city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and the second largest city in
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
. Together with the nearby cities of
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
and
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a population of about 110,000. Jena is a centre of education and research; the
Friedrich Schiller University
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The un ...
was founded in 1558 and had 18,000 students in 2017 and the Ernst-Abbe-Fachhochschule Jena counts another 5,000 students. Furthermore, there are many institutes of the leading German research societies.
Jena was first mentioned in 1182 and stayed a small town until the 19th century, when industry developed. For most of the 20th century, Jena was a world centre of the optical industry around companies such as
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practica ...
Jenoptik
Jenoptik AG is a Jena, Germany-based integrated photonics group. The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is included in the TecDAX stock index.
History
The group can trace its heritage back to the original Carl Zeiss AG comp ...
(since 1990). As one of only a few medium-sized cities in Germany, it has some high-rise buildings in the city centre, such as the
JenTower
The JenTower is a skyscraper in Jena, Germany.
Common names
The tower has been known by many names, official and unofficial. From 1992 until January 2005, the tower was called the ''Intershop Tower'' after its principal tenant, Intershop Commun ...
. These also have their origin in the former Carl Zeiss factory.
Between 1790 and 1850, Jena was a focal point of the German
Vormärz
' (; English: ''pre-March'') was a period in the history of Germany preceding the 1848 March Revolution in the states of the German Confederation. The beginning of the period is less well-defined. Some place the starting point directly after the ...
as well as of the student liberal and unification movement and German Romanticism. Notable persons of this period in Jena were
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
,
Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
,
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...
,
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...
,
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...
, and
August Wilhelm Schlegel
August Wilhelm (after 1812: von) Schlegel (; 8 September 176712 May 1845), usually cited as August Schlegel, was a German poet, translator and critic, and with his brother Friedrich Schlegel the leading influence within Jena Romanticism. His trans ...
.
The city's economy is based on the high-technology industry and research. The optical and precision industry is the leading branch to date, while software engineering, other digital businesses and biotechnology are of growing importance. Furthermore, Jena is also a service hub for the surrounding regions.
Jena lies in a hilly landscape in the east of Thuringia, within the wide valley of 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. Due to its rocky landscape, varied substrate and mixed forests, Jena is known in Germany for the wide variety of wild
orchids
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
which can be found within walking distance of the town. Local nature reserves are maintained by volunteers and
NABU
Nabu ( akk, cuneiform: 𒀭𒀝 Nabû syr, ܢܵܒܼܘܼ\ܢܒܼܘܿ\ܢܵܒܼܘܿ Nāvū or Nvō or Nāvō) is the ancient Mesopotamian patron god of literacy, the rational arts, scribes, and wisdom.
Etymology and meaning
The Akkadian "nab ...
.
History
Middle Ages
Until the
High Middle Ages
The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history that lasted from AD 1000 to 1300. The High Middle Ages were preceded by the Early Middle Ages and were followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended ...
, 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, ...
was the border between Germanic regions in the west and Slavic regions in the east. Owing to its function as a river crossing, Jena was conveniently located. Nevertheless, there were also some more important Saale crossings such as the nearby cities of
Naumburg
Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...
to the north and
Saalfeld
Saalfeld (german: Saalfeld/Saale) is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the S ...
to the south, so that the relevance of Jena was more local during the Middle Ages. The first unequivocal mention of Jena was in an 1182 document. The first local rulers of the region were the Lords of Lobdeburg with their eponymous castle near Lobeda, roughly south of the city centre on the eastern hillside of the Saale valley.
In the 13th century, the Lords of Lobdeburg founded two towns in the valley: Jena on the west bank and Lobeda – which is one of Jena's constituent communities today – to the south on the east bank. Around 1230, Jena received town rights and a regular city grid was established between today's Fürstengraben, Löbdergraben, Teichgraben and Leutragraben. The city got a marketplace, main church, town hall, council and city walls during the late 13th and early 14th centuries making it into a fully fledged town. In this time, the city's economy was based mainly on wine production on the warm and sunny hillsides of the Saale valley. The two monasteries of the Dominicans (1286) and the
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
s (1301) rounded out Jena's medieval appearance.
As the political circumstances in Thuringia changed in the middle of the 14th century, the weakened Lords of Lobdeburg sold Jena to the aspiring Wettins in 1331. Jena obtained the
Gotha
Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...
municipal law and the citizens strengthened their rights and wealth during the 14th and 15th centuries. Moreover, the Wettins were more interested in their residence in the nearby city of
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, and so Jena could develop itself relatively autonomously.
Early modern period
The
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
was brought to the city in 1523.
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
visited the town to reorganize the clerical relations and Jena became an early centre of his doctrine. In the following years, the Dominican and the
Carmelite
, image =
, caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites
, abbreviation = OCarm
, formation = Late 12th century
, founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel
, founding_location = Mount Car ...
convents were attacked by the townsmen and abolished in 1525 (Carmelite) and 1548 (Dominican).
An important step in Jena's history was the foundation of the
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
Wittenberg
Wittenberg ( , ; Low Saxon language, Low Saxon: ''Wittenbarg''; meaning ''White Mountain''; officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg (''Luther City Wittenberg'')), is the fourth largest town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Wittenberg is situated on the Ri ...
Schmalkaldic War
The Schmalkaldic War (german: link=no, Schmalkaldischer Krieg) was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (simultaneously King Charles I of Spain), commanded by the Duk ...
. During the
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...
,
wine-growing
Viticulture (from the Latin word for ''vine'') or winegrowing (wine growing) is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ran ...
declined in the 17th century, so that the new university became one of the most important sources of income for the city. The same century brought a boom in printing business caused by the rising importance of books (and the population's ability to read) in the Lutheran doctrine, and Jena was the second-largest printing location in Germany after
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
.
The list of the so-called "
Seven Wonders of Jena
The Seven Wonders of Jena ( Latin: ''septem miracula Jenae'') are seven attractions associated historically with the Thuringian university town Jena.
History
In 1558 the University of Jena was founded, soon to become one of the most famous ...
" was composed by students of the university at this time, supposedly as a test of local knowledge in order to confirm that a person who claimed to have studied in Jena was actually familiar with the city.
Beginning in the 16th century, the Ernestine dynasty saw many territorial partitions. Initially, Jena remained a part of
Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar (german: Sachsen-Weimar) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar. The Weimar branch was the most genealogically senior extant bra ...
, but in 1672 it became the capital of its own small duchy (
Saxe-Jena
The Duchy of Saxe-Jena was one of the Saxon Duchies held by the Ernestine line of the Wettin Dynasty. Established in 1672 for Bernhard, fourth son of Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Jena was reincorporated into Saxe-Weimar on the extinction ...
). In 1692, after two dukes ( Bernhard II and Johann Wilhelm), the dukes of Saxe-Jena died out and the duchy became part of
Saxe-Eisenach
Saxe-Eisenach (german: Sachsen-Eisenach) was an Ernestine duchy ruled by the Saxon House of Wettin. The state intermittently existed at three different times in the Thuringian region of the Holy Roman Empire. The chief town and capital of all th ...
and, in 1741, of the
Duchy of Saxe-Weimar
Saxe-Weimar (german: Sachsen-Weimar) was one of the History of Saxony, Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine duchies, Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin, Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar. The Weima ...
, to which it belonged until 1809. From 1809 to 1918, Jena was part of the Duchy (from 1815 Grand Duchy) of
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (german: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) was a historical German state, created as a duchy in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been in personal union since 1741. It was rais ...
, which from 1871 was also part of the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
.
18th century
Around 1790, the university became the largest and most famous one among the German states and made Jena the centre of the self-centred, idealist philosophy of ‘Ich' (with professors such as
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...
,
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends ...
,
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
, and
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him be ...
). It was also home to the early
Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
(with poets such as Novalis, the brothers
August
August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...
and
Friedrich Schlegel
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich (after 1814: von) Schlegel (; ; 10 March 1772 – 12 January 1829) was a German poet, literary critic, philosopher, philologist, and Indologist. With his older brother, August Wilhelm Schlegel, he was one of the main figure ...
, and
Ludwig Tieck
Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
Early life
Tieck was born in Be ...
).
