The “Villa Gotaha” first sees the light of history in a document issued by Charlemagne, king of the Franks, in the year 775, and is thus one of the oldest settlements in Thuringia. One of the most important East-West trade routes, the “Hohe Strasse (high street), went past the settlement on the so-called “good water” Gotha has enjoyed a town charter since the 12th century and, with its fortified castle, very early achieved its strategic importance as the seat of the Thuringian landgraves.

Due to its exceptional location, medieval Gotha became one of the most important centres for trade in Thuringia. In particular the trade with woad, a colouring plant, brought the citizens a good income and modest prosperity. Even today the splendid town-houses on the central market square (Hauptmarkt) are testimony to this era. The history of the town was shaped by important personalities. Apart from the reformers Martin Luther and Frederick Myconius the educationalist Andreas Reyher, whose “Gotha School Methodology” was one of the first school regulations in Germany, worked in Gotha.

In 1820 and 1827, respectively, the merchant Ernst Wilhelm Arnoldi (1778-1841) founded the first fire insurance bank and the first life insurance bank of Germany. In 1826 Josef Meyer (1796-1856) founded the Bibliographic Institute, one of the largest publishers of dictionaries in Germany and publisher of the encyclopaedia “Meyer’s Universal-Lexikon”, which is still in existence.

Important conferences took place in Gotha. The “Deutsche Schützenbund”, the confederation of German shooting clubs, was founded in the “Stadthalle” ballroom in 1861 and the workers’ parties of Ferdinand Lassalle and August Bebel united to form the “Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands” (Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany) in 1875.

After the tragedies and heavy destructions of the Second World War, the difficult years of reconstruction began. From 1950 to 1990 the townscape changed noticeably and new residential areas sprang up on the outskirts of the town.