams and later aeroplanes.
The main sights of Gotha are the early-modern Friedenstein Castle, one of the largest Renaissance Baroque castles in Germany, the medieval city centre and the
Gründerzeit
(; "founders' period") was the economic phase in 19th-century Germany and Austria before the great stock market crash of 1873. In Central Europe, the age of industrialisation had been taking place since the 1840s. That period is not precisely ...
buildings of 19th-century commercial boom.
Gotha lies in the southern part of the
Thuringian Basin
The Thuringian Basin (german: Thüringer Becken) is a depression in the central and northwest part of Thuringia in Germany which is crossed by several rivers, the longest of which is the Unstrut. It stretches about from north to south and around ...
in a flat and agricultural landscape.
History
Middle Ages
Gotha has existed at least since the 8th century, when it was mentioned in a document signed by
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Holy ...
as ''Villa Gotaha'' (
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050.
There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old High ...
''gotaha'' meaning "good
waters") in 775. The first settlement was probably located around today's ''Hersdorfplatz'' outside the north-eastern edge of the later city centre. During the 11th century, the nearby
Ludowingians
The Ludovingians or Ludowingians (german: Ludowinger) were the ruling dynasty of Thuringia and Hesse during the 11th to 13th centuries.
Their progenitor was Louis the Bearded who was descended from a noble family whose genealogy cannot be pre ...
received the village and established the city in the late 12th century, as Gotha became their second most important city after
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
. The city generated wealth because it was conveniently located at the junction of two important long-distance trade routes: the
Via Regia
The Via Regia (Royal Highway) is a European Cultural Route following the route of the historic road of the Middle Ages. There were many such ''viae regiae'' associated with the king in the medieval Holy Roman Empire.
History Origins
The ...
from
Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...
and
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
to
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
and
Breslau and a north–south route from
Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen () is a city in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen.
Mühlhausen was first mentioned in 967 and bec ...
over the
Thuringian Forest
The Thuringian Forest (''Thüringer Wald'' in German), is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side i ...
to
Franconia
Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch'').
The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...
. One of the oldest pieces of evidence of busy trade in the city is the "Gotha cache of coins" with nearly 800
Bracteate
A bracteate (from the Latin ''bractea'', a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vende ...
s, buried in 1185 in the central city. In 1180, Gotha was first mentioned as a city, when the area between ''Brühl'' and ''Jüdenstraße'' became the core of urban development, highlighting the early presence of Jews in this old trading town.
The parish church of this first urban settlement was St. Mary's Church (demolished in 1530) at ''Schlossberg''. The castle (at the site occupied today by Friedenstein Castle) was first mentioned in 1217. As the Ludowingians died out in 1247, Gotha became part of the
Wettins' territories, where it remained until 1918. The ''new town'' east of ''Querstraße'' was established in the early 15th century (with the ''Neumarkt'', first mentioned in 1428).
The monastery (first
Cistercians
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
, since 1258
Augustinians
Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...
) was founded before 1251 and abandoned in 1525. Until 1665, the bourse of Gotha was located in the centre of ''Hauptmarkt'' square inside the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
building, which hosts the town hall today. The medieval town hall was located on the north-eastern edge of Hauptmarkt, at the site of today's ''Innungshalle''.
Water supply was a big problem, because Gotha is not located on a river. In 1369,
Landgrave Balthasar had the
Leinakanal built. This channel, over 25 kilometres long, brought fresh water from the Thuringian Forest (
Hörsel
The Hörsel () is a long river in Thuringia, Germany, right tributary of the Werra. It is formed by the confluence of two smaller rivers in Leinatal, at the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest. The Hörsel flows generally northwest through the ...
and
Apfelstädt rivers) to the city. The main businesses of medieval Gotha were cloth-making and the
woad
''Isatis tinctoria'', also called woad (), dyer's woad, or glastum, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (the mustard family) with a documented history of use as a blue dye and medicinal plant. Its genus name, Isatis, derives from ...
trade.
Early modern period
![Ernstderfromme](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/Ernstderfromme.jpg)
The
Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
was introduced in Gotha in 1524 and the castle was rebuilt as a larger fortress between 1530 and 1541. Gotha was already part of the Ernestine Wettins territory after the 1485
Treaty of Leipzig
The Treaty of Leipzig or Partition of Leipzig (German ''Leipziger Teilung'') was signed on 11 November 1485 between Elector Ernest of Saxony and his younger brother Albert III, the sons of Elector Frederick II of Saxony from the House of Wettin. ...
. However, the Ernestines' loss of power after the
Schmalkaldic War
The Schmalkaldic War (german: link=no, Schmalkaldischer Krieg) was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (simultaneously King Charles I of Spain), commanded by the Duk ...
in 1547, the
Treaty of Erfurt
A treaty is a formal, legally binding written agreement between actors in international law. It is usually made by and between sovereign states, but can include international organizations, individuals, business entities, and other legal perso ...
in 1572, when the city became part of
Saxe-Coburg
Saxe-Coburg (german: Sachsen-Coburg) was a duchy held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in today's Bavaria, Germany.
History
Ernestine Line
When Henry IV, Count of Henneberg – Schleusingen, died in 1347, the possessions of the ...
, and the
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history
The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (80 ...
resulted in Gotha's decline. The local castle, ''Grimmenstein'', was razed by Imperial troops in 1572.
The turnaround was brought about by the selection of Gotha as a ducal residence in the 1640 territorial partition, when
Ernest the Pious founded the duchy of
Saxe-Gotha
Saxe-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Gotha) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in the former Landgraviate of Thuringia. The ducal residence was erected at Gotha.
History
The duchy was established in 1640, when ...
. The strongly Protestant and absolutist sovereign quickly began to reorganize his small state (even before the war had ended) and in particular fostered the school system, for example by introducing
compulsory education
Compulsory education refers to a period of education that is required of all people and is imposed by the government. This education may take place at a registered school or at other places.
Compulsory school attendance or compulsory schooling ...
up to the age of 12 in 1642.
This was the origin of the often noted liberal education of the Gotha citizenry and the following cultural heyday.
Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff
Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff or Seckendorf (December 20, 1626December 18, 1692), Germany, German politician, statesman and scholar, was a member of the House of Seckendorff, a noble family which took its name from the village of Sugenheim, Seckendo ...
was one of numerous experienced and loyal civil servants employed by the duke. Seckendorff was considered one of the most able and influential thinkers on administration and public law of his time. His book ''Der teutsche Fürstenstaat'' (1656), written by order of Ernest, served for decades as a standard work in teaching political science at Protestant universities in Germany.
Friedenstein Castle
Friedenstein Palace (german: Schloss Friedenstein) is an early Baroque palace built in the mid-17th century by Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha at Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. In Germany, ''Friedenstein'' was one of the largest palaces of its time and ...
was built between 1643 and 1654 and is one of the first large Baroque residence castles in Germany.
Between 1657 and 1676, the city received a stronger fortification, which was demolished between 1772 and 1811. In their place, a park around Friedenstein and a boulevard around the city were established. Some important scientific institutions were the ducal library (today's ''
Forschungsbibliothek Gotha'' as part of the
University of Erfurt
The University of Erfurt (german: Universität Erfurt) is a public university located in Erfurt, the capital city of the German state of Thuringia. It was founded in 1379, and closed in 1816. It was re-established in 1994, three years after Germ ...
), founded in 1650, the "coin cabinet" (1712), the "art and natural collection", basis of today's museums, and the
Gotha Observatory
Gotha Observatory (''Seeberg Observatory'', ''Sternwarte Gotha'' or ''Seeberg-Sternwarte'') was a German astronomical observatory located on Seeberg hill near Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. Initially the observatory was dedicated to astrometry, geodet ...
at Seeberg mountain, established 1788. The Gotha porcelain manufactory (established in 1767) was famous around 1800 for their
faience
Faience or faïence (; ) is the general English language term for fine tin-glazed pottery. The invention of a white pottery glaze suitable for painted decoration, by the addition of an oxide of tin to the slip of a lead glaze, was a major ad ...
s.
In 1774, the actor group led by Conrad (or Konrad)
Ekhof, called "the father of German acting", came from Weimar to Gotha. He began working at the ''Schlosstheater'' and became ''Direktor'' of the first ever German court theatre (founded in 1683), while acting in many plays himself. Having turned it into one of the leading theatres in Germany, after his death in 1778 the fame of the theatre declined rapidly.
The ''
Almanach de Gotha
The ''Almanach de Gotha'' (german: Gothaischer Hofkalender) is a directory of Europe's royalty and higher nobility, also including the major governmental, military and diplomatic corps, as well as statistical data by country. First published ...
'', a directory of European royalty and nobility, was first published in 1763 and
Justus Perthes
Johann Georg Justus Perthes (11 September 1749, Rudolstadt, Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt – 2 May 1816, Gotha, Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg) was a German publisher and founder of the publishing house that bears his name. Life
He was born in the Thuringian to ...
founded his science publishing company in 1785.
Joseph Meyer followed in 1826 by founding the ''
Bibliographisches Institut
The German publishing company was founded 1826 in Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and wa ...
'', one of the two leading encyclopedia publishers in the German language besides the
Brockhaus and
Adolf Stieler
Adolf Stieler (26 February 177513 March 1836) was a German cartographer and lawyer who worked most of his life in the Justus Perthes Geographical Institute in Gotha. Although he studied law and would serve in government for his entire career, h ...
first published his ''
Handatlas'' in Gotha in 1816.
Johann Adam Weishaupt
Johann Adam Weishaupt (; 6 February 1748 – 18 November 1830)''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'Vol. 41, p. 539Engel, Leopold. ''Geschichte des Illuminaten-ordens''. Berlin: H. Bermühler Verlag, 1906.van Dülmen, Richard. ''Der Geheimbund der Ill ...
, the founder of the order of the Illuminati, died in Gotha in 1830. It was also during this time, that the city developed a sizeable Jewish population.
Since 1815
![Meyer's Universum, 1835 – BEIC 6195662 Gotha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8b/Meyer%27s_Universum%2C_1835_%E2%80%93_BEIC_6195662_Gotha.jpg)
From 1826 to 1918, Gotha along with Coburg was one of the two capitals of the Duchy of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha), or Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Coburg-Gotha, links=no ), was an Ernestine, Thuringian duchy ruled by a branch of the House of Wettin, consisting of territories in the present-d ...
. Under the rule of
Duke Ernest II, Gotha was a centre of Germany's
liberal movement, where the
Gothaer Nachparlament, an aftermath of
1848 German Revolution took place. After 1851,
Gustav Freytag
Gustav Freytag (; 13 July 1816 – 30 April 1895) was a German novelist and playwright.
Life
Freytag was born in Kreuzburg (Kluczbork) in Silesia. After attending the school at Oels (Oleśnica), he studied philology at the universities of ...
, novelist, advocate of German unity and often a harsh critic of
Otto von Bismarck
Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...
made Siebleben (today part of Gotha) his summer home. Ernest II made Freytag ''Hofrat'' (privy councillor) in 1854, when the Prussian government had issued a warrant for his arrest.
In 1875, the German
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
party (
SPD
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been t ...
) was founded in Gotha through the merger of two organizations: the Social Democratic Workers' Party, led by
August Bebel
Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 mer ...
and
Wilhelm Liebknecht
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).General German Workers' Association
The General German Workers' Association (german: Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein, ADAV) was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-class ...
, founded by
Ferdinand Lassalle
Ferdinand Lassalle (; 11 April 1825 – 31 August 1864) was a Prussian-German jurist, philosopher, socialist and political activist best remembered as the initiator of the social democratic movement in Germany. "Lassalle was the first man in Ger ...
. A compromise known as the
Gotha Program
The Gotha Program was the party platform adopted by the nascent Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at its initial party congress, held in the town of Gotha in 1875. The program called for universal suffrage, freedom of association, lim ...
was forged, although it was strongly criticized by
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
for its reformist bias in his ''
Critique of the Gotha Program
The ''Critique of the Gotha Programme'' (german: Kritik des Gothaer Programms) is a document based on a letter by Karl Marx written in early May 1875 to the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP), with whom Marx and Friedrich Engels wer ...
