Gotha

Gotha: town hall

Gotha, city, Thuringia Land (state), central Germany. It lies on the northern edge of the Thuringian Forest, 13 miles (21 km) west of Erfurt.

First mentioned as the Frankish villa Gotaha in 775, when it was given to the abbey of Hersfeld, it was fortified in 930 and chartered in 1189–90. The city passed to the landgraves of Thuringia in 1247 and to the Saxon house of Wettin in 1264. From 1640 to 1825 it was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Gotha, and from 1826 to 1918, with Coburg, it was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Albert, the second son of Ernest, duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, married Queen Victoria of Great Britain in 1840. Their descendants succeeded to the British throne, and the country’s ruling dynasty was styled the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha from 1901 until its name was changed to Windsor in 1917. In 1875 Gotha was the scene of the congress that united the Eisenach and the Lassalle political groups into the Socialist Labour Party of Germany; the party adopted the Gotha Program, which was sharply criticized by Karl Marx.

From 1763 to 1945 and since 1959, Gotha has been the seat of publication of the Almanach de Gotha, an annual register of noble European families and prominent government officials. Publication of this world-famous handbook was taken over by the geographic-cartographic institute and publishing house of Justus Perthes in 1785, and the Almanach is still published in Gotha by a successor firm. One of the first German life insurance offices was founded in Gotha in 1827, and the city was the headquarters of many insurance companies until after World War II, when it became part of East Germany. Gotha is now a rail junction, and its manufactures include metal products, chemicals, and foodstuffs. Publishing is also economically significant.

Gotha was endowed with palaces, libraries and other collections, and parks and gardens by its ducal rulers, and the city became a lively cultural centre in the 18th century during the Enlightenment. The old inner town is dominated by the former ducal palace of Friedenstein (1643), which has extensive art, historical, and geographic collections. Also notable are the 12th-century Margarethen-Kirche (St. Margaret’s Church, often altered), the town hall (1567–77), the former ducal summer palace of Friedrichsthal (1708–10), and a Gymnasium Ernestinum (preparatory school) founded in the 17th century. The theatre maintained by the dukes of Gotha since 1683 is still in use. Gotha is home to several museums, including the Cartographic Museum and the Museum of Nature, and to Thuringia’s state library and archives. Pop. (2003 est.) 47,158.