Jena
About Jena
Jena is a university city on the Saale, its skyline held by a 160-metre former optics tower and its old quarter climbing away from the river toward limestone cliffs. The university dates to 1558; it made Friedrich Schiller a professor in 1789 and drew Goethe into close cooperation with it as the minister who ran its scientific institutes. In 1846 Carl Zeiss opened a workshop here that, with Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott, grew into a world centre for optics and glass — the trade that still gives the city its nickname, the City of Light.
A university city, court by court, 1558–1789
The university opened in 1558, the foundation stone of Jena's standing as a city of learning. Friedrich Schiller became a professor there in 1789, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — as the Weimar minister responsible for the duchy's scientific and artistic institutions — worked closely with it, commissioning building work at its botanical garden and drawing Jena into the same partnership that shaped Weimar Classicism a short road away.[1]
The Light City, from 1846
Carl Zeiss founded his optical workshop here in 1846; with the physicist Ernst Abbe and the glass chemist Otto Schott he built it into a world-leading centre for optics and glass. The industry still anchors the city today, and Jena calls itself the Lichtstadt — the City of Light — for it.[1]
In the Saale valley
The old town sits in a bend of the Saale, with limestone slopes rising close on either side. Every summer the Kulturarena fills six weeks with open-air music from around the world, new theatre and long nights of film, and the year runs on through weekly markets, a pottery market and Thuringia's own wood market.[2]
Questions visitors ask
- What is Jena known for?
- Jena is known as a university city — its university dates to 1558 and made Friedrich Schiller a professor in 1789 — and as the birthplace of Germany's optics industry: Carl Zeiss opened a workshop here in 1846 that, with Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott, grew into a world centre for optics and glass, giving the city its nickname, the Lichtstadt.[1]
- What is Jena's connection to Weimar and Goethe?
- Goethe, as the Weimar minister responsible for the duchy's scientific and artistic institutions, worked closely with Jena's university — he commissioned building work at its Botanical Garden and drew Jena into the same partnership that shaped Weimar Classicism a short road away.
- What are the main sights in Jena?
- The Zeiss-Planetarium, the world's oldest still operating; the Botanical Garden, Germany's second-oldest; the JenTower, a 160-metre former Zeiss office tower with a public viewing platform; and Schillers Gartenhaus, the house Schiller bought in 1797 and where he wrote parts of Wallenstein and Maria Stuart.
Sources
- Jenas Geschichte — Visit Jena, retrieved 30 August 2026
- Jenas Top 10 — Visit Jena, retrieved 30 August 2026
Quick Information
Highlights & Attractions
Historical Significance
Home to a university founded in 1558, where Schiller taught from 1789 and Goethe oversaw the scientific institutes, and to the optics industry Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott built here from 1846.
Stay and eat nearby
Historic sites
Fürstengraben 26, 07743 Jena
Germany's second-oldest botanical garden, on the university grounds since 1586.
Leutragraben 1, 07743 Jena
The city's viewpoint, 160 metres up, shaped as a telescope for the optics works it was first built for.
Schillergäßchen 2, 07745 Jena
The house Schiller kept on the edge of the city for three summers, from 1797.
Am Planetarium 5, 07743 Jena
The oldest planetarium in the world still projecting, opened above the Zeiss works in 1926.
Interesting reads
Historical figures
1749–1832 • writer • statesman • naturalist
1759–1805 • writer • poet • historian
1739–1807 • duchess • regent • patron • composer
1883–1969 • architect • founder and director of the Bauhaus • teacher
Historic sites
Frauenplan 1, 99423 Weimar
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
Stéphane-Hessel-Platz 1, 99423 Weimar
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar