Tambach-Dietharz

Last Sunday, Geotope Day was celebrated throughout Germany. This year, our Geopark welcomed visitors to the Bromacker excavation site.

Silvia Reyer-Rohde, head of the Geopark's management office, moderated the visitor programme. Numerous Geopark employees and representatives of the BROMACKER research project were available to answer guests' questions and provide information.

After a welcome by Marco Schütz (Mayor of Tambach-Dietharz) and Florian Hofmann (Mayor of Georgenthal), further introductory remarks were given by Dr Tobias Pfeifer-Helke (Director of the Friedenstein Foundation Gotha), Tilo Kummer (Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Energy and Forestry), Kay Brückmann (Mayor of Friedrichroda) and Onno Eckert (District Administrator of Gotha). Minister Kummer was then greeted with a small gift in a ceremony. The Thuringian Ministry of the Environment, represented by the Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Energy and Forestry, Tilo Kummer, not only confirmed its financial support for the excavations at the Bromacker fossil site for the years 2025–2026, but also reaffirmed its political commitment to long-term funding.

A special item on the agenda was the lecture by Dr Gösta Hoffmann from the German UNESCO Commission on the special features of the international Bromacker dinosaur site as a national geotope. Philipp Knaus (Museum of Natural History Berlin) and Jakob Stubenrauch (Friedrich Schiller University Jena) then presented the results of the BROMACKER research project 2020–2025.

The Tambach Carnival Club provided refreshments in the form of drinks, bratwurst and steaks. At the same time, visitors were able to view original finds and casts at an exhibition stand. Dr Tom Hübner (Friedenstein Foundation Gotha) and staff from the Geopark management office were on hand to answer questions. Stephan Brauner (Geopark geologist) also answered specific questions about the special features of the UNESCO Global Geopark Thuringian Inselsberg – Drei Gleichen at the Geopark stand.

The event concluded with a guided tour of the Bromacker dinosaur site and the ‘Lucy’ quarry, led by Dr Tom Hübner and Stephan Brauner, which provided exciting insights into the research being carried out there.

We would like to thank all the speakers, partners, helpers and the numerous visitors who made this day such a special experience.