Jena

Jena is a city in the central German state of Thuringia (Thüringen). It is a centre of science and technology with a reputable university, several research institutes and high-tech plants, especially focusing on precision mechanics and optical industries. About a fourth of the population are students.

Understand
Jena (pronounced yay-nah) has probably existed since at least the 9th century AD and became a town around 1230. Part of the State of Thuringia from its foundation in 1920 on, it was incorporated into the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in 1949 and its district of Gera in 1952. Since 1990, the city of Jena has again been a part of reunited Germany's state of Thuringia.

Academics
Jena has the biggest university in Thuringia and its ratio of students to the total of inhabitants is one of the highest in Germany, as there are 20,000 students at the university which was founded in 1558 and named after Friedrich Schiller in 1934. Additionally, there are some 4,500 students at the university of applied sciences (Fachhochschule), making one out of four citizens of Jena a student.

In early modern times, there was a fix canon of sights—the Seven Wonders of Jena, or septem miracula Jenae in Latin—that each student in Jena was expected to visit and remember. Being able to identify and recite the Seven Wonders in the correct order was considered a proof that someone had indeed studied at Jena: Ara ("arch"—the underpass below the altar of St Michael's church), Caput ("head"—the mechanically moving figure head above the astronomical clock at the townhall), Draco ("dragon"—a seven-headed chimera made as a student joke of animal bones and papier-mâché), Mons ("mountain"—the 385 metre-high Jenzig hill northeast of the town), Pons ("bridge"—the nine-arched old stone bridge Camsdorfer Brücke over the Saale), Vulpecula Turris ("fox tower"—Fuchsturm, a high-medieval donjon on a hilltop east of Jena), Weigeliana Domus ("Weigel's house"—das Weigelsche Haus, built for a 17th-century professor of mathematics with many technical refinements that were considered ahead of the time, like a wine conduit from the cellar to the dining room, a mechanical lift and long tubes for the observation of stars). Five of the wonders are still extant, while the bridge and Weigel's house are lost.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, probably the two greatest German writers, lived in Jena for a few years (though their residence in Weimar is much more well known). Around 1800, Jena was the birthplace of German idealist philosophy (developed by Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling) and early romantic literature ("Jena Romanticism", created by authors like Novalis, Friedrich and Wilhelm Schlegel). Other famous citizens of Jena include the biologist Ernst Haeckel, the physicists Ernst Abbe and Erwin Schrödinger. The philosopher and communist thinker Karl Marx obtained his Ph.D. from Jena University (because it was one of the few at that time to accept dissertations written in German instead of Latin) without ever attending a course there.

Napoleon
In 1806, Jena and the village of Auerstädt (25 km north of the city) were the sites of a decisive battle in the War of the Fourth Coalition (Napoleon's war against Prussia), involving more than 220,000 soldiers. One of the most known bridges over the Seine and a boulevard in the 16th arrondissement of Paris are named after Jena in memory of this French victory: Pont d'Iéna and Avenue d'Iéna.

Optical and high-tech manufacture
Jena is also famous for Carl Zeiss, an optical and precision engineering company founded in 1846, and the Schott hightech glass factories founded in 1884. Both have long been leading players of their respective sectors and exporting worldwide. "Jenaer Glas" is a brand of refractory and chemically resistant glass developed by Otto Schott in 1887. Under the management of socially-minded Ernst Abbe, the Zeiss works (and likewise Schott) provided their employees with quite far-reaching social security and benefits, like pension funds and eight-hour days, that were considered radically modern in the 19th century. This generated a very high identification of workers with their respective company and made Jena a forerunner of Germany's "social market economy". In 1942 Jena was the first site to produce penicillin on an industrial scale, leading to the establishment of the pharmaceutical company Jenapharm. Both Schott's and Carl Zeiss' plants were nationalised in communist East Germany after 1945, while the seat of the respective corporation was moved to capitalist West Germany (establishing new production sites under the traditional names in Mainz and the Swabian Mountains, respectively).

The former nationally-owned factories of Schott and Carl Zeiss were (partially) reunited with their Western counterparts after the end of Cold War, but their executives are still based in (South-)Western Germany rather than moving back to Jena. Some branches of Carl Zeiss Jena have however been outsourced as an independent company called Jenoptik with headquarters in Jena, that has become a renowned producer of laser technology and optical instruments, as well. Similarly, Analytik Jena has specialised on (bio-)analytical instruments. The overall number of workers drastically declined after reunification. Nevertheless, Jena has attracted considerable investments into its manufactories and research institutes and is now considered one of the economically most successful cities of former East Germany, well keeping up with the times. Carl Zeiss Meditec, a Carl Zeiss subsidiary producing medical technology like surgical microscopes or instruments for eye exams, is headquartered in Jena since 2002, being one of four listed companies based in this city (and one of the highest-grossing).