''.
From 1876 to 1908, the novelist
Kurd Lasswitz
Kurd Lasswitz (german: link=no, Kurd Laßwitz; 20 April 1848 – 17 October 1910) was a German author, scientist, and philosopher. He has been called "the father of German science fiction". He sometimes used the pseudonym ''Velatus''.
Biograph ...
, sometimes referred to as "the father of German science fiction" worked as a teacher at Gotha's Ernestinum, the oldest ''Gymnasium'' in Thuringia.
Industrialization started in Gotha around 1850, as the city was connected to the
Thuringian Railway
Thuringian is an East Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia north of the Rennsteig ridge, southwestern Saxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories of Hesse and Bavaria. It is close to Upper Saxon sp ...
in 1847. The city became a centre of engineering with companies like the ''
Gothaer Waggonfabrik
''Gothaer Waggonfabrik'' (''Gotha'', GWF) was a German manufacturer of rolling stock established in the late nineteenth century at Gotha. During the two world wars, the company expanded into aircraft building.
World War I
In World War I, Got ...
'', a tram and airplane manufacturer, founded in 1883. During the 19th century, Gotha also became a centre of banking and the insurance business in Germany. Ernst-Wilhelm Arnoldi founded the first fire insurance in 1820, followed by the first life insurance in 1827. The
mutual insurance
A mutual insurance company is an insurance company owned entirely by its policyholders. Any profits earned by a mutual insurance company are either retained within the company or rebated to policyholders in the form of dividend distributions or re ...
remains one of the largest insurance companies in Germany (it moved to
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...
after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
). Gotha's tram network was established in 1894. The first
crematory
A crematorium or crematory is a venue for the cremation of the dead. Modern crematoria contain at least one cremator (also known as a crematory, retort or cremation chamber), a purpose-built furnace. In some countries a crematorium can also be ...
in Germany was built in Gotha in 1878.
The
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establish ...
(USPD), a left-wing breakaway of the SPD was founded in Gotha in 1917 in opposition to the SPD's war policies during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. During the
German Revolution
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
, the Duke abdicated in 1918. A far-left government was elected in Gotha in 1919 and worked against both the
Weimar National Assembly
The Weimar National Assembly (German: ), officially the German National Constitutional Assembly (), was the popularly elected constitutional convention and de facto parliament of Germany from 6 February 1919 to 21 May 1920. As part of its ...
and the
Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch
The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo the ...
in 1920 bringing the city to the edge of a civil war. After a referendum, the state of Gotha joined the newly created ''Freistaat''
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
in 1920.
Under
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
rule, Gotha became a centre of the arms industry with nearly 7,000
forced labourers working in the city's factories, where more than 200 died. The Gotha barracks in the southern periphery were enlarged and during the ''
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
'' in 1938 the synagogue was destroyed. Allied air raids in 1944/5 damaged some buildings in the city, in particular the state theatre (demolished by East German authorities in 1958) and the main station (which remains only "half-a-building" until today) and the main church (rebuilt after the war). Nevertheless, some 95% of the city's buildings survived the war unscathed. Jewish slave laborers working in quarries at Gotha were all murdered by their Nazi overseers on 4 April 1945, just before the city was captured by American forces.
The American Army reached the city in April 1945 but was replaced by the Soviets in July 1945 and in 1949 Gotha became part of the
GDR. During this period, some historic inner-city quarters were replaced by ''
Plattenbau
(plural: , german: Platte + Bau, lit=panel/slab' + 'building/ construction) is a building constructed of large, prefabrication, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is a compound of (in this context: panel) and (building). Such buildings ...
'' buildings, especially west of the Hauptmarkt and at Gartenstraße north of the city centre. Many other buildings fell derelict during the later GDR period and the city's time of shrinking in the 1990s, whereas others were refurbished after
German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1990. Gotha's economy was hit by the transition from state to market economy after 1990, nevertheless, some companies survived or were newly founded and have made Gotha economically a relatively successful city.
Geography and demographics
Topography
![Gotha Blick vom Bürgerturm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6f/Gotha_Blick_vom_B%C3%BCrgerturm.jpg)
Gotha is situated in a flat landscape within the fertile
Thuringian Basin
The Thuringian Basin (german: Thüringer Becken) is a depression in the central and northwest part of Thuringia in Germany which is crossed by several rivers, the longest of which is the Unstrut. It stretches about from north to south and around ...
. A tectonic dislocation traverses the city from north-west to south-east. Thereby, it forms three prominent hills: the 431 m high ''Krahnberg'' with the ''Ratsholz'' forest in the north-west, the hill of Friedenstein Castle in the city centre and the 409 m high ''Seeberg'' in the south-east. The city itself lies at an elevation of 300 m and the municipal territory is nearly free of forest (with the two named mountains as exceptions) and is in intensive agricultural use. As one out of only very few ancient cities in Germany, Gotha is not situated on a river, so that water supply was already a problem in the Middle Ages. For that reason, the ''Leinakanal'' was built in the 14th century over a distance of more than 25 kilometres, which was at the time an enormous task. The Leinakanal brings water from
Hörsel
The Hörsel () is a long river in Thuringia, Germany, right tributary of the Werra. It is formed by the confluence of two smaller rivers in Leinatal, at the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest. The Hörsel flows generally northwest through the ...
and
Apfelstädt river to Gotha, overcoming the watershed between
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...
(Apfelstädt) and
Weser
The Weser () is a river of Lower Saxony in north-west Germany. It begins at Hannoversch Münden through the confluence of the Werra and Fulda. It passes through the Hanseatic city of Bremen. Its mouth is further north against the ports of Bre ...
(Gotha). The drain of Leinakanal is the ''Flutgraben'', a tributary of
Nesse. The
Thuringian Forest
The Thuringian Forest (''Thüringer Wald'' in German), is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side i ...
is located south-west of Gotha.
Administrative division
Gotha borders the following municipalities, which are all part of Gotha district:
Goldbach,
Remstädt
Remstädt is a village and a former municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the municipality Nessetal
Nessetal is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. It was c ...
,
Bufleben
Bufleben is a village and a former municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the municipality Nessetal.
