Conferences & Workshops

The afterlife of the Enlightenment - continuities and networks between the late 18th and early 19th centuries

Men sit at a table in a dark room with a central lamp and read
Johann Peter Hasenclever: The Reading Cabinet, 1843, public domain.

Date: 26.03.2026 - 27.03.2026
Location: Gotha Research Centre
Organisation: Martin Mulsow, Gotha Research Centre/University of Erfurt; Isabel Heide, Research Training Group 2999 "Politics of the Enlightenment" at the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of the European Enlightenment (IZEA) at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU)

The period between 1770 and 1820 marks a phase of profound social, political and intellectual upheaval: the transition from the ancien régime characterised by the estates to bourgeois society, from the absolutist state to early liberalism, but also from Enlightenment rationalism to the Romantic search for meaning made this "saddle period" (Reinhart Koselleck) a hinge of modernity. At the same time, it is becoming increasingly clear in research that this period of upheaval was characterised not only by ruptures, but also by long continuities and complex transitions.

Particularly in the area of late Enlightenment networks, institutions and ideas, it is possible to recognise a continued impact beyond the caesura of the French Revolution of 1789. Biographical developments show how Enlightenment actors reacted to new political realities - be it through withdrawal, reorientation or the continuation of Enlightenment practice in a different form. The transformation processes from secret societies to political associations, from informal salons to organised societies or from religious-philosophical circles to editorial and journalistic platforms also raise new questions.

The aim of the conference is to analyse these transitions from an interdisciplinary perspective. We are interested in biographical trajectories, institutional reorganisations, ideational transformations and network dynamics that determined the afterlife of the Enlightenment between the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

We invite contributions that open up new perspectives on the Enlightenment and its after-effects, work in a methodologically innovative way or focus on actors, spaces and formats that have received little attention to date.

Contact:

Isabel Heide

Conference programme

26 March 2026

9:00 – 9:15  Einführung (Introduction)

I Wissenskulturen, Netzwerke und institutionelle Transformationen (Cultures of knowledge, networks and institutional transformations)

9:15 – 10.00
Prof. Dr. Martin Mulsow (Gotha/Erfurt): Naturwissenschaftliche Netzwerke als Hintergrund der Radikalaufklärung? Christian Ernst Wünsch, die Illuminaten und das 19. Jahrhundert  (Scientific networks as a background to the Radical Enlightenment? Christian Ernst Wünsch, the Illuminati and the 19th century)

10.00 – 10.45 
Prof. Dr. Hiram Kümper (Mannheim): Von der Akademie zum Press-Verein: das Nachleben aufklärerischer Milieus in der Kurpfalz (1770–1830)  (From the Academy to the Press Association: the afterlife of Enlightenment milieus in the Electoral Palatinate [1770-1830])

10:45 – 11.15  Coffee break

11.15 – 12.00 
Dr. habil. András Forgó (Pécs): Blütezeit und Niedergang? Ungarische Piaristen vor und nach der Französischen Revolution (Flourishing and decline? Hungarian Piarists before and after the French Revolution)

12.00 – 12.45 
Karolina Belina, M. A. (Tübingen): Aus aufgeklärter Jugend – aufklärerische Staatsmänner? Beamte des Herzogtums Warschau  (From enlightened youth - enlightened statesmen? Officials of the Duchy of Warsaw)

12.45 – 14.15 Lunch break

14.15 – 15.00 
Robert Proske, M. A. (Jena): Gewaltbereite Geheimgesellschaften der deutschen Nationalbewegung im Kontinuum der Gegenaufklärung. 1780-1830 (Violent secret societies of the German national movement in the continuum of the Counter-Enlightenment. 1780-1830)

 

II Aufklärung, Religion und intellektueller Wandel (Enlightenment, religion and intellectual change)

15.00 – 15.45 
Dr. Markus Meumann (Gotha/Erfurt): Das personifizierte Nachleben der Aufklärung: Adam Weishaupts ‚zweites Leben‘ in Gotha, 1787–1830  (The personified afterlife of the Enlightenment: Adam Weishaupt's 'second life' in Gotha, 1787-1830)

15.45 – 16.15 Coffee break

16.15 – 17.00 
Isabel Heide, M. A. (Halle): Von der Zürcher Aufklärung zur Wiener Zensur: Johann Michael Armbruster und sein Verhältnis zum Illuminatenorden  (From the Zurich Enlightenment to Viennese censorship: Johann Michael Armbruster and his relationship to the Illuminati Order)

17.00 – 17.45 
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Burgdorf (München): Ein Geheimbund gegen Geheimbünde. Der Anti-Illuminaten-Orden des Johann Ludwig Klüber (A secret society against secret societies. The Anti-Illuminati Order of Johann Ludwig Klüber)

17.45 –  18.30 
Book presentation „Aufklärung und Residenzstadt. Das intellektuelle Gotha um 1800“, hg. von Martin Mulsow und Dirk Sangmeister

 

27 March 2026

9.00 – 9.45
Prof. Dr. Arne Klawitter (Tokio): Vom Freigeist zum gläubigen Christen. Der Gesinnungswandel des Diplomaten, Philosophen und Orientalisten Heinrich Friedrich Diez (1751–1817) (From free spirit to devout Christian. The change of heart of the diplomat, philosopher and orientalist Heinrich Friedrich Diez [1751-1817])

9.45 – 10.30 
Dr. Diethard Sawicki (Halle): „Juden, Heiden, Türken können nicht Maurer sein“ – Christliche Freimaurerei und Erweckungsbewegung im frühen 19. Jahrhundert  (" Jews, pagans, Turks cannot be masons" - Christian freemasonry and the revivalist movement in the early 19th century)

10.30 – 11.00 Coffee break

III Öffentlichkeit, Geschlecht und Publizistik (Publicity, gender and journalism)

11.00 – 11.45 
Prof. Dr. Theo Jung (Halle): Die Debatte im Salon: André Morellet und die Politisierung der Geselligkeit im postrevolutionären Paris (The debate in the salon: André Morellet and the politicisation of sociability in post-revolutionary Paris)

11.45 – 12.30 
Dr. Adelheid Müller (Berlin): Aufklärerisches Orientierungswissen in enzyklopädischer Form – Elisa von der Reckes ‚Gedankenbuch‘ (Enlightenment orientation knowledge in encyclopaedic form - Elisa von der Recke's 'thought book')

12.30 – 14.00  Lunch break

14.00 – 14.45 
PD Dr. Tobias Winnerling (Düsseldorf): Unbeirrtes Sich-Fortschreiben? Das Weiterleben der Gelehrtenlexika (Unwavering continuation of writing? The survival of scholarly encyclopaedias)

14.45 – 15.30 
PD Dr. Demian Berger (Zürich): Das polemische Nachleben der Aufklärung im 19. Jahrhundert  (On Enlightenment's polemical afterlife in the 19th century )

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The event is a co-operation of:

Oil painting, crowded room with open books on bookends, vessels in the foreground, on the right a man in red clothing, on the left at the window two other people
Interior with an alchemist, by Thomas Wijck. Wellcome Library, London. CC BY 4.0.

Spring meeting 2026 of the alchemy network

Date: Friday, 24 April 2026
Location: Lecture hall at the Gotha Research Centre, Schloßberg 2

Contact: Prof Dr Martin Mulsow, Dr Thomas Moenius
E-mail: forschungszentrum@uni-erfurt.de

Programme

Chair: Martin Mulsow

9.30 am - 9.45 am
Introduction

9.45 a.m. - 10.15 a.m.
Florian Ebeling (Munich): Die Alchemie als ägyptische Weisheit in der Freimaurerei des 18. Jh. (Alchemy as Egyptian wisdom in 18th century Freemasonry)

10.15 a.m. - 10.45 a.m. 
Holger Zaunstöck (Halle): Der Medicus Malabaricus von 1712 – eine Quelle für die Alchemiegeschichte? (The Medicus Malabaricus of 1712 - a source for the history of alchemy?)

10.45 a.m. - 11.00 a.m.
Coffee Break

Chair: Thomas Moenius

11.00 a.m. - 11.30 a.m.
Volkhard Wels (Berlin): Alchemie und das literarische Spiel (Alchemy and the literary game)

11.30 a.m. - 12.00 p.m.
Kathrin Pfister (Heidelberg): Briefwechsel von Joachim Polemann (1624-?) (Correspondence of Joachim Polemann [1624-?])

12.00 p.m. - 2.00 p.m.
Lunch at the Augustinian Monastery

Chair: Rainer Werthmann

14.00 - 14.30
Alexander Kraft (Eichwalde): Wege zur Universaltinktur: Dorothea Juliana Wallich. Ihr Leben und ihre Werke (Paths to the universal tincture: Dorothea Juliana Wallich. Her life and her works)

2.30 p.m. - 3.00 p.m.
Nils Lenke (Rheinbach): Gertraud von Veltheim (1585-1622) – „verständige Matrone“ oder versteckte Alchemistin? (Gertraud von Veltheim (1585-1622) - "Wise matron" or hidden alchemist?)