By plane
There are two small airports in Altenburg (east of Jena) and Erfurt (west of Jena), but the former has no scheduled passenger traffic while the latter is only used by charter flights to Mediterranean holiday destinations.

Coming from far away you will most probably arrive at Frankfurt airport. From there you can either take the ICE high-speed train to Erfurt and then change to a regional train going to Jena (c. 3:15 hours in total), or you can go by car via Autobahn A5 and A4 straight towards Jena. This is approx. 300 km (about three hours during average traffic).

By train
Since the completion of the Leipzig/Halle–Erfurt–Nuremberg high-speed route, Jena is bypassed by most ICE and intercity trains. Once a day each, there is an ICE high-speed train from Hamburg (4 hr 20 min) via Berlin (2½ hr) and an intercity from Stuttgart (almost 5 hr) via Nuremberg (2½ hr). Both of them also stop in Leipzig (1 hr 10 min). Otherwise, you will have to change from high-speed to regional trains either in Erfurt (half-hourly regional trains to Jena, taking half an hour), in Halle (two-hourly, 1 hour) or Leipzig (two-hourly, 1 hr 25 min).

All trains from Erfurt also stop in Weimar from where it takes only a 15 minutes ride to Jena. Morever Jena is served by hourly regional express trains from Gera (half hour) and two-hourly from Göttingen (2 hr 10 min) via Gotha (50 min), from Altenburg (1 hr 20 min) or from Glauchau near Chemnitz (1½ hr).

The city's main station is called

Regional trains from Erfurt, Weimar or Gera arrive at

By car
Jena is not far from the Hermsdorfer Kreuz where the A9 (E49/E51) from Berlin to Munich and the A4 (E40) from Frankfurt to Dresden cross. Just take the way towards Erfurt/Frankfurt and you will reach Jena within minutes.

Get around
You can reach all important destinations by walking. You can also use public transportation (buses and trams), but it is not cheap in Jena. Details at Jenaer Nahverkehr GmbH.

See


Jena is surrounded by hills. Hence there are a lot of very nice opportunities to get a beautiful panorama view of the town. From the towers or the restaurants Wilhelmshöhe and Landgrafen.

Buy
Take a look at GoetheGalerie or Neue Mitte. Here you can find almost anything you need. Another places for shopping are the shopping centres Burgaupark and Schillerpassage.

Eat


As Jena is a student town and a town in the east of Germany, prices are slightly lower than in Western Germany.

Thuringian specialties are: Thüringer Rostbratwurst (Thuringian roaster sausage), Rostbrätel (roasted meat). These can be found at the Grillteufel food stalls.

Budget
All these are in the city centre:



Drink


You should taste black (dark) beer. In all restaurants you will either get Köstritzer or Schwarze Rose. Both are good. You will find many Pils sorts as well. Enjoy nightlife at

Sleep
Accommodation can be booked through the tourist information:

A list of accommodation options can be found at on the towns tourist website

Mid-range
There are lots of good hotels with reasonable prices. Places located in Old Town include:

Stay safe
Although Germany's east is considered to be a bit more dangerous for people looking "foreign", this is generally not a problem in Jena due to the city's international outlook thanks to the many students and specialists at the high-tech plants. Jena is among the towns with the highest ratio of foreigners in eastern Germany. So just take those measures you would normally take in the town you come from. Though, when using the tram to the less well-off suburbs at night, the risk of encountering unpleasant people rises (Germany's most infamous far-right terrorist group originated from a suburb of Jena).

Go next
Buses leaving from the bus terminal adjacent to the main train station are only serving regional destinations of minor touristic interest, such as Eisenberg or Schleiz.

The best option is going by train from Westbahnhof to towns like Weimar (20 min) or Erfurt (40 min). Trains are leaving approximately once an hour.

From the main train station Jena-Paradies, it is possible to go to Dornburg, Rudolstadt (25–30 min) and Naumburg (30 min) by regional train, and to Leipzig (just over an hour), Berlin, Nuremberg (2½ hours each) and Munich (3 hr 50 min) by ICE high speed train. Trains leaving every two hours.

People who like hiking might try the Thüringenweg, a 400 km hiking trail.

Cyclists will enjoy the Saale-Radweg (Saale bike trail; next stages are Dornburg and Naumburg, 49 km downriver, or Saalfeld, 54 km upriver) or the so-called Thüringer Städtekette (Thuringian city chain; next stages are Weimar (24 km west) or Gera (61 km east)).