Notable people
*Cyriakus Schneegass Cyriakus Schneegass (german: Schneegaß; la, Sne ...
,
Friemar
Friemar is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the ...
,
Tüttleben,
Drei Gleichen
Drei Gleichen is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. It was formed on 1 January 2009 by the merger of the former municipalities Grabsleben, Mühlberg, Seebergen and Wandersleben. Since May 1992, these municipalities ...
,
Günthersleben-Wechmar
Günthersleben-Wechmar is a former Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the German state (States of Germany, Bundesland) of Thuringia in the district of Gotha (district), Gotha. Since July 2018, it is part of the municipality Drei Gleichen. ...
,
Schwabhausen
Schwabhausen is a municipality in the district of Dachau in Bavaria in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, ...
,
Emleben
Emleben is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany.
Notable people
*Gerald Hüther
Gerald Hüther (born 15 February 1951 in Emleben) is a German neurobiologist and author of popular science books and other writings.
...
,
Leinatal
Leinatal is a former municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. Since December 2019, it is part of the municipality Georgenthal
Georgenthal is a municipality in the district of Gotha, in Thuringia, Germany. The former munici ...
and
Hörsel
The Hörsel () is a long river in Thuringia, Germany, right tributary of the Werra. It is formed by the confluence of two smaller rivers in Leinatal, at the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest. The Hörsel flows generally northwest through the ...
.
Gotha is divided in 11 districts. The urban districts are Mitte, Weststadt, West, Nord, Süd, Oststadt and Ost and the rural districts are Boilstädt (incorporated in 1994), Siebleben (1922), Sundhausen (1974) and Uelleben (1994).
Demographics
![Saxonia Museum für saechsische Vaterlandskunde I 69](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Saxonia_Museum_f%C3%BCr_saechsische_Vaterlandskunde_I_69.jpg)
Gotha has long been one of the largest towns in Thuringia. During the Middle Ages, it was a town of 5,000 to 6,000 inhabitants and its selection as a ducal residence brought another impetus during the 17th and 18th century, so that Gotha had already more than 10,000 inhabitants by 1800. The number rose to 15,000 around 1850, as industrialisation started and the city was connected to the railway. The population saw a steady growth to 23,000 in 1875, 35,000 in 1900, 46,000 in 1925 and 58,000 in 1950, when the peak was reached. Until 1990, the population was roughly constant at around 57,000. After German reunification in 1990, the city saw a significant decline in population, it shrank to 48,000 by 2000 and to 44,000 by 2012. Between 2013 and 2016, the population rose in each consecutive year. In 2016 it reached 45,640.
The average decrease of population between 2009 and 2012 was -0.05% p.a, whereas the population in bordering rural regions is shrinking with accelerating tendency. Suburbanization played only a small role in Gotha. It occurred after reunification for a short time in the 1990s, but most of the suburban areas are situated within the administrative city borders. During the 1990s and the early 2000s, many inhabitants left Gotha to search for a better life in west Germany or other major east German cities like
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
or
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
. Since 2005, emigration is not a big issue anymore.
Today, the birth deficit, caused by the high average age of the population, is becoming a bigger problem because immigration is not sufficient to compensate for it in recent years.
Despite urban planning activities to tear down unused flats, vacancy was a problem with rates around 9% in 2011 but declined to 4% in 2017. A side effect of the high vacancy rate is Gotha's low rent level.
The birth deficit was 175 in 2012, this is -3.9 per 1,000 inhabitants (Thuringian average: -4.5; national average: -2.4). The net migration rate was +6.2 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2012 (Thuringian average: -0.8; national average: +4.6). The most important regions of origin of Gotha migrants are bordering rural areas of Thuringia as well as foreign countries like Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Like other eastern German cities, foreigners account for only a small share of Gotha's population: circa 2.5% are non-Germans by citizenship and overall 7.1% are classified as migrants (according to the
2011 EU census). In contrast to the national average, the largest groups of migrants in Gotha are
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
,
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
and
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
.
Due to the official atheism of the former
GDR, most of the population is non-religious. 18.2% are members of the
Evangelical Church in Central Germany
The Evangelical Church in Central Germany (German: ''Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland''; ''EKM'') is a United church body covering most of the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia and some adjacent areas in Brandenburg and Saxony.
...
and 4.8% are Catholics (according to the 2011 EU census).
Culture, sights and cityscape
Museums
Gotha hosts various museums, which are – together with the ducal buildings – promoted as the ''Gothaer Barock-Universum'' ("Baroque universe of Gotha").
* Friedenstein Castle hosts the following museums:
** The ''Ekhof Theatre'' is a Baroque court theatre and the world's only 17th century theatre with original stage machinery still working.
** The ''Historic Museum'' hosts an exhibition about municipal and regional history and culture of Gotha.
** The ''Museum of Nature'' shows a natural history exhibition with animals, minerals and fossils.
** The ''Castle Museum'' contains the former ducal living rooms and several items of cultural history.
* The ''Ducal Museum'' opposite to the castle hosts the ducal collection of art, containing Egyptian antiques, Renaissance
s paintings, Chinese and
Meissen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...
porcelaine and more.
* The ''Insurance Museum'' at Bahnhofstraße is Germany's only museum on the history of the insurance business, which has been important in Gotha since 1820.
* The ''Tivoli'' at Cosmarstraße is the place where the
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Saskia Esken has been the ...
was founded and hosts a small exhibition on the party's history.