In 1794, the poets
Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...
and
Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendsh ...
met at the university and established a long lasting friendship, based on their love of Shakespeare. Consequently, the reputation of the University and the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach as liberal and open-minded, but severely self-absorbed, was established and enhanced.
19th century
On 14 October 1806,
Napoleon
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
fought and defeated the
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
army here in the
Battle of Jena-Auerstedt
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...
, near the district of Vierzehnheiligen. Resistance against the French occupation was strong, especially among the students. Many of the students fought in the
Lützow Free Corps
Lützow Free Corps ( ) was a volunteer force of the Prussian army during the Napoleonic Wars. It was named after its commander, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow. The Corpsmen were also widely known as the “''Lützower Jäger''“ or “''Schwarz ...
in 1813. Two years later, the
Urburschenschaft
The Urburschenschaft () was the first ''Burschenschaft'', one traditional form of German student fraternities.
It was founded in 1815 in Jena, Thuringia, in Germany. As colours, following their initial use in a state flag by the elder Reuss ...
fraternity was founded in the city.
During the later 19th century, the famous biologist
Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
was professor at the university. The expansion of science and medicine faculties was closely linked to the industrial boom that Jena saw after 1871. The initial spark of industrialization in Jena was the (relatively late) connection to the railway. The
Saal Railway
Saal may refer to:
Places in Germany
* Saal an der Donau, in the district of Kelheim, Bavaria
*Saal an der Saale, in the district Rhön-Grabfeld, Bavaria
* Saal, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in the district Vorpommern-Rügen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ...
(''Saalbahn'', opened in 1874) was the connection from Halle and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
along the Saale valley to
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
and the
Weimar–Gera railway
The Weimar–Gera railway is a line in the German state of Thuringia, connecting the city of Weimar via Jena, Stadtroda and Hermsdorf to Gera. It was built by the Weimar-Gera Railway Company (''Weimar-Geraer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft''), which was f ...
(opened 1876) connected Jena with
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
and
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
in the west as well as
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
and
Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
in the east. Famous pioneers of the Jenaer industry were
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practica ...
and
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 ...
(with their
Carl Zeiss AG
Carl Zeiss AG (), branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe (joined 1866) and Otto Schott (joined 1884) he laid the f ...
) as well as
Otto Schott
Friedrich Otto Schott (1851–1935) was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way ...
(
Schott AG
Schott AG is a German multinational glass company specializing in the manufacture of glass and glass-ceramics. Headquartered in Mainz, Germany, it is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The company's founder and namesake, Otto Schott, is credi ...
). Since that time, production of optical items, precision machinery and laboratory glassware have been the main branches of Jena's economy;
Jena glass
Jena glass (German: ''Jenaer Glas'') is a shock- and heat-resistant glass used in scientific and technological applications, especially in chemistry.
The glass was invented by Otto Schott in 1884 in Jena, Germany, where he had established Schott ...
is even named after the city. Zeiss, Abbe and Schott worked also as social reformers who wanted to improve the living conditions of their workers and the local wealth in general. When Zeiss died in 1889, his company passed to the
Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung
The Carl-Zeiss- Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation), legally located in Heidenheim an der Brenz and Jena, Germany, and with its administrative Headquarter in Stuttgart, is the sole shareholder of the two companies Carl Zeiss AG and Schott AG. It w ...
, which uses great amounts of the company's profits for social benefits such as research projects at universities etc. This model became an example for other German companies (e.g. the
Robert Bosch Stiftung
The Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH () is a German foundation that owns a majority shareholding in Robert Bosch GmbH, from which it derives its funding. The foundation was established in accordance with the wishes of Robert Bosch, who died in 1942, an ...
). In 1898 it was agreed on with several personalities from the Jenaer industrial sector that the city was in need of an electricity generator and in the first years of the 1900s an electrified tramway was founded in Jena.
20th century
Industrialization fundamentally changed the social structure of Jena. The former academic town became a working-class city; the population rose from 8,000 around 1870 up to 71,000 at the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The city expanded along the Saale valley to the north and the south and its side valleys to the east and the west. In 1901, the
tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
system started its operation and the university got a new main building (established between 1906 and 1908 on the former castle's site). After the foundation of
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
in 1920, Jena was one of the three biggest cities (together with
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
and
Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
, while
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
remained part of
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
) and became an
independent city
An independent city or independent town is a city or town that does not form part of another general-purpose local government entity (such as a province).
Historical precursors
In the Holy Roman Empire, and to a degree in its successor states ...
in 1922. The modern optical and glass industry kept booming and the city grew further during Weimar times.
During the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
period, conflicts deepened in Jena between the influential left-wing milieus (communists and social democrats) and the right-wing Nazi milieus. On the one hand, the university suffered from new restrictions against its independence, but on the other hand, it consolidated the Nazi ideology, for example with a professorship of social anthropology (which sought to scientifically legitimize the
racial policy of Nazi Germany
The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented in Nazi Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, based on a specific racist doctrine asserting the superiority of the Aryan race, which claimed scientific legi ...
).
Kristallnacht
() or the Night of Broken Glass, also called the November pogrom(s) (german: Novemberpogrome, ), was a pogrom against Jews carried out by the Nazi Party's (SA) paramilitary and (SS) paramilitary forces along with some participation from ...
in 1938 led to more discrimination against
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
s in Jena, many of whom either emigrated or were arrested and murdered by the German government. This weakened the academic milieu, because many academics were Jews (especially in medicine). During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Buchenwald concentration camp
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
in the city, and a subcamp of the prison in
Sieradz
Sieradz ( la, Siradia, yi, שעראַדז, שערעדז, שעריץ, german: 1941-45 Schieratz) is a city on the Warta river in central Poland with 40,891 inhabitants (2021). It is the seat of the Sieradz County, situated in the Łódź Voivodes ...
in
German-occupied Poland
German-occupied Poland during World War II consisted of two major parts with different types of administration.
The Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany following the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II—nearly a quarter of the ...
.
In 1945, toward the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Jena was repeatedly targeted by Allied bombing raids. 709 people were killed, 2,000 injured, and most of the medieval town centre was destroyed, but in parts restored after the end of the war. No other Thuringian city suffered worse damage, except
Nordhausen Nordhausen may refer to:
* Nordhausen (district), a district in Thuringia, Germany
** Nordhausen, Thuringia, a city in the district
**Nordhausen station, the railway station in the city
* Nordhouse, a commune in Alsace (German: Nordhausen)
* Narost ...
, whose destruction was utter. Jena was occupied by
American troops
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is the ...
on 13 April 1945 and was left to the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
on 1 July 1945.
Jena fell within the
Soviet zone of occupation
The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a c ...
in post-World War II Germany. In 1949, it became part of the new
German Democratic Republic
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
(GDR). The Soviets dismantled great parts of the Zeiss and Schott factories and took them to the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
. On the other hand, the GDR government founded a new
pharmaceutical
A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...
factory in 1950,
Jenapharm
Jenapharm is a pharmaceutical company from Jena, Germany. Founded in 1950 in East Germany, the company focused from the beginning on the production and development of steroids. Due to the economic circumstances of the Eastern Bloc, the company ini ...
, which is part of
Bayer
Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of busi ...
today. In 1953, Jena was a centre of the East German Uprising against GDR policy. The protests with 30,000 participants drew fire from Soviet
tank
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engin ...
s.
The following decades brought some radical shifts in city planning. During the 1960s, another part of the historic city centre was demolished to build the Jen Tower. The Eichplatz in front of the tower is still unbuilt and its future is still the subject of ongoing heated discussion. Big
Plattenbau
(plural: , german: Platte + Bau, lit=panel/slab' + 'building/ construction) is a building constructed of large, prefabrication, prefabricated concrete slabs. The word is a compound of (in this context: panel) and (building). Such buildings ...
settlements were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, because the population was still rising and the housing shortage remained a perpetual problem. New districts established in the north (near Rautal) and in the south (around Winzerla and Lobeda). The opposition against the GDR government was reinforced during the late 1980s in Jena, fed by academic and clerical circles. In autumn 1989, the city saw the largest protests in its history before the GDR government was dissolved.
After 1990, Jena became part of the refounded state of
Thuringia
Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million.
