Martin Mulsow given a farewell ceremony at the Gotha Research Centre

As part of the Gotha Alumni Meeting entitled “Being Social, Doing Knowledge, Connecting Far and Wide”, a farewell ceremony was held on 18 June for the former director of the Gotha Research Centre, Professor Martin Mulsow. More than 80 guests gathered in the lecture theatre to pay tribute to Martin Mulsow’s research and his work as director of the Gotha Research Centre. In their welcoming addresses, Professor André Brodocz (Vice-President for Research and Academic Careers), Gotha’s Lord Mayor Knut Kreuch, Dr Kathrin Paasch (Director of the Gotha Research Library) and Dr Timo Trümper (Director of Research and Collections at the Friedenstein Foundation in Gotha) highlighted the breadth of Martin Mulsow’s research interests as well as his inexhaustible curiosity, even regarding minor or seemingly obscure topics.

Following a keynote lecture by the American literary scholar Professor Liliane Weissberg on the topic of “Objects of the Enlightenment”, five of Mulsow’s academic students – Dr Asaph Ben-Tov (University of Hamburg), Dr Lucinda Martin (Wetzlar/New York), Professor Alexander Schunka (Free University of Berlin), PD Dr Benjamin Steiner (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) and Dr habil. Riccarda Suitner (Sapienza – Università di Roma) – spoke about how Martin Mulsow had inspired and helped shape their research interests and their life and career paths. Dr Markus Meumann, Acting Director of the Gotha Research Centre pointed out that the five different academic profiles reflected the diversity of Martin Mulsow’s research interests.

This was followed by a summer party in the courtyard of the Gotha Research Centre.