Image gallery
File:Bühne des Ekhof-Theaters.JPG, Ekhof Theatre
File:Westturm Friedenstein Gotha.JPG, The Historic Museum and the Museum of Nature are located in Friedenstein's western tower
File:Gotha-exponate-010.jpg, One of the rooms at Castle Museum
File:Thuringia Gotha asv2020-07 img28 Herzogliches Museum.jpg, Ducal Museum – arthistorical museum of Gotha
File:Thuringia Gotha asv2020-07 img07 Versicherungsmuseum.jpg, Insurance Museum
File:Thuringia Gotha asv2020-07 img29 Gothaer Tivoli.jpg, Tivoli
Cityscape
![Villa Gotha2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Villa_Gotha2.JPG)
The city centre of Gotha has two medieval parts: the old town around ''Hauptmarkt'' and the new town around ''Neumarkt''. Both were walled until 1810, when the city walls were broken down and a boulevard was laid out in their place. Early-modern suburbiums were established to the south-west (around ''Dreikronengasse''), to the west (around ''Große Fahnenstraße'') and to the east (around ''Mohrenberg''). The later 19th century brought larger growth in all directions. Especially the axis between the main station and the city centre received a representative development in capital-city style. Due to Gotha's function as a ducal residence, most buildings built between 1870 and 1914 were generous in size and many mansions were built. Only some outer districts show the typical German working-class tenements (e.g. around ''Oststraße'' and ''Seebergstraße''). The largest ''
Plattenbau
(plural: , german: Platte + Bau, lit=panel/slab' + 'building/ construction) is a building constructed of large, prefabrication, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is a compound of (in this context: panel) and (building). Such buildings ...
'' settlement of Gotha was established at the western periphery during the late
GDR period. In the 1980s, large areas of the western old town were demolished and replaced by small-scale ''Plattenbau'' houses. After 1990, many buildings were thoroughly refurbished after having fallen into dereliction during GDR times. Nevertheless, a relatively large share of ruined historic buildings remains characteristic for Gotha (in comparison to neighbouring cities like Eisenach, Erfurt or Weimar), especially within the historic new town and the 19th century belt around the city centre. The government sometimes failed to conserve historic buildings, for example the ' was demolished in 2007, as was the ' in 2011 (although the latter has now being reconstructed externally). The ' was saved in 2006, and the ''Prinzenpalais'' was restored in 2017 although the adjacent ''Kavaliershaus'' was demolished.
Sights and architectural heritage
Churches
* The main Protestant church ''St. Margarethen'' at Neumarkt was built between 1494 and 1543 in late-
Gothic style
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
.
* The Protestant church ''St. Salvator'' at Klosterplatz is a former monastery of the
Augustinians
Augustinians are members of Christian religious orders that follow the Rule of Saint Augustine, written in about 400 AD by Augustine of Hippo. There are two distinct types of Augustinians in Catholic religious orders dating back to the 12th–13 ...
, built around 1300 in Gothic style and dissolved in 1525.
* The ducal chapel inside Friedenstein Castle is located at the north-eastern corner and was designed in 1697.
* The Protestant ''Friedrichskirche'' at Erfurter Landstraße was built between 1712 and 1715 in
Baroque style
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
.
* The Protestant church ''St. Helena'' at Siebleben district was built between 1818 and 1827 in
Neo-Classical style
Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the Neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century in Italy and France. It became one of the most prominent architectural styles in the Western world. The prevailing style ...
.
* The Catholic parish church ''St. Bonifatius'' at Moßlerstraße was built in 1855 in
Neo-Romanesque style.
File:Thuringia Gotha asv2020-07 img22 Margarethenkirche.jpg, St. Margarethen
File:Augustinian church in Gotha (4).jpg, St. Salvator
File:Gotha, Schlosskirche im Schloss Friedenstein.JPG, Ducal chapel inside Friedenstein Castle
File:Gotha Friedrichkirche1.jpg, Friedrichskirche
File:Siebleben-Dorfkirche.JPG, St. Helena
File:Gotha Bonifatiuskirche2.jpg, St. Bonifatius
Castles and palaces
* The former residence of the
Saxe-Gotha
Saxe-Gotha (german: Sachsen-Gotha) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in the former Landgraviate of Thuringia. The ducal residence was erected at Gotha.
History
The duchy was established in 1640, when ...
dukes is
Friedenstein Castle
Friedenstein Palace (german: Schloss Friedenstein) is an early Baroque palace built in the mid-17th century by Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Gotha at Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. In Germany, ''Friedenstein'' was one of the largest palaces of its time and ...
, one of the largest late-Renaissance/early-Baroque styled castles in Germany. It consists of three wings in U-form with two towers at their ends and was built between 1643 1654.
* The ''Schloss Friedrichsthal'' at Friedrichstraße is the former ducal summer residence, built between 1707 and 1711 in
French Baroque style.
* The ''Winterpalais'' at Friedrichstraße is the former ducal winter residence, built in 1822 in neo-classical style.
* The ''Orangerie'' at Friedrichstraße consists of two symmetric orangery houses and a Baroque park in between, built between 1747 and 1774.
* The ''Prinzenpalais'' at Mozartstraße was the ducal guesthouse, built in 1776.
* The ''Marstall'' at Parkallee was the ducal stables, built in 1847.
* The ''Schloss Mönchhof'' at Siebleben district was a ducal summer residence, built in the late 18th century.
File:Schloss-Friedenstein01.JPG, Patio of Friedenstein Castle
File:Schloss Friedenstein Gotha.JPG, Towers of Friedenstein Castle
File:Friedrichsthalgotha.jpg, Schloss Friedrichsthal
File:Winterpalais Gotha 2006.jpg, Winterpalais
File:Thuringia Gotha asv2020-07 img13 Orangerie.jpg, Orangerie (northern building)
File:Thuringia Gotha asv2020-07 img11 Marstall.jpg, Marstall
File:Gotha-Siebleben-Schloss-Mönchhof-1.JPG, Schloss Mönchhof
Other sights
* The ''town hall'' at Hauptmarkt was built as a bourse between 1566 and 1574 in
Renaissance style
Renaissance architecture is the European architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 16th centuries in different regions, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of Ancient Greece, ancient Greek and ...
. It has been in use as town hall since 1665.
* There are some Renaissance patricians' houses around Hauptmarkt and Brühl, showing the city's wealth through the 15th and 16th centuries.
* The ''Hospital St. Mary'' is the former city hospital and was built between 1716 and 1719 in Baroque style.
* The ''Crematorium'' at the main cemetery is the oldest one in Germany, established in 1878.
* The ''Wasserkunst'' (
water feature
In landscape architecture and garden design, a water feature is one or more items from a range of fountains, jeux d'eau, pools, ponds, rills, artificial waterfalls, and streams. Before the 18th century they were usually powered by gravity, tho ...
