WissensSpuren Newsletter

News about the Leipziger WissensSpuren

🇬🇧 23 May 2026. May the STEAM be with you

How did men make it to the Moon?

Stories about trips to the Moon and to the stars have been told from the very beginnings of cultural evolution. Early on deserving heroes have been immortalized in the heavens. In several novels Jules Verne dealt with the trip From the Earth to the Moon, and The Little Prince came to us from Asteroid B 612. Presently, time-traveling steampunks come to Leipzig every Pentecost.

And presently humankind is (again? finally?) on its way to the stars. October 30, 2000, was the last time no one was up in space. Since 25 years we have space tourism. On April 1, 2026, astronauts orbited the Moon again. A manned Moon landing is planned for two years from now. And then we’ll head to Mars, to the meteorites, to the stars. I am particularly fascinated that the new spaceship has been named Orion. After all „Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion“ was a West German TV production that cleared the streets of West Germany with viewership ratings of well over 50%. Will space travel ever become that popular?

Announcement based on pictures by [KELLEPICS](https://pixabay.com/users/kellepics-4893063/?tab=all&order=ec&pagi=1), via [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/service/license-summary/).

Further information is available on our homepage.

Registration for this event can be made on our ticketing site.

#WissensSpuren #EnglishTour #Leipzig

🇬🇧🇩🇪 23–25 May 2026. Don't panic: Towel Day Festival

On the Towel Day weekend we’ll have a festival to mark the 25th anniversary of Douglas Adams death: Which of his prophecies have (almost) come true? What do we need to watch out for? How do we best embrace his advice: Don’t panic?

Anouncement based on photos of Douglas Adams Macintosh SE 30 and der Beflaggung in Salzburg am Towel Day 2005. Quellen: Bildausschnitte von Fotos von Joho345, [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Douglas_Adams_Macintosh.jpg) and of Towel Day Flags in Salzburg by Bazillus on the English Wikipedia, [CC BY-SA 3.0](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Towelday-Innsbruck.jpg).

In collaboration with the INSPIRATA and the German Museum of Books and Writing (DBSM) of the German National Library we are organizing the party in Leipzig:

#WissensSpuren #Festival #WissenInLeipzig #Leipzig

🇩🇪🧒 10 May 2026. Skelette, Zahlen, Zauberformeln

On Mother’s Day, we organized a parent-and-child treasure hunt with time for solving puzzles and laughing together, and lots of fun with numbers. The participants started their tour at 10am in the Institute for Veterinary Anatomy, proceeded to the Botanical Garden, and had a third and final stop in the INSPIRATA. At 4pm a considerable number of participants was still sitting in the INSPIRATA!

Photo: Team WissensSpuren

A detailed retrospection of the event is available on our German page.

#WissensSpuren #StadtSpaziergang #KinderTouren #WissenInLeipzig #Leipzig

Sun 19 April 2026. The Emergence of Scientific Disciplines

19 April 2026 was the 225th birthday of the polymath and founding director of the Leipzig Physics Institute, Gustav Theodor Fechner. Tracing his life story, we followed the major structural changes of the university during the 19th century: The transition from a national constitution to a faculty constitution — and the establishment of scientific institutes in the faculties.

Portrait of Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) from the *Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology*. [Smithsonian Institution Libraries](https://library.si.edu/image-gallery), Image ID: [SIL-SIL14-f002-01](https://library.si.edu/image-gallery/73526).

We are immensely grateful to Elmar Schenkel (Leipzig University) for joining the tour and generously sharing his vast knowledge about Gustav Fechner and his contemporaries in Leipzig. We warmly recommend to take a look into his book Die elektrische Himmelsleiter that comprises a short biography of Gustav Fechner.

Further information is available on our homepage.

Discussion round in front of the Villa Fechner. Photo: Team WissenSpuren.

#WissensSpuren #WissenInLeipzig #EnglishTour #Leipzig

Retrospection of the tour on 8 March 2026.

Discussing women's rights at the [Gedenkstätte Riebeckstraße 63](https://riebeckstrasse63.de/der-ort/), the former location of the pediatric university hospital, and in the Lene-Voigt Park. Photos: Team WissensSpuren.

A comprehensive #Retrospection of our #citytour conducted on the 8th of March, »235 Jahre Frauenrechte« (»235 years of women's rights«), is available on our homepage.

#WissensSpuren #EnglishTour #WissenInLeipzig #Leipzig

Sun 8 March 2026. 235 Jahre Frauenrechte

235 years ago, author and political activist Olympe de Gouges published the Déclaration des droits de la Femme et de la Citoyenne (Declaration of the Rights of Women and Citizens), and it took almost 200 years for them to be implemented in Western Europe. On the International Women’s Day, we will trace the long road to their adoption, search for traces of the important contributions made by women in Leipzig, — and we will discuss where we stand today.

Portrait of Olympes de Gouges (1748–1793) by Alexander Kucharsky (1741–1819). Public domain, via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Olympe_de_Gouges.png).

Further information is available on our homepage.

Registration for this event can be made on our ticketing site.

#WissensSpuren #Stadtspaziergang #Spurensuche #WissenInLeipzig #Leipzig

Retrospection of the tour on 7 February 2026.

Announcement based on a drawing of Joachim Ringelnatz: [„Kinder-Verwirr-Buch“](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Kinder-Verwirr-Buch). Public Domain, via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kinder-Verwirr-Buch_07.jpg)

A comprehensive #review of our #EnglishTour of the 7th of February is available on our homepage

#WissensSpuren #EnglishTour #WissenInLeipzig #Leipzig

Retrospection of the tour on 31 January 2026.

Prof Flöter, Dr Goll and tour participants in the Exhibition entitled »Freiräume für Bildung – Schule und Architektur im Dialog« (»open spaces for education – schools and architecture in dialogue«). Photo: Team WissensSpuren.

A comprehensive #review of the #citytour conducted on the 31st of January 2026, »Innovative Schulen und Pädagogik« (»Innovative Schools and Pedagogics«) is now available on our web site.

#WissensSpuren #StadtSpaziergang #Spurensuche #Leipzig

7 February 2026. The Benefits of Diversity

We will explore new research on the benefits of diversity: Learning is enhanced when students tackle new concepts form a multitude of different perspectives. A team of consultants comes up with more diverse and better ideas when it involves specialists of many different disciplines. Ecosystems tend to be more resilient to external perturbations when they feature a higher biodiversity. How can our society profit from embracing diversity?

Different fruit of the forest canopy on Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Photo: Christian Ziegler. [CC BY 2.5](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5), via [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forest_fruits_from_Barro_Colorado.png).

Further information is available on our homepage.

Registration for this event can be made on our ticketing site.

#WissensSpuren #EnglishTour #Leipzig

31 January 2026. Innovative Schulen und Pädagogik

The School Museum is currently hosting a special exhibition entitled “Freiräume für Bildung – Schule und Architektur im Dialog” (Freedom for Education – Schools and Architecture in Dialogue). We are taking this as an opportunity to venture out on a tour exploring old and new school buildings, as well as classic, still relevant, and brand-new educational concepts.

Announcement based on a photo from [pxhere.com](https://pxhere.com/en/photo/696434)

Further information is available on our homepage.

Registration for this event can be made on our ticketing site.

#WissensSpuren #Stadtspaziergang #Spurensuche #Leipzig