Erfurt is the capital and larg ...
. Industry came into a heavy crisis during the 1990s, but finally it managed the transition to the
market economy
A market economy is an economic system in which the decisions regarding investment, production and distribution to the consumers are guided by the price signals created by the forces of supply and demand, where all suppliers and consumers ...
and today, it is one of the leading economic centres of eastern Germany. Furthermore, the university was enlarged and many new research institutes were founded.
Especially between 1995 and 1997 several far-right crimes were committed in Jena. The city's far-right scene of the 1990s gave rise to the
National Socialist Underground
The National Socialist Underground (german: link=no, Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund, ), or NSU (), was a far-right German neo-Nazi terrorist group which was uncovered in November 2011. The NSU is mostly associated with Uwe Mundlos, Uwe Böhn ...
(NSU) terror group. However, the city is no longer considered a far-right hotspot.
Geography and demographics
Topography
Jena is situated in a hilly landscape in eastern Thuringia at 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, between the
Harz
The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...
mountains in the north, the
Thuringian Forest
The Thuringian Forest (''Thüringer Wald'' in German), is a mountain range in the southern parts of the German state of Thuringia, running northwest to southeast. Skirting from its southerly source in foothills to a gorge on its north-west side i ...
/
Thuringian Highland
The Thuringian Highland, Thuringian Highlands or Thuringian-Vogtlandian Slate MountainsKohl, Horst; Marcinek, Joachim and Nitz, Bernhard (1986). ''Geography of the German Democratic Republic'', VEB Hermann Haack, Gotha, p. 7 ff. . (german: Thüring ...
in the southwest and the Ore Mountains, in the southeast. The municipal terrain is hilly with rugged slopes at the valley's edges. The city centre is situated at 160 m of elevation, whereas the mountains on both sides of Saale valley rise up to 400 m. On the eastern side those are (from north to south): the ''Gleisberg'' near Kunitz, the ''Jenzig'' near Wogau, the ''Hausberg'' near Wenigenjena, the ''Kernberge'' near Wöllnitz, the ''Johannisberg'' near Lobeda and the ''Einsiedlerberg'' near Drackendorf. On the western side, there are the ''Jägersberg'' near Zwätzen, the ''Windknollen'' north of the city centre, the ''Tatzend'' west of the city centre, the ''Lichtenhainer Höhe'' near Lichtenhain, the ''Holzberg'' near Winzerla, the ''Jagdberg'' near Göschwitz and the Spitzenberg near Maua. The mountains belong to the geological formation of Ilm Saale Plate (
Muschelkalk
The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million ye ...
) and are relatively flat on their peaks but steep to the valleys in between. Due to its jagged surface, the municipal territory isn't very suitable for agriculture all the more since the most flat areas along the valley were built on during the 20th century. At the mountains is some forest of different leaf trees and pines.
Ecology
32 species of native
orchids
Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant.
Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...
can be found in the Jena area. One of the best places to see them is Leutratal, to the south of the town. ''
Ophrys apifera
''Ophrys apifera'', known in Europe as the bee orchid, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Orchidaceae. It serves as an example of sexually deceptive pollination and floral mimicry, as well as of a highly selective and highly evolved ...
'' even grows at a few locations within the town. On the ''Hausberg'' close to Ziegenhain a few specimens of the rare
Sorbus domestica
''Sorbus domestica'', with the common name service tree or sorb tree (because of its fruit), is a species of ''Sorbus'' native to western, central and southern Europe, northwest Africa (Atlas Mountains), and southwest Asia (east to the Caucasus) ...
can be found.
Firefly
The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...
can be seen in the meadows in Paradiespark as well as a variety of native wildflowers. Wildlife on the surrounding mountains includes
raven
A raven is any of several larger-bodied bird species of the genus ''Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between "crows" and "ravens", common names which are assigned t ...
,
sand lizard
The sand lizard (''Lacerta agilis'') is a lacertid lizard distributed across most of Europe from France and across the continent to Lake Baikal in Russia. It does not occur in European Turkey. Its distribution is often patchy. In the sand lizard ...
and
wood ants
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin tha ...
.
Heron
The herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 72 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genera ''Botaurus'' and ''Ixobrychus ...
,
beaver
Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...
and
muskrat
The muskrat (''Ondatra zibethicus'') is a medium-sized semiaquatic rodent native to North America and an introduced species in parts of Europe, Asia, and South America. The muskrat is found in wetlands over a wide range of climates and habitat ...
have been seen on the Saale, within the town.
Pine marten
The European pine marten (''Martes martes''), also known as the pine marten, is a mustelid native to and widespread in most of Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and parts of Iran, Iraq and Syria. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. ...
s sometimes come into the town at night, from the mountains, to raid bins.
Climate
Jena has a
humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(Dfb) or an
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...
(''Cfb'') according to the
Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
system. ''(direct Final Revised Paper '' Summers are warm and sometimes humid; winters are relatively cold. The city's topography creates a microclimate caused through the basin position with sometimes
inversion
Inversion or inversions may refer to:
Arts
* , a French gay magazine (1924/1925)
* ''Inversion'' (artwork), a 2005 temporary sculpture in Houston, Texas
* Inversion (music), a term with various meanings in music theory and musical set theory
* ...
in winter (quite cold nights under ) and heat and inadequate air circulation in summer. Annual precipitation is with moderate rainfall throughout the year. Light snowfall mainly occurs from December through February, but snow cover does not usually remain for long. During the Middle Ages, Jena was famous for growing wine on its slopes. Nowadays, the next commercial wine-growing areas are situated down Saale river. Due to its distance to coastal areas and position in the Saale valley, wind speeds tend to be very low; predominant direction is SW.
Administrative division
Jena abuts the district of
Saale-Holzland
Saale-Holzland (official German language, German name: Saale-Holzland-Kreis) is a ''Kreis'' (Districts of Germany, district) in the east of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the district Burgenlandkreis in Sa ...
with the municipalities of
Lehesten
Lehesten is a town in the Thuringian Forest, 20 km southeast of Saalfeld.
World War II V-2 facility
After an August 194explosion at the Redl-Zipf V-2 liquid oxygen plant at Schlier stopped production, the third V-2 liquid oxygen plant (5000 ...
Golmsdorf
Golmsdorf is a municipality in the district Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, a ...
Laasdorf
Laasdorf is a municipality in the district Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, a ...
,
Zöllnitz
Zöllnitz is a municipality in the district of Saale-Holzland in Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia ...
,
Sulza
Sulza is a municipality in the district Saale-Holzland, in Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and ...
Weimarer Land
Weimarer Land is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the east of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the northeast clockwise) the district Burgenlandkreis in Saxony-Anhalt, the district Saale-Holzland and the district-free city Jena, the ...
Großschwabhausen
Großschwabhausen is a municipality in the Weimarer Land district of Thuringia, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Rus ...
Saxony-Anhalt
Saxony-Anhalt (german: Sachsen-Anhalt ; nds, Sassen-Anholt) is a state of Germany, bordering the states of Brandenburg, Saxony, Thuringia and Lower Saxony. It covers an area of
and has a population of 2.18 million inhabitants, making it the ...
and
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
as well as foreign countries such as Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria.
Like many other eastern German cities, Jena has a small foreign-born population: circa 4.0% are non-Germans by citizenship and overall 6.2% are migrants (according to
2011 EU census 2011 EU census, or EU population and housing census 2011 was an EU-wide census in 2011 in all EU member states.
2011 EU member state censuses
{, class="wikitable sortable"
! Country
! Dedicated article
! Related articles
, -
, Austria , , , , ...
). Differing from the national average, the biggest groups of migrants in Jena are
Russians
, native_name_lang = ru
, image =
, caption =
, population =
, popplace =
118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate)
, region1 =
, pop1 ...
,
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
and
Ukrainians
Ukrainians ( uk, Українці, Ukraintsi, ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine. They are the seventh-largest nation in Europe. The native language of the Ukrainians is Ukrainian language, Ukrainian. The majority ...
. During recent years, the economic situation of the city has improved: the unemployment rate declined from 14% in 2005 to 7% in 2013. Due to the official policy of atheism in the former
GDR
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 ...