) at Schlossberg were established in 1895 with three cascades traversed by water from the Leinakanal.
* The ''Courthouse'' at Justus-Perthes-Straße was built in 1895/96 in historicistic forms.
* The 19th and early-20th century school buildings in Gotha are of impressive size and design, for example the Ernestinum (1837/38) at Bergallee, the Myconiusschule (1865) at Bürgeraue, the Herzog-Ernst-Schule at Reinhardsbrunner Straße, the Andreas-Reyher-Schule (1898–1900) at Mozartstraße, the Arnoldischule (1909–1911) at Eisenacher Straße and the former Baugewerbeschule (1910/11) at Trützschlerplatz.
* Many of the banks' and insurances' buildings of Gotha are also architecturally interesting. They were built during Gotha's time as a centre of the finance industry around 1900. The ''Deutsche Grundkreditbank'' at Bahnhofstraße (1872–1877) was built by
Ludwig Bohnstedt
Franz Ludwig Carl Bohnstedt (27 October 1822, Saint Petersburg - 3 January 1885, Gotha) was a Baltic-German architect, who spent much of his career in Thuringia.
Life and work
He was born in Russia, to German immigrants, and began his education ...
, as was the ''Gothaer Feuerversicherung'' (1872–1874) at Bahnhofstraße and the ''Gothaer Privatbank'' (1873–1877) at Ekhofplatz. The ''Gothaer Lebensversicherung'' (1893/94) was built by Bruno Eelbo at Bahnhofstraße and the ''Ducal Cashier's Office'' (1908) at Justus-Perthes-Straße was built by Alfred Cramer.
* The
garden city ''Am Schmalen Rain'' was built in 1928 in garden-city style like
Hellerau
Hellerau is a northern quarter ''(Stadtteil)'' in the city of Dresden, Germany, slightly south of Dresden Airport. It was the first garden city in Germany. The northern section of Hellerau absorbed the village of Klotzsche, where some 18th cent ...
near Dresden.
* The
Stadtbad Gotha is an
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...
-style public bathhouse built in 1909 and restored in 2014.
* Perthesforum, opened in 2014, and containing th
Perthes archives(185,000 maps, 120,000 geographical publications and approximately 800 metres business archives) of
Justus Perthes (publishing company)
''Justus Perthes Publishers'' (german: Justus Perthes Verlag) was established in 1785 in Gotha, Germany. Justus Perthes was primarily a publisher of geographic atlases and wall maps. He published ''Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen'' and also ...
.
File:Rathaus Gotha.JPG, Town hall
File:Hospital Gotha.JPG, St. Mary's Hospital
File:Gotha Wasserkunst Hauptmarkt.jpg, ''Wasserkunst''
File:Gotha-Amtsgericht1-Bubo.JPG, Courthouse
File:Ernestinum Gotha.JPG, Ernestium school
File:Privatbank Gotha.JPG, ''Gothaer Privatbank''
File:Am Schmalen Rain Gotha1.JPG, Garden city ''Am Schmalen Rain''
File:Gotha-Stadtbad-2-CTH.JPG, Stadtbad Gotha
File:Gotha-Perthesforum-1-CTH.JPG, Perthesforum
Economy and infrastructure
During recent years, the economic situation of the city improved: the unemployment rate in the district declined from 17% in 2005 to 7% in 2013 with rates a bit higher in the city itself than in the other municipalities of the Gotha district.
Agriculture, industry and services
![Bundesarchiv Bild 183-66380-0003, Gotha, Werk des VEB Waggonbau Gotha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-66380-0003%2C_Gotha%2C_Werk_des_VEB_Waggonbau_Gotha.jpg)
Agriculture is still important in the region around Gotha with its fertile soil. More than 60% of the municipal territory is in agricultural use for growing maize, crops, vegetables and sugar beets.
Vehicle construction is still the most important industry in Gotha. The well-known ''
Gothaer Waggonfabrik
''Gothaer Waggonfabrik'' (''Gotha'', GWF) was a German manufacturer of rolling stock established in the late nineteenth century at Gotha. During the two world wars, the company expanded into aircraft building.
World War I
In World War I, Got ...
'' had two successors after 1990: the ''Gothaer Fahrzeugwerke'', a
Schmitz Cargobull
Schmitz Cargobull AG is a German manufacturer of semi-trailers, trailers and truck bodies. The company's head office is located in Horstmar, Germany, and its registered office is in the neighbouring city of Altenberge in the state of North Rhine- ...
factory with 800 workers and the ''Gothaer Fahrzeugtechnik'', a crane manufacturer with 400 employees. The brewery belongs to
Oettinger Beer
Oettinger Brauerei is a brewery group in Germany. Oettinger was Germany's best selling beer brand between 2004 and 2013 with an annual output of in 2011.
Oettinger's headquarters are in Oettingen in Bayern but they also have breweries in Mönch ...
and has 300 employees. In 2012, there were 28 companies with more than 20 workers in the industrial sector, employing 3,300 people and generating a turnover of more than €850 million. The old industrial district is situated in the east of Gotha, a new one developed after 1990 in the south. Further, the neighbouring small towns of
Waltershausen
Waltershausen is a town in the south-western part of the district of Gotha in the state of Thuringia, Germany.
Geography
Geographic location
Located on the verge of the Thuringian Basin just before the Thuringian Forest, Waltershausen is so ...
and
Ohrdruf
Ohrdruf () is a small town in the district of Gotha in the German state of Thuringia. It lies some 30 km southwest of Erfurt at the foot of the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest. The former municipalities Crawinkel, Gräfenhain an ...
have strong industrial cores, where many commuters from Gotha have found work.
As a former state capital (until 1920) and then district capital, Gotha is also a hub of public and private services. The city centre hosts some retailing and at the south-western periphery the largest hospital of the region was built after reunification. The Friedenstein barracks are one of the largest
Bundeswehr
The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
bases in Thuringia. In addition, the ', a state historical archive, and the Land's Financial Court have their seat in Gotha. Despite the various sights and the colourful history, tourism plays no important role in Gotha yet. In 2012, there were only 68,000 overnight guests staying for 154,000 nights in Gotha (compared to 310,000 in
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
, 650,000 in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
and 750,000 in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
). Within the last decade there was no significant growth in tourism.
