Gotha Perthes Collection once again becomes a training camp for the German national team

The youngsters Tilman (Saarland), Artur (Saxony), Merle (Schleswig-Holstein) and Fiona (Hesse) are the winners of their respective state competitions and qualified for the national team at the national finals in Erfurt. To prepare for their trip to Istanbul, they will go to "training camp" on 27 and 28 March. And this will be the Gotha Perthes Collection Gotha for the second time. After all, what better place for this than the former "Central Office of Geographical Research in Germany" – the time-honoured halls of the Justus Perthes publishing house.

As the only surviving map publishing archive on the European continent, the Gotha Perthes Collection contains unique source material on the development of cartography and geography in the 19th and 20th centuries. In the unity and interconnectedness of its holdings, it documents the last phase of the Age of Discovery, during which the interior of the non-European continents and the polar regions were explored.

The maps, atlases and journals published by Justus Perthes and later by “VEB Hermann Haack”, above all "Stielers Handatlas" and "Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen", shaped the scientific image of the earth well into the 20th century and popularised it for a broad public.

During their visit, the four students, together with team leader Dr Florian Ringel, will not only gain an insight into map production since the early 19th century at the Gotha Perthes Collection, but will also go on a themed excursion through the royal seat and the urban geography of Gotha. An overnight stay in the new youth hostel in Gotha is planned for the second training camp. And, of course, the team will have the opportunity to ask questions about the content and geography of the city and to go through the collections in order to be prepared for Istanbul.

Sven Ballenthin, an employee at the Gotha Perthes Collection, is looking forward to the visit in March: "Just as chief cartographer August Petermann once provided explorers with his knowledge and then sent them out into the world from Gotha to bring new geographical information back here, a new generation of geography enthusiasts from Germany will now set off for the Emerald Isle - with final preparations and encouragement from Gotha. A wonderful opportunity for us to reconnect Gotha with the world after a successful premiere two years ago!" After the last training camp and a very successful iGeo in Dublin 2024, the participants travelled back to Germany with three bronze and one silver medal.