Jena Totally Explained

Everything about Jena totally explained

Jena (pronunciation ) is a university city in central Germany on the river Saale. With a population of 102,494, it's the second largest city in the federal state of Thüringen (Thuringia), after Erfurt.

History

Jena was first mentioned in an 1182 document. In the 11th century it was a possession of the lords of Lobdeburg, but in the following century it developed into an independent market town with laws and magistrates of its own. Economy was based mainly on wine production. In 1286 the Dominicans were established in the city, followed by the Cistercians in 1301.
   The margraves of Meißen imposed their authority over Jena in 1331. From 1423 it belonged to Electoral Saxony of the Housen of Wettin, who had inherited Meißen, remaining with it also after the division of their lands in 1485.
   The Protestant Reformation was brought into the city in 1523. In the following years the Dominican and the Carmelite convents were attacked by the townsmen. In 1548, the university was founded by elector John Frederick the Magnanimous.
   For a short period (1670-1690), Jena was the capital of an independent dukedom (Saxe-Jena). In 1692 it was annexed to Saxe-Eisenach and in 1741 to the Duchy (later Grand Duchy) of Saxe-Weimar, to which it belonged until 1918.
   At the end of the 18th century the university became the largest and most famous within the german states, and made Jena the center of idealistic philosophy (with professors like Johann Gottlieb Fichte, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Friedrich Schiller and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling) and of the early romanticism (with poets like Novalis, the brothers Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck).
   On 14 October 1806, Napoleon fought and defeated the Prussian army here in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt. Resistance against the French occupation was strong, especially among the town students, many of whom fought in the Lützow Free Corps in 1813. Two years later the Urburschenschaft fraternity was founded in the city.
   At the end of the 19th century, with the building of the railway-line Saalbahn (along the river Saale), Jena became a center for precision machinery, optics and glass making, with the formation of the world famous companies Carl Zeiss Jena and Schott Jenaer Glaswerk, by Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott.
   In 1945, towards the end of World War II, Jena was heavily bombed by the American and British Allies. 153 people were killed and most of the medieval town centre was destroyed (though restored after the end of the war).
   Part of the State of Thuringia from its foundation in 1920 on, it was incorporated into the German Democratic Republic in 1949 and its district of Gera in 1952. Since 1990, the city of Jena has been a part of the Free State of Thuringia in the united Federal Republic of Germany.

Economy

Today Jena is a manufacturing city, specializing in precision machinery, pharmaceuticals, optics and photographic equipment, and is home to the famous Zeiss optics plant. In 1926, the world's first modern planetarium was built by the Zeiss company in the Damenviertel district of the town.
Today the city's economy diversifies into bioinformatics, biotechnology, software and photonics. The metropolitan area of Jena is among Germany's 50 fastest growing regions, with many internationally renowned research institutes and companies, a comparatively low unemployment, and a very young population structure. Jena was awarded with the title "Stadt der Wissenschaft" (city of science) by the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wirtschaft, the German business association, in 2008.

Main sights

The 13th century Town Hall ("Rathaus"). It has astronomic clock featuring the "Snatching Hans" ("Schnapphans").
The Gothic St. Michael's Church ("Michaelskirche", 1506). It has a bronze slab of Martin Luther's tomb
Monument to John Frederick the Magnanimous (1905-08), in the Market Square
The Old Castle and numerous towers from the medieval fortifications, including the Powder Tower (13th-14th centuries)
House of Friedrich Schiller and his Wedding Church.
The Botanical Garden, founded in 1580, the second oldest botanical garden in Germany
Jen-Tower, a research edifice built in GDR times. There is a restaurant and viewing platform at the 27th floor.

In the neighbourhood are the Dornburg Castles and the Kapellendorf Moated Castle.

Public transport

The city is served by an extensive network of buses and trams run by the "Jenah" organization (a pun on Jena and Nahverkehr, German for public transport).

busses of the JES Verkehrsgesellschaft connect Jena with cities and villages in the region

The high-speed railway line from Berlin to München calls at the Jena-Paradies station just to the east of the city centre; trains from Erfurt and further west arrive at the Westbahnhof just west of the city centre.

The nearest airports to Jena are Leipzig-Altenburg Airport and Erfurt Airport. However international visitors normally arrive at Frankfurt, Berlin or Munich airports, from all of which there are convenient train connections to Jena.

Colleges, universities and research institutes

The Friedrich Schiller University of Jena was founded in 1558 as the "Collegium Jenense".

In 1794 the poets Goethe and Schiller met at the university and established a long lasting friendship.

The University of Applied Sciences (Fachhochschule Jena) was founded in 1991.

The Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology is an important research center and offers a Ph.D. program.

The Max Planck Institute of Economics

The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry

The Institute of Photonic Technology

The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering (IOF)

INNOVENT - one of the biggest private research centers in Germany

The Leibniz Institute for Age Research

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

Museums

Optical Museum Jena - history of optical instruments

Schott GlassMuseum - production and usage of glass

Citymuseum Göhre - urban history of Jena

Botanical Garden

Phyletical Museum - biology

Romanticism House - literary

Memorial to Goethe - literary

Oriental Coin Cabinet Jena - Oriental history, numismatics

Culture

The Jenaer Philharmonie is the largest independent symphony orchestra in Thuringia.

In the Novel 1632 and several other works in the best-selling fiction 1632 series, Jena and the University of Jena, located in the same region as the displaced town (in both time and space) of Grantville, WV, play a prominent role Jena becomes part of the New United States founded by the Americans of Grantville introducing modern thought a political theory into the middle of the Thirty Years' War, and the University the heart of their attempt to introduce modern medical knowledge and practices into the plague-ridden Germany.

Famous citizens

Ernst Abbe, physicist, social reformer, partner of Carl Zeiss and Otto Schott

Anton Wilhelm Amo, African Philosopher

Johannes R. Becher, composer

Hans Berger, discoverer of human EEG and two-time Nobel Prize nominee

Bernhard, Prince of the Netherlands

Johann Gottfried Eichhorn, orientalist and Protestant theologian of the Enlightenment

Walter Eucken, founder of neoliberal economic theory

Johann Gottlieb Fichte, philosopher and early German nationalist

Gottlob Frege, mathematician, logician, and philosopher

Friedrich August Froebel, inventor of the kindergarten

Johann Wolfgang Goethe, poet/writer

Ernst Haeckel, German evolutionary biologist/zoologist

Georg Hegel, philosopher

Friedrich Hölderlin, poet

Martin Luther, reformer

Philipp Melanchthon, theologian

Novalis, poet

Max Reger, composer, pianist, professor and conductor

Friedrich Schelling

Friedrich Schiller, poet/writer

Caroline Böhmer Schlegel Schelling

Wilhelm Schlegel, philosopher

Bernd Schneider, German footballer

Andreas Ritter

Otto Schott, inventor of fireproof glass, founder of the Schott glass works

Johann Gustav Stickel, orientalist

Kurt Tucholsky, writer

Carl Zeiss, founder of the Zeiss company

Sister cities

Lugoj, Romania, since 1983

Erlangen, Germany, since 1987

San Marcos, Nicaragua, since 1996

Aubervilliers, France, since 1999

Berkeley, USAFurther Information

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