Transport
![Historische Straßenbahn Gotha TWB](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/10/Historische_Stra%C3%9Fenbahn_Gotha_TWB.JPG)
Gotha is connected by the
Thuringian Railway
Thuringian is an East Central German dialect group spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia north of the Rennsteig ridge, southwestern Saxony-Anhalt and adjacent territories of Hesse and Bavaria. It is close to Upper Saxon sp ...
to
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
in the east and to
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
/
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
in the west. Furthermore, there are some regional railways from Gotha to
Leinefelde
Leinefelde-Worbis is a town in the district of Eichsfeld, in northwestern Thuringia, Germany. The town was formed on March 16, 2004, from the former independent towns Leinefelde and Worbis along with the municipalities of Breitenbach and Wintz ...
(via
Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen () is a city in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen.
Mühlhausen was first mentioned in 967 and bec ...
) and to
Gräfenroda
Gräfenroda is a village and a former municipality in the Ilm-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. Since 1 January 2019, it is part of the municipality Geratal. It was the administrative seat of the former ''Verwaltungsgemeinschaft'' Oberes Ger ...
(the latter out of service since 2011). Besides the main
Gotha station
Gotha station is the main station of Gotha in the German state of Thuringia. It is served by InterCity trains and every two hours by Intercity-Express trains on the Thuringian Railway. Services on the Gotha–Leinefelde line to the north also s ...
, there is another one on the
Gotha–Leinefelde railway
The Gotha–Leinefelde railway connects Gotha and Leinefelde in the German state of Thuringia. It was opened in 1870 by the Thuringian Railway Company (german: Thüringische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft). The line is about 67.1 km long. Regional-Exp ...
:
Gotha Ost in the north-eastern part of the city. Long-distance trains (ICE or IC) connect Gotha with Frankfurt in the west and Leipzig/
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
in the east every two hours, as does a regional express train to
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
in the north-west and
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...
/
Glauchau
Glauchau (; hsb, Hłuchow) is a town in the German federal state of Saxony, on the right bank of the Mulde, 7 miles north of Zwickau and 17 miles west of Chemnitz by rail ( its train station is on the Dresden–Werdau line). It is part of the ...
in the east via Erfurt and
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
. The local trains to
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
in the west,
Halle in the east (via Erfurt and Weimar) and
Bad Langensalza
Bad Langensalza (; until 1956: Langensalza) is a spa town of 17,500 inhabitants in the Unstrut-Hainich district, Thuringia, central Germany.
Geography Location
Bad Langensalza is located in the Thuringian Basin, the fertile lowlands along t ...
in the north depart once an hour.
The two ''
Autobahn
The (; German plural ) is the federal controlled-access highway system in Germany. The official German term is (abbreviated ''BAB''), which translates as 'federal motorway'. The literal meaning of the word is 'Federal Auto(mobile) Track'. ...
en'' crossing nearby at ''Erfurter Kreuz'' are the
Bundesautobahn 4
is an autobahn that crosses Germany in a west–east direction. The western segment has a length of , the part in the east is long. Works to continue the A 4 are in progress, but currently no plans exist to fill the gap completely.
T ...
(
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
–
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
) and the
Bundesautobahn 71
is an Autobahn in Germany. It connects the A 38 and Erfurt to the A 70 near Schweinfurt. A further northern extension to the A 14 near Plötzkau has been proposed by the state government of Sachsen-Anhalt.Schweinfurt
Schweinfurt ( , ; ) is a city in the district of Lower Franconia in Bavaria, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the surrounding district (''Landkreis'') of Schweinfurt and a major industrial, cultural and educational hub. The urban agg ...
–
Sangerhausen
Sangerhausen () is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, central Germany, capital of the district of Mansfeld-Südharz. It is situated southeast of the Harz, approx. east of Nordhausen, and west of Halle (Saale). About 26,000 people live in Sangerhausen (2 ...
). Furthermore, there are two ''
Bundesstraße
''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
n'' connecting Gotha: the
Bundesstraße 7
The Bundesstraße 7 (abbr. B7) is a German federal highway (Bundesstraße) that stretches from the Dutch border at Venlo in the West to Rochlitz near Chemnitz in the East. It is approximately long. Because of its western origin some stretches o ...
from Eisenach in the west to Erfurt in the east and the
Bundesstraße 247
''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
from
Ohrdruf
Ohrdruf () is a small town in the district of Gotha in the German state of Thuringia. It lies some 30 km southwest of Erfurt at the foot of the northern slope of the Thuringian Forest. The former municipalities Crawinkel, Gräfenhain an ...
in the south to
Mühlhausen
Mühlhausen () is a city in the north-west of Thuringia, Germany, north of Niederdorla, the country's geographical centre, north-west of Erfurt, east of Kassel and south-east of Göttingen.
Mühlhausen was first mentioned in 967 and bec ...
in the north. Important secondary roads lead from Gotha to
Bad Tennstedt
Bad Tennstedt () is a town in the Unstrut-Hainich-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 27 km east of Mühlhausen, and 24 km northwest of Erfurt.
The Romantic poet Novalis worked here from 1794 until 1796. During his stay ...
in the north-east, to
Arnstadt
Arnstadt () is a town in Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany, on the river Gera about south of Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia. Arnstadt is one of the oldest towns in Thuringia, and has a well-preserved historic centre with a partially preserved town ...
in the south-east, to
Waltershausen
Waltershausen is a town in the south-western part of the district of Gotha in the state of Thuringia, Germany.
Geography
Geographic location
Located on the verge of the Thuringian Basin just before the Thuringian Forest, Waltershausen is so ...
in the south-west and to
Goldbach in the north-west. An eastern bypass road to relieve the city centre of transit traffic along B 247 is in the planning process.
The
Erfurt-Weimar Airport is situated 20 kilometres east of Gotha and in use for holiday flights to southern European tourist destinations. The next major airport is
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
, approximately to the south-west.
