- University Campus
This university town, steeped in tradition, lies on the central reaches of the river Saale which has left its mark on a landscape that, with its large number of historical monuments and sights of cultural and historical interest, bears testament to a rich and varied history and a brilliant intellectual past. Jena was originally an old wine-growing settlement. The town nestles amongst Mediterranean-like countryside and, thanks to its charming location, it has long been a popular travel destination for those interested in cultural history, botany and geology.
- Goethe Memorial in the Botanical Gardens
Since the university was founded in 1558, Jena has been one of the most well known places to study in Germany. It was in the second half of the 17th century that ”Alma mater Jenensis” enjoyed its first heyday, attracting students from Germany and beyond.
After 1785, the town on the Saale experienced its classical period as a result of its close links to the neighbouring seat of royal power in Weimar and thanks to the support of the poet and minister, Goethe. He sought refuge from the Weimar court in Jena and found inner peace and the ideal external conditions for his poetic creations here. Goethe took it upon himself to promote the development of the town and the university. Scientific institutions such as the botanical gardens, the mineralogical collection and the university library were his idea and were established under his direction. Important personages were called to Jena on Goethe’s recommendation. One of the most famous professors was Friedrich Schiller who lived and worked in Jena from 1789 – 1799. His years in Jena saw the start of Schiller’s most prolific period of poetic creation and the start of the friendship between Schiller and Goethe. During this classical period, the town developed into the most important intellectual centre in Germany. Later, Jena also became the capital of early German Romanticism. Personalities like Fichte, Hegel, and Novalis lived within the walls of the town and made it a centre of European intellectual history.
- Zeiss-Planetarium
In 1846, Carl Zeiss opened his first optical workshop. In 1884, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott established a glass laboratory (later to become a glass works), creating an important basis for the precision engineering/optics industry (Zeiss factory). The instruments developed as a result of this, such as the Zeiss microscope, soon acquired an excellent reputation throughout the world. Today, you can learn about the pioneering story of the origins of the Zeiss microscope in the optical museum. It followed a period of productive coexistence between university and industry which saw the emergence of interesting establishments and buildings in Jena: the Planetarium, the Phyletical Museum, the ”Volkshaus” conference centre, Haeckel’s house and the main university building joined the ranks of already existing buildings such as ”Collegium Jenense”, the town hall, the town church, ”Friedenskirche” church with its historical St. John’s cemetery, ”Schillerkirche” church (where Schiller married Charlotte von Lengefeld) and a number of magnificent town houses.
- Medieval city fortification with Powder Tower (13th/14th cent.)
Today, Jena has more than 104,000 inhabitants. Thanks to the university, the advanced technical college, local industry (SCHOTT JENAer Glas GmbH, Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, Jenapharm GmbH, JENOPTIK AG) and a large number of scientific institutes, the town has become an academic centre and technological region par excellence in the federal state of Thuringia. The Friedrich Schiller University has an outstanding status in the town. It has an attractive academic structure with the full profile expected of a classical European general university. Professors from both Germany and abroad have been attracted to the University of Jena with its remarkable scientific, academic and cultural traditions. Science and enterprise recognised the opportunities presented by the region – a number of industry-based scientific institutes have been established in Jena including three Max-Planck institutes, the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering, and the Institute for Physical High Technology. The number of students continues to increase; at present there are around 25,000. As a result of these developments, Jena has become a flourishing venue for seminars and conferences, attracting many people from around the world to Jena and thereby invigorating tourism in our town. A large number of people come to Jena every year to study, attend seminars and conferences, to revisit the place where they used to live or study, on business, or simply to take pleasure in the beautiful old town with all its greenery, remarkable memorials to German culture and history, and its charming surroundings which offer a wealth of unusual botanical attractions.