3.00 p.m. - 3.30 p.m.
Coffee Break

Chair: Alexander Kraft

3.30 pm - 4.00 pm
Rainer Werthmann (Kassel): Baron von Schwarzstein – ein Sammler alchemischer Vorschriften für Herzog Friedrich I. von Sachsen-Gotha (Baron von Schwarzstein - a collector of alchemical prescriptions for Duke Friedrich I of Saxe-Gotha)

4.00 p.m. - 4.30 p.m.
Juergen Hollweg (Bayreuth): Netzwerkstrukturen frühneuzeitlicher Chemiker um 1600. Regionale Verteilung (Network structures of early modern chemists around 1600: regional distribution)

16.30 - 17.00
Conclusion

CfP: Married, rejected, banished: divorced women of high nobility 1600-1850

Conference Poster, based on a blurred portrait of a woman with two children

1826 - a union and a separation

The year 1826 marks a decisive turning point in European dynastic history: In November of that year, the Duchy of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha was created by the Treaty of Hildburghausen, whose ruling house established family ties with a large number of ruling princely houses through a skilful marriage policy in the 19th and early 20th centuries and ascended to the throne in several European countries. The birth of the ducal house was already based on a marriage, the marriage of Duke Ernst of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (1784-1844) to Princess Luise of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg (1800-1831), the daughter of the penultimate Duke of Gotha, August, which took place in 1817 for political reasons. Although this union was essential for the Coburg line to assert itself against the other Ernestine houses, Ernst I divorced his wife in the very year the new duchy was founded. Two years earlier, Luise had already been banished to St. Wendel in the Principality of Lichtenberg (in today's Saarland), separated from her two sons, with whom she was no longer allowed to have any contact.

The conference planned jointly by the Gotha Research Centre and the Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel is the first to systematically examine such cases of divorced women of high nobility from the 16th to the early 19th century on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the creation of the new duchy. In addition to well-known examples such as the English Queen Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the Hanoverian electoral princess Sophie Dorothea (1666-1726), who became famous as the "Princess of Ahlden", or the Danish Queen Caroline Mathilde (1751-1775), there are numerous other cases that have so far received little or no attention from historical research. These include one of Luise's contemporaries: Elisabeth Christine Ulrike von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1746-1840) was divorced from her husband Frederick William II of Prussia in 1769 and exiled to Stettin, where she spent the remaining 70 years of her life.

Individual cases received media attention as 'tragic women's fates'; even at the time, these were sometimes highly discursive events that were discussed in pamphlets, newspapers or on medals. However, the underlying motives and contexts, such as the complex legal aspects of marriages with connotations of domination and power politics that become visible in these separations, have not yet been comprehensively analysed.

The aim of the conference is therefore to systematically analyse various similar examples of women from the high nobility who were repudiated and/or whose marriages ended in divorce. Of equal relevance are attempted divorces and the reasons why these did not ultimately take place. Why were divorces attempted? Which actors were involved? Who intervened and on whose side? How were the respective legal-historical or legal arguments put forward in detail? Did the separation also become a media topic? To what extent did the women concerned express themselves in letters or literature?

The analysis will focus on cases from the two lines of the House of Wettin and the House of Guelph, but the conference is expressly not limited to these. Case studies from other European countries can also be informative, as can contributions from other disciplines, for example from a theological, legal-historical or literary perspective. Proposals for presentations of approx. 25 minutes in length should be sent to markus.meumann@uni-erfurt.de and dziudzia@hab.de by 30 April 2026.

 

Literature (selection):

Baumann, Anette and Inken Schmidt-Voges and Siegrid Westphal: Venus and Vulcanus. Ehen und ihre Konflikte in der Frühen Neuzeit, Munich 2011.

Gäde, Katrin: Controversial marriage law. Action strategies and negotiation processes in the divorce proceedings of noble couples from the 18th to the 19th century, in: Frühneuzeit-Info 26 (2015), pp. 142-151.

Iffert, Katrin: Failed marriages in the nobility. Separation and divorce of the ducal couple Alexius Friedrich Christian and Marie Friederike zu Anhalt-Bernburg (1794-1817), in: Eva Labouvie (ed.): Adel in Sachsen-Anhalt, Cologne 2007, pp. 9-122.

Lettmaier, Saskia: Spouses, Church, and State. Marriage Law in England and Protestant Germany from the Reformation until the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Tübingen 2025.

Walther, Stefanie: The (dis)order of marriage. Norms and practice of Ernestine marriages in the early modern period, Munich 2011.