The keynote speech will be given by former scholarship holder Professor Nils Güttler (Vienna). He will speak on the topic "After nature: Frankfurt Airport and the history of environmental knowledge". Gotha's Lord Mayor Knut Kreuch and representatives of the Thyssen Foundation and the Ernst Abbe Foundation have also confirmed their attendance.
The "Herzog Ernst Scholarship Programme" in Gotha was initially funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation and is currently supported by the Ernst Abbe Foundation Jena. Over the past 20 years, more than 400 scholarship holders have been able to explore and re-interrogate sources at the Gotha Research Library.