Go­tha ge­ni­us?! — A jour­ney th­rough 1250 ye­ars of in­no­va­ti­on

The spe­cial ex­hi­bi­ti­on “Go­tha ge­ni­us? Flas­hes of in­spi­ra­ti­on and pe­ren­ni­al fa­vou­ri­tes from 1250 ye­ars” at the Go­tha Du­cal Mu­se­um in­vi­tes vi­si­tors on a fa­sci­na­ting jour­ney of dis­co­very th­rough the histo­ry of the ci­ty of Go­tha. Ra­ther than sim­ply re­coun­ting a chro­no­lo­gy, the ex­hi­bi­ti­on fo­cu­ses on spe­ci­fic the­mes — from po­li­tics and edu­ca­ti­on, busi­ness and crafts to club cul­tu­re and fes­ti­val tra­di­ti­ons. Go­tha pres­ents its­elf he­re as a ci­ty of ide­as: Whe­ther the in­ven­ti­on of re­gio­nal co­lours in car­to­gra­phy, the in­tro­duc­tion of com­pul­so­ry edu­ca­ti­on or the es­tab­lish­ment of the first cre­ma­to­ri­um — num­e­rous in­no­va­tions that ori­gi­na­ted in Go­tha con­ti­nue to have an im­pact far bey­ond Thu­rin­gia to­day.

What makes the ex­hi­bi­ti­on spe­cial are the peo­p­le and sto­ries be­hind the de­ve­lo­p­ments. Tes­ti­mo­ni­als, pho­to­graphs, ori­gi­nal do­cu­ments and in­ter­ac­ti­ve sta­ti­ons bring the ci­ty to life. Ci­ti­zens share their me­mo­ries and views, while child­ren and young peo­p­le are in­vi­ted to get crea­ti­ve, for ex­am­p­le by blue­prin­ting or coll­ec­ting ty­pi­cal Go­thic words. This di­ver­se pro­gram­me crea­tes an emo­tio­nal con­nec­tion to the ci­ty, its histo­ry and the minds that make Go­tha so uni­que.