Ernst Abbe Sportfeld is a sports facility in

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, Germany. It was dedicated on 24 August 1924 and was named after entrepreneur

Ernst Abbe Ernst Karl Abbe HonFRMS (23 January 1840 – 14 January 1905) was a German physicist, optical scientist, entrepreneur, and social reformer. Together with Otto Schott and Carl Zeiss, he developed numerous optical instruments. He was also a co-ow ...

15 years later. The facility is in southern Jena, directly on the

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale (german: Sächsische Saale) and Thuringian Saale (german: Thüringische Saale), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, ...

River. The City of Jena purchased the stadium from the Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung (The Ernst Abbe Foundation) in 1991. The soccer and track stadium in the Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld is the home field of

FC Carl Zeiss Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German football club based in Jena, Thuringia. Formed in 1903 and initially associated with the Carl Zeiss AG factory, they were one of the strongest clubs in East Germany from the 1960s to the 1980s, winning the DDR-Obe ...

. It was homestead for famous sprints, javelin throw and long jump athletes like Petra Felke and

Heike Drechsler Heike Gabriela Drechsler (; ; born 16 December 1964) is a German former track and field athlete who represented East Germany and later Germany. One of the most successful long jumpers of all-time, she is a former world record holder and ranks ...

, when Sport-Club Motor Jena still existed, and it has a capacity of over 12,990. There are 6,540 seats with 4,010 covered seats in the main stands. The spectator capacity will be increased to 14,000. 1997 saw the replacement of the original wooden bleachers from 1924 (which could seat only 420 people) with the new, modern stands to accommodate more spectators. The stadium's lights were mounted on four massive, hollow steel towers and were the result of the 1974 and 1994 renovations of the facility. The steel towers were taken down in 2013. The electronic scoreboard was installed in 1978 and was the first of its kind in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

. The attendance record was set in 1962. Despite the then official capacity of 16,000 spectators, approximately 27,500 visitors found the way into the stadium for the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

semi-final versus

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

. Next to the stadium are additional facilities for soccer, track, and various other sports.

Miscellanea

The world record for the

javelin throw The javelin throw is a track and field event where the javelin, a spear about in length, is thrown. The javelin thrower gains momentum by running within a predetermined area. Javelin throwing is an event of both the men's decathlon and the ...

was set at the Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld on May 25, 1996 by

Jan Železný Jan Železný (; born 16 June 1966) is a Czech former track and field athlete who competed in the javelin throw. He is a World and Olympic champion and holds the world record with a throw of . Widely considered to be the greatest javelin throwe ...

References

External links

NordOstFussball.de (in German) has picturesWorld Stadiums
{{FC Carl Zeiss Jena Football venues in East Germany Football venues in Germany Athletics (track and field) venues in Germany Buildings and structures in Jena FC Carl Zeiss Jena Sports venues in Thuringia FF USV Jena