Gotha discusses the history of cartography: an evening full of beer and knowledge!

Gotha discusses the history of cartography: an evening full of beer and knowledge!

The Gotha Research Library at the University of Erfurt will be offering an exciting event in the “Perthes in Conversation” series on Wednesday, June 18th. In this context, Anna-Maria Hünnes from Frankfurt a.M. will give a lecture entitled “Cartographers in Bars – The Justus Perthes Gotha Publishing House and the Natural Science Association 1875–1920”. The event begins at 6:15 p.m. in the ancestral hall of the Perthes Forum in Gotha, and entry is free. This is a great opportunity to learn more about the connections between the publishing house and the social activities of the cartographers in Gotha.

The employees of the Justus Perthes publishing house were not only connected through their work at the publishing house, but were also involved in various Gotha clubs. These included, among other things, shooting clubs, antiquity clubs and singing societies, as well as political associations. What is particularly notable is that many of the cartographers were members of the city's Natural Science Society, where weekly meetings were held in inns. At these social gatherings, not only theories about the origins of the world were discussed, but also scientific publications were discussed - often accompanied by beer and singing.

A look at leisure behavior in the 19th century

The lecture will provide insights into leisure behavior in Gotha in the 19th century and shed light on the roles of different people in cartography. Hermann Habenicht, a cartographer who worked at Perthes Verlag from 1859 to 1914, had a variety of interests in addition to his professional activity. The “Perthes in Conversation” series provides regular information about the development of the Perthes collection and the library's current projects. These events are actively supported by the Friends of the Research Library Gotha e.V.

The Perthes collection is particularly remarkable and was acquired in 2003 with the support of the Cultural Foundation of the States of Thuringia. This purchase ended a ten-year battle over the future of the collections of the Justus Perthes publishing house, which was founded in Gotha in 1785 and became the global market leader for maps and atlases in the 19th and 20th centuries. The publishing house had to be expropriated in 1952 under pressure from the SED dictatorship, which led to Joachim Perthes and his family moving to the Federal Republic of Germany.

The legacy of Justus Perthes

After fleeing the GDR, Joachim Perthes and his son founded “Justus Perthes' Geographical Publishing Company Darmstadt” in 1953. The Gotha parent company was expropriated without compensation and from 1955 operated as “VEB Hermann Haack Geographic-Cartographic Anstalt Gotha”. This VEB was the only commercial manufacturer of cards in the GDR and exported to socialist countries. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the main Gotha publishing house was reprivatized in 1992. In 2016, the Gotha branch of Klett Verlag was relocated to Leipzig, which marked the end of card production in Gotha.

The Perthes collection includes an impressive publishing library with 120,000 volumes, a map collection with 180,000 sheets and an extensive company and family archive of 800 meters. This collection represents the only surviving archive of a modern map publisher in Europe and was handed over to the Gotha Research Library. The collection is now available to international research and the public.

The Perthes Forum, where the collections are stored in climate-controlled storage, provides access to historical materials of great importance to the understanding of cartography. Given the historical depth and the beginnings of cartography, which are anchored in early history, active engagement with the collection is all the more important. From the oldest known maps and their evolution over centuries to modern cartographic practices as influenced by the work of Justus Perthes, the history of cartography provides a comprehensive context for today's practice.

In summary, the event on June 18, 2025 will not only shed light on the extensive history of the publishing house, but also show the cultural and scientific interconnections that have shaped Gotha's cartographic heritage. Interest in such topics remains evident as we recognize the crucial role that maps and cartographers have played in understanding our world.