, most of the population is non-religious. 15.9% are members of the
Evangelical Church in Central Germany
The Evangelical Church in Central Germany (German: ''Evangelische Kirche in Mitteldeutschland''; ''EKM'') is a United church body covering most of the German states of Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia and some adjacent areas in Brandenburg and Saxony.
...
and 6.6% are Catholics (according to 2011 EU census).
Culture, sights and cityscape
Museums
Jena has a great variety of museums:
* The ''
Optical Museum Jena
The Deutsches Optisches Museum Jena is a science and technology museum displaying optical instruments from eight centuries. It gives a technical and cultural-historical survey of the development of optical instruments. The development of the city ...
'' at Carl-Zeiß-Platz shows the history of optical instruments such as glasses, microscopes, cameras, and telescopes.
* The '' Phyletisches Museum'' at Neutor hosts a natural history exhibition with focus on evolution and fossils.
* The ''Stadtmuseum & Kunstsammlung'' at Markt square shows the city history of Jena and hosts furthermore an exhibition of modern and contemporary art.
* The ''Botanischer Garten'' (botanic garden) at Fürstengraben is one of the oldest botanic gardens in Germany (established in 1794) and hosts 12,000 plants from all over the world.
* The ''Romantikerhaus'' at Unterm Markt street hosts an exhibition about the epoque of
Jena romantics
Jena Romanticism (german: Jenaer Romantik; also the Jena Romantics or Early Romanticism (''Frühromantik'')) is the first phase of Romanticism in German literature represented by the work of a group centred in Jena from about 1798 to 1804. The move ...
in German literature.
* ''Schillers Gartenhaus'' at Schillergässchen is the former summer house of
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
and shows an exhibition of his life and his connection to Jena.
* The ''Goethe-Gedenkstätte'' at Fürstengraben shows an exhibition about the links between
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
and Jena (only in summer).
* The ''Ernst-Haeckel-Haus'' at Berggasse is the former house of biologist
Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
and hosts an exhibition about his life.
* The ''Schott Glasmuseum'' at Otto-Schott-Straße shows the life of
Otto Schott
Friedrich Otto Schott (1851–1935) was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way ...
and the history of his glass factory, the
Schott AG
Schott AG is a German multinational glass company specializing in the manufacture of glass and glass-ceramics. Headquartered in Mainz, Germany, it is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The company's founder and namesake, Otto Schott, is credi ...
.
* The ''Museum 1806'' at Cospeda district hosts an exhibition about the
Battle of Jena–Auerstedt
The twin battles of Jena and Auerstedt (; older spelling: ''Auerstädt'') were fought on 14 October 1806 on the plateau west of the river Saale in today's Germany, between the forces of Napoleon I of France and Frederick William III of Pruss ...
during the Napoleonic wars.
* The University of Jena hosts some important scientific collections. While the collections of antiques and minerals are public, the oriental coins are only accessed for research.
Image gallery
File:Optisches Museum Jena.jpg, Optisches Museum
File:Phyletisches Museum in July 2012.jpg, Phyletisches Museum
File:GöhreJena01.JPG, Stadtmuseum
File:Romantikerhaus Jena.jpg, Romantikerhaus
File:Schillers-Gartenhaus01.JPG, Schillers Gartenhaus
File:Jena - botanical garden 08 (aka).jpg, Botanischer Garten
File:Cospeda.jpg, Museum 1806 in Cospeda
Cityscape
The historic city centre is located inside the former wall (which is the area between Fürstengraben in the north, Löbdergraben in the east, Teichgraben in the south and Leutragraben in the west). There are only a few historic buildings in this area (e.g. at Oberlauengasse), due to the destruction during World War II and modernization projects in the following decades. The Eichplatz, a big sub-used square covering a large amount of the centre, has not been built on since the 1960s and the discussion about its future is still in process. The wall's defortification took place relatively early in the 18th century – and the first suburbs developed in front of the former city gates. In these areas, some historic building structures from the 18th and early 19th century remained in western Bachstraße and Wagnergasse, in northern Zwätzengasse and in southern Neugasse.
The later 19th and early 20th centuries brought a construction boom to Jena, with the city enlarged to the north and south along the Saale valley, to the west along ''Mühltal'' and on the Saale's east side in former Wenigenjena. Compared with the city centre, later substantial losses were much slighter in this areas. During the interwar period, the construction of flats stayed on a high level but suitable ground got less, so that new housing complexes were set up relatively far away from the centre – a problem that remained until today with long journeys and high rents as consequences. Today's Jena is not as compact as other cities in the region, and urban planning is still a challenge.
A peculiarity of Jena is the presence of a second old town centre with a market square, town hall, and castle in the former town of Lobeda, which is a district since 1946, located approximately to the south of Jena's centre.
Sights and architectural heritage
Churches
* The main church, St. Michael's, is one of the biggest
Gothic
Gothic or Gothics may refer to:
People and languages
*Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes
**Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths
**Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
monuments in Thuringia and was built between 1422 and 1557. It has a bronze slab of
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
's tomb.
* The St. John's Church was the church of the extinct village ''Leutra'' west of Jena and later used as the city's cemetery chapel. Since 1811, the Gothic building is the catholic church of Jena.
* The Peace Church was built between 1686 and 1693 as new cemetery chapel and is a
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
evangelical church today.
* The Schiller Church east of Saale river is the evangelical parish church of the former village and today's quarter Wenigenjena.
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
married here in 1790.
* The St. Peter's Church is the former city church of Jena's southern district Lobeda. The Gothic church was built around 1480.
* The parish church of Vierzehnheiligen (dedicated to the
Fourteen Holy Helpers
The Fourteen Holy Helpers (german: Vierzehn Nothelfer, la, Quattuordecim auxiliatores) are a group of saints venerated together by Roman Catholic Christians because their intercession is believed to be particularly effective, especially against ...
) is a Gothic-style former pilgrimage church established during the 1460s.
* The St. Mary's Church in Ziegenhain is a former pilgrimage church in Gothic style, built in the 15th century.
File:Stadtkirche St. Michael in Jena 2008-05-24.jpg, Main church St. Michael
File:St. Johannes Baptist.JPG, St. John's Church
File:Friedenskirche, Jena.jpg, Peace Church
File:SchillerkircheJena01.JPG, Schiller Church
File:Kirche Lobeda.JPG, Church of Lobeda
File:Kirche Vierzehnheiligen.JPG, Church of Vierzehnheiligen
File:Jena - Ziegenhain 02.jpg, Church of Ziegenhain
Other sights
* The medieval city wall is preserved in parts (''Anatomieturm'' and ''Roter Turm''), the largest one is the complex around Johannistor and Pulverturm near Johannisplatz.
* The town hall at Markt square was built around 1412 and is one of only few Gothic town halls in Germany. It has an astronomical clock featuring the "Snatching Hans" ("''Schnapphans''").
* The
planetarium
A planetarium ( planetariums or ''planetaria'') is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation.
A dominant feature of most planetarium ...
opened in 1926 and was the first large planetarium in the world, with technology developed by Carl Zeiss.
* The University Main Building stands at the former castle's place and was established in 1908 in early-modern style (
Theodor Fischer
Theodor Fischer (28 May 1862 – 25 December 1938) was a German architect and teacher.
Career
Fischer planned public housing projects for the city of Munich beginning in 1893. He was the joint founder and first chairman of the Deutscher Wer ...
/
Bruno Taut
Bruno Julius Florian Taut (4 May 1880 – 24 December 1938) was a renowned German architect, urban planner and author of Prussian Lithuanian heritage ("taut" means "nation" in Lithuanian). He was active during the Weimar period and is know ...
).
* The ''Abbeanum'' is a university building by
Ernst Neufert
Ernst Neufert (15 March 1900 – 23 February 1986) was a German architect who is known as an assistant of Walter Gropius, as a teacher and member of various standardization organizations, and especially for his widely disseminated reference book '' ...
in
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
style, built in 1930.
* The Jen Tower is the city's highest skyscraper, built between 1969 and 1972, with a viewing platform and a sky restaurant.
* The ''Haus Auerbach'' is the former house of physicist
Felix Auerbach
Felix Auerbach (12 November 1856 – 26 February 1933) was a German physicist.