Biking is becoming more and more popular since the construction of quality cycle tracks began in the 1990s. For tourists there is the long-distance ''Radweg Thüringer Städtekette'' (Thuringian city string trail). It connects points of touristic interest along the medieval ''
Via Regia
The Via Regia (Royal Highway) is a European Cultural Route following the route of the historic road of the Middle Ages. There were many such ''viae regiae'' associated with the king in the medieval Holy Roman Empire.
History Origins
The ...
'' from Eisenach via Gotha, Erfurt, Weimar and Jena to
Altenburg
Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...
.
The public transport system consists of a
tram network
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
with three lines, connecting the city centre with the main station in the south-east, the east station in the north-east and the hospital in Sundhausen district in the south-west. A peculiarity is the long ' (established in 1929), one of Germany's last traditional interurban tramway lines, to
Bad Tabarz,
Waltershausen
Waltershausen is a town in the south-western part of the district of Gotha in the state of Thuringia, Germany.
Geography
Geographic location
Located on the verge of the Thuringian Basin just before the Thuringian Forest, Waltershausen is so ...
and
Friedrichroda
Friedrichroda () is a town in the district of Gotha, Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the north foot of the Thuringian Forest, 21 km by rail southwest of the town of Gotha. It is surrounded by fir-clad hills and possesses numerous han ...
. It is used both for everyday traffic and by tourists. Buses serve urban quarters and nearby villages lacking a tram or rail connection.
Education and research
![Arnoldischule Gotha](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Arnoldischule_Gotha.JPG)
There are three state-run ''
Gymnasiums'' in Gotha, including the famous
Ernestine Gymnasium. In addition, the ''Thüringer Fachhochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung'' (school of public administration) with 500 students has its seat in Gotha, as has the school of Thuringia's ministry of finance and the school of Thuringia's geodesy authority.
Research with focus on early modern history is carried out by the ''Forschungsbibliothek Gotha'', the state archive and the "Friedenstein Foundation", which also runs the museums at Friedenstein Castle.
Politics
Mayor and city council
The most recent mayoral election was held on 15 April 2018, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2, Candidate
! Party
! Votes
! %
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Knut Kreuch
, align=left,
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
, 9,910
, 61.1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Jens Wehner
, align=left,
Christian Democratic Union
, 3,210
, 19.8
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Birger Gröning
, align=left,
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist
*
*
*
*
*
*
* political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...
, 2,015
, 12.4
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Joachim Thier-Ueltzen
, align=left,
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
, 1,088
, 6.7
, -
! colspan=3, Valid votes
! 16,223
! 99.2
, -
! colspan=3, Invalid votes
! 137
! 0.8
, -
! colspan=3, Total
! 16,360
! 100.0
, -
! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout
! 37,412
! 43.7
, -
, colspan=5, Source
Wahlen in Thüringen
The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2, Party
! Lead candidate
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(SPD)
, align=left, Matthias Hey
, 15,804
, 30.4
, 4.5
, 11
, 2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist
*
*
*
*
*
*
* political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...
(AfD)
, align=left, Klaus-Dietrich von Bülow
, 9,343
, 18.0
, New
, 6
, New
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Christian Democratic Union (CDU)
, align=left, Maximilian Fliedner
, 8,820
, 17.0
, 4.5
, 6
, 2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
The Left (Die Linke)
, align=left, Bernd Fundheller
, 6,722
, 12.9
, 5.3
, 5
, 2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Voters
Free Voters (german: Freie Wähler, FW or FWG) in Germany may belong to an association of people which participates in an election without having the status of a registered political party. Usually it involves a locally organized group of voters ...
/
Pirate Party
Pirate Party is a label adopted by Political party, political parties around the world. Pirate parties support Civil and political rights, civil rights, direct democracy (including e-democracy) or alternatively Participatory democracy, partici ...
(FWG–Piraten)
, align=left, Juliane Pürstinger
, 5,874
, 11.3
, 3.0
, 4
, 1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...
(Grüne)
, align=left, Felix Maximilian Kalbe
, 3,589
, 6.9
, 2.7
, 3
, 2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Free Democratic Party (FDP)
, align=left, Martin Helmut Steinbrück
, 1,802
, 3.5
, 0.7
, 1
, ±0
, -
! colspan=3, Valid votes
! 17,506
! 97.5
!
!
!
, -
! colspan=3, Invalid votes
! 448
! 2.5
!
!
!
, -
! colspan=3, Total
! 17,954
! 100.0
!
! 36
! ±0
, -
! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout
! 37,313
! 48.1
! 5.0
!
!
, -
, colspan=8, Source
Wahlen in Thüringen
Twin towns – sister cities
Gotha is
twinned with:
*
Adwa
Adwa ( ti, ዓድዋ; amh, ዐድዋ; also spelled Aduwa) is a town and separate woreda in Tigray Region, Ethiopia. It is best known as the community closest to the site of the 1896 Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian soldiers defeated Italian ...
, Ethiopia
*
Gastonia, United States
*
Kielce
Kielce (, yi, קעלץ, Keltz) is a city in southern Poland, and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the bank ...
, Poland
*
Martin Martin may refer to:
Places
* Martin City (disambiguation)
* Martin County (disambiguation)
* Martin Township (disambiguation)
Antarctica
* Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land
* Port Martin, Adelie Land
* Point Martin, South Orkney Islands
Austral ...
, Slovakia
*
Romilly-sur-Seine
Romilly-sur-Seine (, literally ''Romilly on Seine'') is a commune in the Aube department in north-central France.
Population
International relations
Romilly-sur-Seine is twinned with:
* Milford Haven, United Kingdom
* Gotha, Germany
* L ...
, France
*
Salzgitter
Salzgitter (; Eastphalian: ''Soltgitter'') is an independent city in southeast Lower Saxony, Germany, located between Hildesheim and Braunschweig. Together with Wolfsburg and Braunschweig, Salzgitter is one of the seven ''Oberzentren'' of Lower ...
, Germany
Notable people
* ''See the
List of people associated with the town (German Wikipedia)''
Notes
References
External links
Official websiteOfficial website*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gotha (Town)
Gotha (district)
Saxe-Coburg and Gotha