Education

Another innovation from Thuringia is the Kindergarten (one of the few German words known worldwide). Friedrich Fröbel invented the Kindergarten in 1838. It means “garden for the children” and introduced a revolutionary didactic concept: human beings are like flowers that need to be nourished to develop their full capability. Not only the lives of the children profit from the unique Thuringian childcare system, but also the careers of their mothers. It is important to us to train the brains of our inhabitants and employees. Adam Riese thought the same. He published one of the first German arithmetic books in Erfurt/Thuringia in 1518. Almost five hundred years later you will still hear people say: “According to Adam Riese, two plus two is four”.

The foundation for a knowledge-based economy is a functioning infrastructure. Thuringia has at its disposal excellently trained employees. 14,1% are academics, 16,1 % are technicians or master craftspersons and 51,6% are skilled workers. Four internationally renowned universities and various research and development institutions are constantly making new industrially oriented discoveries. A well-organised technology-transfer system then helps our small and medium-sized enterprises to cooperate with them and to translate this knowledge into innovations for a global market.