Life
Auerbach was born in Breslau (today Wrocław) on 12 November 1856. His father, Leopold Auerbach, was a respected physician and professor of medicine at the ...
, built by
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...
Bauhaus
The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...
style in 1924. Near is the ''Haus Zuckerkandl'', another mansion built by Gropius in 1929.
* The former Carl Zeiss Factory in the city centre hosts interesting technical architecture from the period between 1880 and 1965, including Germany's first high-rise building, the ''Bau 15'' from 1915.
* The monument to John Frederick the Magnanimous (built in 1858) at the Markt square is a landmark of Jena called "Hanfried".
* The monument to
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 ...
is a building of early-modern architecture by
Henry van de Velde
Henry Clemens van de Velde (; 3 April 1863 – 15 October 1957) was a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar, he is considered one of the founders of Art Nouveau in Belgium.'' ...
(1910).
* The Lobdeburg is a castle ruin above Lobeda district and the former seat of the lords of Lobdeburg, founders of Jena.
*
Naturschutzgebiet Leutratal und Cospoth
file:Leutratal_bei_Jena.jpg, left, Leutratal in winter 2015, after the removal of the Autobahn
NSG Leutratal und Cospoth (often referred to simply as Leutratal) is an important nature reserve in Germany, southwest of the town of Jena. The reserv ...
is an important nature reserve to the southwest.
File:Jena Johannistor.jpg, Johannistor, medieval city gate
File:Rathaus Jena.JPG, Town hall
File:Zeiss-Planetarium 1926 Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung - Jena Thüringen Foto Wolfgang Pehlemann Steinberg PICT0028.jpg, Planetarium
File:Universitäts Hauptgebäude. Jena.jpg, University Main Building
File:Ernst-Abbe Memorial 2.Jena.jpg, Ernst Abbe Monument
File:Pulverturm und Uniturm.jpg, Pulverturm at night
File:JenTower Jena.jpg, Jen Tower
Theatre and music
Jena has its own theatre and orchestra, the
Jenaer Philharmonie
The Jenaer Philharmonie is a German symphony orchestra based in Jena, Germany.
History
The orchestra was founded in 1934 with the intent to revive and continue the old traditions of the "Collegium musicum Jenense" and the academic concerts by the ...
.
Sports
Jena is home to professional football club,
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 ...
. The club won the
DDR-Oberliga
The DDR-Oberliga (English: ''East German Premier League'' or ''GDR Premier League'') was the top-level association football league in East Germany.
Overview
Following World War II, separate sports competitions emerged in the occupied eastern ...
three times, the
FDGB Cup
The FDGB-Pokal (Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund Pokal or Free German Trade Union Federation Cup) was an elimination football tournament held annually in East Germany. It was the second most important national title in East German football aft ...
four times, and reached the final of 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 ...
. Post-unification the club have been less successful and they currently compete in
Regionalliga Nordost
The Regionalliga Nordost is the fourth tier of German football in the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia. These comprise the states of former East Germany as well as West Berlin.
It i ...
. In women's football,
FF USV Jena
FC Carl Zeiss Jena is a German women's football club from Jena, Thuringia. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the highest level of women's football in Germany.
Carl Zeiss Jena played regional women's football since 2016/17 but became m ...
is a member of the
2. Frauen-Bundesliga
The 2. Frauen-Bundesliga is the second league competition for women's association football in Germany. For its first 14 seasons the league was divided into two groups: Nord and Süd. The winner and the runner-up are promoted to the Bundesliga (unle ...
. Both clubs' home stadium is the
Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld
Ernst Abbe Sportfeld is a sports facility in Jena, Germany. It was dedicated on 24 August 1924 and was named after entrepreneur Ernst Abbe 15 years later. The facility is in southern Jena, directly on the Saale River. The City of Jena purchas ...
. Also, the city's basketball team,
Science City Jena
Medipolis SC Jena is a basketball club based in Jena, Germany that plays in the ProA. Their home court is the Sparkassen Arena, which seats 3,000. Their current head coach is Dominik Reinboth.
The team was known as Erdgas Baskets Jena through ...
played in
Basketball Bundesliga
The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...
in 2007–2008 season and returned to top level in 2015–16 season. In addition, since 2000, the university of Jena has a rugby team. Since 2012, the USV Rugby Jena team has been playing in the 2. Rugby-Bundesliga.
Current men's
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 ...
world record (98.48) 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 thrower ...
was achieved in Jena.
Economy and infrastructure
Agriculture, industry and services
Agriculture plays a small role in Jena, only 40% of the municipal territory are in use for farming (compared to over 60% in
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
and nearly 50% in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
). Furthermore, the
Muschelkalk
The Muschelkalk (German for "shell-bearing limestone"; french: calcaire coquillier) is a sequence of sedimentary rock strata (a lithostratigraphic unit) in the geology of central and western Europe. It has a Middle Triassic (240 to 230 million ye ...
soil is not very fertile and is often used as pasture for cattle. The only large agricultural area is situated around Isserstedt, Cospeda and Vierzehnheiligen district in the northwest. Wine-growing was discontinued during the
Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of regional cooling, particularly pronounced in the North Atlantic region. It was not a true ice age of global extent. The term was introduced into scientific literature by François E. Matthes in 1939. Ma ...
around 1800, but is now possible again due to
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
. Nevertheless, the commercial production of wine hasn't yet resumed.
Industry is a great tradition in Jena, reaching back to the mid-19th century. In 2012, there were 80 companies in industrial production with more than 20 workers employing 8,300 persons and generating a turnover of more than 1,5 billion Euro. The most important branches are precision machinery, pharmaceuticals, optics, biotechnology and software engineering. Notable companies in Jena are the traditional
Carl Zeiss AG
Carl Zeiss AG (), branded as ZEISS, is a German manufacturer of optical systems and optoelectronics, founded in Jena, Germany in 1846 by optician Carl Zeiss. Together with Ernst Abbe (joined 1866) and Otto Schott (joined 1884) he laid the f ...
,
Schott AG
Schott AG is a German multinational glass company specializing in the manufacture of glass and glass-ceramics. Headquartered in Mainz, Germany, it is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. The company's founder and namesake, Otto Schott, is credi ...
,
Jenoptik
Jenoptik AG is a Jena, Germany-based integrated photonics group. The company is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and is included in the TecDAX stock index.
History
The group can trace its heritage back to the original Carl Zeiss AG comp ...
and
Jenapharm
Jenapharm is a pharmaceutical company from Jena, Germany. Founded in 1950 in East Germany, the company focused from the beginning on the production and development of steroids. Due to the economic circumstances of the Eastern Bloc, the company ini ...
as well as new companies such as
Intershop Communications
Intershop Communications AG is a public e-commerce company headquartered in Jena, within the state of Thuringia in Germany. Customers include large corporations such as HP, BMW, Würth, and Deutsche Telekom. Intershop operates in Europe, the ...
,
Analytik Jena
Analytik Jena AG, based in Jena (Thuringia, Germany), is a provider of analytical, bioanalytical and optical systems for industrial and scientific applications. Analytik Jena was founded in 1990 as a sales and service company for analytical t ...
, and
Carl Zeiss Meditec
Carl Zeiss Meditec AG is a multinational medical technology company and subsidiary of Carl Zeiss AG. It manufactures tools for eye examinations and medical lasers as well as solutions for neurosurgery, dentistry, gynecology and oncology. Among i ...
. Jena has the most market-listed companies and is one of the most important economic centres of east Germany.
With companies such as Intershop Communications,
Salesforce.com
Salesforce, Inc. is an American cloud-based software company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It provides customer relationship management (CRM) software and applications focused on sales, customer service, marketing automation, an ...
(after the acquisition of
Demandware
Demandware is a software technology company headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts that provides a cloud-based unified e-commerce platform with mobile, AI personalization, order management capabilities, and related services for B2C and B2B re ...
