On 5 August 2017 Professor Joachim Whaley opened the latest exhibition in Schloss Friedenstein in Gotha, Thüringen with a lecture on the Duchess Luise Dorothea von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg.

The exhibition entitled ,Voller Esprit und Wissensdurst – Herzogin Luise Dorothea von Sachsen-Gotha-Altenburg (1710-1767) in ihrer Zeit‘ documents the life and achievements of the woman who turned Gotha into one of the most important cultural centres in eighteenth-century Germany. Long before anything of interest happened in Weimar, Princess Luise Dorothea promoted the arts and sciences, corresponded with Voltaire and many other luminaries and earned herself the reputation of being the ‘German Minerva’. It is with good reason that she has been described as the ‘Großmutter der deutschen Klassik’.