) and
ePages
ePages is an e-commerce solution that allows merchants to create and run online shops in the cloud. The number of shops based on ePages is currently 140,000 worldwide.
ePages software is regularly updated due to its Software-as-a-Service model. ...
as well as several web agencies, Jena is a hub for
E-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...
in Germany. Other IT players with regional offices include
Accenture
Accenture plc is an Irish-American professional services company based in Dublin, specializing in information technology (IT) services and consulting. A ''Fortune'' Global 500 company, it reported revenues of $61.6 billion in 2022. Accentur ...
Airbus Group
Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...
, develops components for spaceflight or satellites in Jena.
The city is among Germany's 50 fastest growing regions, with many internationally renowned research institutes and companies, a comparatively low unemployment and a young population structure. Jena was awarded the title "Stadt der Wissenschaft" (city of science) by the ''Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft'', a German science association, in 2008.
Jena is also a hub of public and private services, specially in education, research and business services. Other important institutions are the High Court of Thuringia and Thuringia's solely university hospital. Furthermore, Jena is a regional centre in infrastructure and retail with many shopping centres.
Together with the photonics la Lichtwerkstatt and the Krautspace there are
makerspace
A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sc ...
s and
hackerspace
A hackerspace (also referred to as a hacklab, hackspace, or makerspace) is a community-operated, often "not for profit" (501(c)(3) in the United States), workspace where people with common interests, such as computers, machining, technology, sc ...
s enabling start-ups to create their product ideas and realizing their first prototype and business models as well as networking.
Transport
By rail
Jena has no central railway station with connection to all the lines at one point. What is relatively common in many countries is quite unusual for a German city and caused on the one hand by the city's difficult topography and on the other hand by the history, because the two main lines were built by two different private companies. The connection in north–south direction is the
Saal Railway
Saal may refer to:
Places in Germany
* Saal an der Donau, in the district of Kelheim, Bavaria
*Saal an der Saale, in the district Rhön-Grabfeld, Bavaria
* Saal, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in the district Vorpommern-Rügen, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ...
with
ICE
Ice is water frozen into a solid state, typically forming at or below temperatures of 0 degrees Celsius or Depending on the presence of impurities such as particles of soil or bubbles of air, it can appear transparent or a more or less opaq ...
trains running from
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
in the north to
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
in the south once a day stopping at Paradies station and local trains to
Naumburg
Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...
and
Saalfeld
Saalfeld (german: Saalfeld/Saale) is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the S ...
Weimar–Gera railway
The Weimar–Gera railway is a line in the German state of Thuringia, connecting the city of Weimar via Jena, Stadtroda and Hermsdorf to Gera. It was built by the Weimar-Gera Railway Company (''Weimar-Geraer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft''), which was f ...
with regional express trains to
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
(via
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
and
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
) and
Zwickau
Zwickau (; is, with around 87,500 inhabitants (2020), the fourth-largest city of Saxony after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz and it is the seat of the Zwickau District. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ' ...
,
Glauchau
Glauchau (; hsb, Hłuchow) is a town in the German federal state of Saxony, on the right bank of the Mulde, 7 miles north of Zwickau and 17 miles west of Chemnitz by rail ( its train station is on the Dresden–Werdau line). It is part of the ...
,
Altenburg
Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...
or
Greiz
Greiz () is a town in the state of Thuringia, Germany, and is the capital of the district of Greiz. Greiz is situated in eastern Thuringia, east of state capital Jena, on the river ''White Elster''.
Greiz has a large park in its center (Fürstl ...
(via
Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
) and local trains between Weimar, Jena and Gera. The express trains stop at West station near the city centre and Göschwitz, the local trains furthermore at Neue Schenke. The junction between both lines is the Göschwitz station, approx. south of the city centre.
When the
Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway
The Nuremberg–Erfurt high-speed railway is a German high-speed railway, between Nuremberg and Erfurt. The line is listed in Germany's federal transport plan as '' Verkehrsprojekt Deutsche Einheit Nr.'' ("German Unity transport project no") ''8 ...
opened in 2017, the city lost its connection to the long-distance train network. As compensation, there are new regional express train services to Halle and
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
in the north, and to
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
in the south.
By road
The two Autobahnen crossing each other nearby at ''Hermsdorf junction'' are the
Bundesautobahn 4
is an autobahn that crosses Germany in a west–east direction. The western segment has a length of , the part in the east is long. Works to continue the A 4 are in progress, but currently no plans exist to fill the gap completely.
T ...
(Frankfurt–Dresden) and the
Bundesautobahn 9
is an autobahn in Germany, connecting Berlin and Munich via Leipzig and Nuremberg. It is the fifth longest autobahn spanning .
Route
The northern terminus of the A 9 is at the Potsdam interchange, where it merges into the A 10, ...
(Berlin–Munich), which were both built during the 1930s. The A 4 runs quite next to the Lobeda housing complexes and the Leutra district. Therefore, it was rebuilt in the 2000s and got two tunnels to protect the residents and the environment against noise and air pollution. Furthermore, there are two
Bundesstraße
''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
n crossing in Jena: the
Bundesstraße 7
The Bundesstraße 7 (abbr. B7) is a German federal highway (Bundesstraße) that stretches from the Dutch border at Venlo in the West to Rochlitz near Chemnitz in the East. It is approximately long. Because of its western origin some stretches of ...
is a connection to
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
in the west and
Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
in the east and the
Bundesstraße 88
''Bundesstraße'' (German for "federal highway"), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways.
Germany
Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km.
German ''Bundesstraßen'' ...
is a connection along Saale valley to
Naumburg
Naumburg () is a town in (and the administrative capital of) the district Burgenlandkreis, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany. It has a population of around 33,000. The Naumburg Cathedral became a UNES ...
in the north and
Rudolstadt
Rudolstadt is a town in the German federal state Thuringia, with the Thuringian Forest to the southwest, and to Jena and Weimar to the north.
The former capital of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, the town is built along the River Saale inside a wide va ...
in the south. Furthermore, there are some roads to
Apolda
Apolda () is a town in central Thuringia, Germany, the capital of the Weimarer Land district. It is situated in the center of the triangle Weimar–Jena–Naumburg near the river Ilm, c. east by north from Weimar. Apolda station lies on the Hall ...
via Isserstedt,
Blankenhain
Blankenhain is a town in the Weimarer Land district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is south of Weimar.
History
Until the Napoleonic Wars, Blankenhain had been a part of the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar. After the Fourth Coalition's defeat at Jena and Aue ...
via Ammerbach and
Stadtroda
Stadtroda (Roda until 1925) is a town of 6,653 people (2017), located in Thuringia, Germany. Stadtroda lies on the river Roda, a tributary of the Saale. The former municipalities Bollberg and Quirla were merged into Stadtroda in January 2019.
...
via Lobeda. Most parts of city centre inside the former walls are pedestrian areas.
By aviation
The next local airports to Jena are the
Erfurt–Weimar Airport
Erfurt–Weimar Airport (german: Flughafen Erfurt–Weimar, formerly ''Erfurt Airport'', ) serves Erfurt, the capital of the German state of Thuringia, and the nearby city of Weimar, both of which form the largest part of the state's central metr ...
, approx. to the west and the
Leipzig/Halle Airport
Leipzig/Halle Airport (German: ''Flughafen Leipzig/Halle'') is an international airport located in Schkeuditz, Saxony, Germany and serves both Leipzig, Saxony, and Halle, Saxony-Anhalt.
It is Germany's 14th largest airport by passengers and ...
, approx. to the northeast, which both serve mostly for holiday flights to the Mediterranean and other touristic regions. The next major airports are
Frankfurt Airport
Frankfurt Airport (; german: link=no, Flughafen Frankfurt Main , also known as ''Rhein-Main-Flughafen'') is a major international airport located in Frankfurt, the fifth-largest city of Germany and one of the world's leading financial centres ...
,
Berlin Brandenburg Airport
Berlin Brandenburg Airport ''Willy Brandt'' (german: Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg "Willy Brandt", , ) is an international airport in Schönefeld, just south of the Germany, German capital Berlin in the state of Brandenburg. Named after the f ...
and
Munich Airport
Munich International Airport- Franz Josef Strauß (german: link=no, Flughafen München) is an international airport serving Munich and Upper Bavaria. It is the second-busiest airport in Germany in terms of passenger traffic after Frankfurt A ...
.
By bike
Despite the hilly terrain in some parts, Jena is a cycling city, due to the many students. Cycling has become more popular in Jena since the 1990s when good quality bike paths began to be built. There are bike lanes along some main streets, though, in comparison to other cities in Germany, there are deficits.
For
bicycle touring
Bicycle touring is the taking of self-contained cycling trips for pleasure, adventure or autonomy rather than sport, commuting or exercise. Bicycle touring can range from single-day trips to extended travels spanning weeks or months. Tours may be ...
there is the "Saale track" (german: Saale-Radweg) and the "Thuringian city string track" (german: Radweg Thüringer Städtekette). Both of these connect points of tourist interest: the former along 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, ...
valley from
Fichtel Mountains
The Fichtel MountainsRandlesome, C. et al. (2011). ''Business Cultures in Europe'', 2nd ed., Routledge, Abingdon and New York, p. 52. . (german: Fichtelgebirge, cs, Smrčiny), form a small horseshoe-shaped mountain range in northeastern Bavaria ...
in Bavaria to the
Elbe
The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...
river near
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
, while the latter follows the medieval
Via Regia
The Via Regia (Royal Highway) is a European Cultural Route following the route of the historic road of the Middle Ages. There were many such ''viae regiae'' associated with the king in the medieval Holy Roman Empire.
History Origins
The ...
closely and runs from
Eisenach
Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...
via
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits i ...
,
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
and Jena to
Altenburg
Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...
via
Gera
Gera is a city in the German state of Thuringia. With around 93,000 inhabitants, it is the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt and Jena as well as the easternmost city of the ''Thüringer Städtekette'', an almost straight string of cit ...
.
Trams and buses
The Jena tramway network was established in 1901 and enlarged after the German reunification. It connects the major districts with the city centre; there are 5 ordinary lines served in different intervals between 7,5 and 20 minutes. Nevertheless, there are some old single-track segments interfering the services. Furthermore, there is an extensive network of buses, run (such as the trams) by the "Jenah" organization, a pun on Jena and the German lit. 'public transport'. Buses of the JES Verkehrsgesellschaft connect Jena with cities and villages in the region.
Education and research
After reunification, the educational system was realigned. The
University of Jena
The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany.
The un ...
, established in 1558, was largely extended. Today there are approximately 21,000 students at this university. Another college is the
Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena
University of Applied Sciences Jena (UAS Jena) (German: Ernst-Abbe-Hochschule Jena (EAH Jena)) was founded on 1 October 1991 as one of the first institutions of higher education of its kind in the newly founded federal states of Germany. Sin ...
, a
University of Applied Sciences
A university of applied sciences (UAS), nowadays much less commonly called a polytechnic university or vocational university, is an institution of higher education and sometimes research that provides vocational education and grants academic de ...
founded in 1991 which offers a combination of scientific training and its practical applications. There are also nearly 5,000 students.
Further there are six Gymnasiums, five state-owned and one Christian (ecumenical). One of the state-owned is a ''Sportgymnasium'', an elite boarding school for young talents in athletics or football. Another state-owned Gymnasium (the
Carl-Zeiss-Gymnasium Jena
The Carl-Zeiss-Gymnasium Jena is a state-funded German elite gymnasium school (grammar school) teaching highly gifted students in the fields of math, science, and technology. Before changing its profile to fully focus on these aspects, it was a ...
) offers a focus in sciences also as an elite boarding school additionally to the common curriculum.
The various research institutes based in Jena include:
* The
Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology
The Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology is located on Beutenberg Campus in Jena, Germany. It was founded in March 1996 and is one of 80 institutes of the Max Planck Society (Max Planck Gesellschaft). Chemical ecology examines the role of che ...
is an important research center and offers a Ph.D. program
* The
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
The Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (german: Max-Planck-Institut für Menschheitsgeschichte) performs basic research into archaeological science. The institute is one of 80+ research institutes of the Max Planck Society and ...
* The
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry is located in Jena, Germany. It was created in 1997, and moved into new buildings 2002. It is one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society (Max Planck Gesellschaft).
Departments and research gro ...
Leibniz Institute for Age Research
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
, a research center with a Ph.D. program
* INNOVENT - a private research center
* The Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology
* Friedrich-Löffler-Institute of Bacterial Infections and Zoonoses
* Friedrich-Löffler-Institute of Molecular Pathogenesis
* The Jena Center for Bioinformatics
Quality of life
In 2013, according to a study by Kieler Institut für Weltwirtschaft, Jena was ranked as the fifth-most livable city in Germany.
According to the 2019 study by Forschungsinstitut Prognos, Jena is one of the most dynamic regions in Germany. It ranks at number 29 of all 401 German regions.
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
(SPD). Schröter was defeated seeking re-election in 2018 by
Thomas Nitzsche
Thomas Nitzsche (born 1 December 1975 in Zeulenroda) is a German politician ( FDP) and the Mayor of Jena since 1 July 2018.
Career
Nitzsche attended the Hubert Westhoff Polytechnic High School in Zeulenroda from 1982 to 1991 and the Carl-Zeiss- ...
of the FDP, who has since served as mayor. The most recent mayoral election was held on 15 April 2018, with a runoff held on 29 April, and the results were as follows:
! rowspan=2 colspan=2, Candidate
! rowspan=2, Party
! colspan=2, First round
! colspan=2, Second round
, -
! Votes
! %
! Votes
! %
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Thomas Nitzsche
Thomas Nitzsche (born 1 December 1975 in Zeulenroda) is a German politician ( FDP) and the Mayor of Jena since 1 July 2018.
Career
Nitzsche attended the Hubert Westhoff Polytechnic High School in Zeulenroda from 1982 to 1991 and the Carl-Zeiss- ...
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
, 10,965
, 24.5
, 14,499
, 36.7
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Benjamin Koppe
, align=left, Christian Democratic Union
, 6,314
, 14.1
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Martina Flämmich-Winckler
, align=left, The Left
, 4,999
, 11.2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, Denny Jankowski
, align=left,
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist
*
*
*
*
*
*
* political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...
Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...
Pirate Party Germany
The Pirate Party Germany (german: Piratenpartei Deutschland), commonly known as Pirates (), is a political party in Germany founded in September 2006 at c-base. It states general agreement with the Swedish Piratpartiet as a party of the informat ...
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
Independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
, 597
, 1.3
, -
! colspan=3, Valid votes
! 44,736
! 99.5
! 39,481
! 99.3
, -
! colspan=3, Invalid votes
! 210
! 0.5
! 294
! 0.7
, -
! colspan=3, Total
! 44,946
! 100.0
! 39,775
! 100.0
, -
! colspan=3, Electorate/voter turnout
! 85,401
! 52.6
! 85,220
! 46.7
, -
, colspan=7, Source Wahlen in Thüringen
The most recent city council election was held on 26 May 2019, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2, Party
! Lead candidate
! Votes
! %
! +/-
! Seats
! +/-
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left, The Left (Die Linke)
, align=left, Lena Saniye Güngör
, 31,728
, 20.4
, 3.6
, 9
, 2
, -
, bgcolor=,
, align=left,
Alliance 90/The Greens
Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
Alternative for Germany
Alternative for Germany (german: link=no, Alternative für Deutschland, AfD; ) is a right-wing populist
*
*
*
*
*
*
* political party in Germany. AfD is known for its opposition to the European Union, as well as immigration to Germany. I ...
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 ...
(1840–1905), physicist, social reformer, partner of
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practica ...
and
Otto Schott
Friedrich Otto Schott (1851–1935) was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way ...
Johannes R. Becher
Johannes Robert Becher (, 22 May 1891 – 11 October 1958) was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. At one time, he was part of the literary avant-garde, writin ...
(1891–1958), poet and politician
*
Hans Berger
Hans Berger (21 May 1873 – 1 June 1941) was a German psychiatrist. He is best known as the inventor of electroencephalography (EEG) in 1924, which is a method used for recording the electrical activity of the brain, commonly described in terms ...
, discoverer of human EEG
*
Prince Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld
, house = Lippe
, father = Prince Bernhard of Lippe
, mother = Armgard von Cramm
, birth_date =
, birth_name = Count Bernhard of Biesterfeld
, birth_place = Jena, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Germany
, death_date = ...
*
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (11 May 1752 – 22 January 1840) was a German physician, naturalist, physiologist, and anthropologist. He is considered to be a main founder of zoology and anthropology as comparative, scientific disciplines. He wa ...
, naturalist, doctor, comparative anatomist, and physiologist
*
Walter von Boetticher
__NOTOC__
Walter von Boetticher (11 December 1853 – 3 July 1945) was a German historian, genealogist and physician.
Walter von Boetticher was born at Riga, the son to the art historian Friedrich von Boetticher (1826–1902) and his wife Euge ...
(1853–1945), historian, and physician, studied medicine at Jena
* Martin Dwars (born 1987), retired footballer (goalkeeper)
*
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn
Johann Gottfried Eichhorn (16 October 1752, in Dörrenzimmern – 27 June 1827, in Göttingen) was a German Protestant theologian of the Enlightenment and an early orientalist. He was a member of the Göttingen School of History.
Education and ...
, orientalist and Protestant theologian of the Enlightenment
*
Robert Enke
Robert Enke (24 August 1977 – 10 November 2009) was a German professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
He played for Mönchengladbach, Benfica, and Barcelona, but made the majority of his appearances for Bundesliga side Hannover 96 ...
(1977–2009), footballer (goalkeeper)
*
Walter Eucken
Walter Eucken (; 17 January 1891 – 20 March 1950) was a German economist of the Freiburg school and father of ordoliberalism. He is closely linked with the development of the concept of "social market economy".
Early life
Walter Eucken was born ...
(1891–1950), founder of neoliberal economic theory
*
Rudolf Eucken
Rudolf Christoph Eucken (; 5 January 184615 September 1926) was a German philosopher. He received the 1908 Nobel Prize in Literature "in recognition of his earnest search for truth, his penetrating power of thought, his wide range of vision, and ...
(1846–1926), philosopher and winner of the 1908
Nobel Prize for Literature
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, caption =
, awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature
, presenter = Swedish Academy
, holder = Annie Ernaux (2022)
, location = Stockholm, Sweden
, year = 1901
, ...
*
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
Johann Gottlieb Fichte (; ; 19 May 1762 – 29 January 1814) was a German philosopher who became a founding figure of the philosophical movement known as German idealism, which developed from the theoretical and ethical writings of Immanuel Kan ...
, philosopher and early German nationalist
*
Gottlob Frege
Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (; ; 8 November 1848 – 26 July 1925) was a German philosopher, logician, and mathematician. He was a mathematics professor at the University of Jena, and is understood by many to be the father of analytic phil ...
(1848–1925), mathematician, logician, and philosopher
*
Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel Friedrich may refer to:
Names
*Friedrich (surname), people with the surname ''Friedrich''
*Friedrich (given name), people with the given name ''Friedrich''
Other
*Friedrich (board game), a board game about Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' ...
, inventor of the kindergarten
*
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as trea ...
(1749–1832), poet and writer
*
Klara Griefahn
Klara Griefahn (19 September 1897 – 30 January 1945) was a Jewish medical doctor who committed suicide in 1945 to avoid deportation by the Nazism, Nazis. A number of memorials to Greifahn can be found in Jena, Germany.
Life and work
Klara Gr ...
(1897–1945), physician
*
Otto Günsche
__NOTOC__
Otto Günsche (24 September 1917 – 2 October 2003) was a mid-ranking officer in the Waffen-SS of Nazi Germany during World War II. He was a member of the SS Division Leibstandarte before he became Adolf Hitler's personal adjutant. G ...
(1917–2003), commander in the Waffen-SS during the Second World War
*
Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
(1834–1919), evolutionary biologist and zoologist
*
G. W. F. Hegel
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (; ; 27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher. He is one of the most important figures in German idealism and one of the founding figures of modern Western philosophy. His influence extends a ...
(1770–1831), philosopher
*
Friedrich Hölderlin
Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin (, ; ; 20 March 1770 – 7 June 1843) was a German poet and philosopher. Described by Norbert von Hellingrath as "the most German of Germans", Hölderlin was a key figure of German Romanticism. Part ...
(1770–1843), poet
*
Albert Woldemar Hollander
__NOTOC__
Albert Woldemar Hollander (1796–1868), was a German educator and pedagog.
Hollander was born 22 September 1796 in Riga, Livonia to Johann Heinrich Hollander and Karoline Amalie Marg. (Stumpf), from a well-to-do and influential famil ...
(1796–1868), educator and pedagog
*
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz
Gottfried Wilhelm (von) Leibniz . ( – 14 November 1716) was a German polymath active as a mathematician, philosopher, scientist and diplomat. He is one of the most prominent figures in both the history of philosophy and the history of mathema ...
(1646–1716), polymath and philosopher
*
Martin Luther
Martin Luther (; ; 10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546) was a German priest, theologian, author, hymnwriter, and professor, and Order of Saint Augustine, Augustinian friar. He is the seminal figure of the Reformation, Protestant Refo ...
(1483–1546), professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk, and seminal figure in the Reformation
* August Eduard Martin (1847–1933), obstetrician and gynecologist Martin, August Eduard In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Band 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, , S. 284 f.
*
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
(1818–1883), philosopher and economist
*
Tilo Medek
Tilo Medek, originally Müller-Medek (22 January 1940 – 3 February 2006), was a German classical composer, musicologist and music publisher. He grew up in East Germany, but was inspired by the Darmstädter Ferienkurse. He composed radio plays and ...
(1940–2006), composer
*
Philipp Melanchthon
Philip Melanchthon. (born Philipp Schwartzerdt; 16 February 1497 – 19 April 1560) was a German Lutheran reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lu ...
, theologian
*
Johann Karl August Musäus
Johann Karl August Musäus (29 March 1735 – 28 October 1787) was a popular German author and one of the first collectors of German folk stories, most celebrated for his ''Volksmärchen der Deutschen'' (1782–1787), a collection of German fairy ...
, author
*
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his care ...
(1844–1900), philosopher
*
Novalis
Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (2 May 1772 – 25 March 1801), pen name Novalis (), was a German polymath who was a writer, philosopher, poet, aristocrat and mystic. He is regarded as an idiosyncratic and influential figure of ...
(1772–1801), poet
*
Max Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University ...
, composer, pianist, professor, and conductor
*
Friedrich Schelling
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (; 27 January 1775 – 20 August 1854), later (after 1812) von Schelling, was a German philosopher. Standard histories of philosophy make him the midpoint in the development of German idealism, situating him be ...
, philosopher
*
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, and philosopher. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friends ...
Sahra Wagenknecht
Sahra Wagenknecht (born Sarah Wagenknecht; ; 16 July 1969) is a German politician, economist, author and publicist. Since 2009, she has been a member of the Bundestag for The Left. From 2015 to 2019 she served as parliamentary co-chair of her pa ...
(born 1969), German politician
* Bernd Schneider (born 1973), footballer
*
Otto Schott
Friedrich Otto Schott (1851–1935) was a German chemist, glass technologist, and the inventor of borosilicate glass. Schott systematically investigated the relationship between the chemical composition of the glass and its properties. In this way ...
, inventor of fireproof glass, founder of the Schott glass works
*
Reinhard Johannes Sorge
Reinhard Sorge (29 January 1892, Berlin, German Empire – 20 July 1916, Ablaincourt, France) was a German dramatist and poet. He is best known for writing the Expressionist play '' The Beggar'' (''Der Bettler''), which won the Kleist Priz ...
, poet, dramatist, and
Roman Catholic
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...
convert
*
Johann Gustav Stickel
Johann Gustav Stickel (7 July 1805 – 21 January 1896) was a German theologian, orientalist and numismatist at Jena University.
Biography
Stickel was born in Eisenach in 1805. He went to school in Buttelstedt and in Weimar. In his youth he ...
, orientalist
*
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel.
Tucholsky was on ...
, writer
*
Tim Wuttke
Tim Wuttke (born 15 August 1987 in Jena) is a German retired football defender who played in the 3. Liga
The 3. Liga is a professional association football league and the third division in Germany. In the German football league system, it is ...
, (born 1987), retired footballer
*
Carl Zeiss
Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Carl Zeiss AG. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted practica ...