Imaginata
About This Site
The Imaginata in Jena calls itself an experimentarium for the senses: a place of learning, training lab, monument, science centre, concert hall and gallery in one, housed since 1999 in the former Jena-Nord electricity substation.[1] On 1,700 square metres indoors and more than 3,000 outdoors, over 100 interactive stations from mathematics, physics, technology and biology wait to be tried out, meant not only to pass on facts but above all to set the imagination working.[2] It began in 1995 as a summer week of experiments around the university's main building and is one of the first centres of its kind in Germany.[3]
A summer week of imagination, 1991–1995
The idea grew out of the project Imaginative Learning, begun in 1991 at the University of Tübingen, where Peter Fauser and Otto Seydel wrote a first scientific concept; the Heidehof Stiftung supported it from this early stage and has remained the Imaginata's main supporter. In June 1995 students of the project seminar, together with pupils and teachers from Jena schools, staged the first Sommer-Imaginata in Jena, a week that filled the university's main building and the streets and squares around it with science stations, theatre projects and concerts.[3] The association Imaginata e.V. was founded on 15 December 1995.[1] At the very beginning stood a sphere four metres across, built of coloured wooden laths in front of the main building on Fürstengraben and rolled from there to the Eichplatz, past passers-by who kept asking what it meant.[4]
An electricity substation for one mark, 1997–2001
On 29 January 1997 the association bought the 50 kV building and the 30 kV section of the Jena-Nord substation from the Stadtwerke Jena, and on 3 December 1999 the 110 kV section from Thüringer Energie AG, each for one Deutsche Mark. In 1999 the Imaginata gained its permanent home there, and since then both its work and its visitor numbers have grown, to around 40,000 a year.[1] After repairs and conversion the move began in spring 1999; in 2000 the station park opened for the first time for five months, from June to November, and the Imaginata took a small station park and theatre to the Thuringia week at the German Pavilion of EXPO 2000 in Hanover. In 2001 the Boxengasse was fitted with optical experiments and has been part of the station park ever since.[3]
Monument, halls and the sphere on the roof, 2007–2026
The great switch hall of the old substation is a protected monument; beside it lies the Spielhalle, a bright hall of 415 square metres rising through two storeys, and further rooms include the Tonhalle, 7.70 metres high, and the Messwarte, an event room in the substation's former control centre.[5] In 2007 a building-technology class from the vocational school centre in Göschwitz, working in the German Foundation for Monument Protection's denkmal aktiv programme, set a sphere 4.5 metres across, made of ash laths in the pattern of a football, onto the roof, successor to the sphere of 1995; in 2011 the Imaginata received the Thuringian Monument Protection Prize in the category of technical monuments.[4] On 28 August 2026 the Imaginata celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the Jena-Nord substation.[6]
The station park, an experimentarium for the senses
In the switch halls and on the open grounds of the old substation the Imaginata has built a field for perceiving and marvelling, playing and puzzling, discovering and inventing, where visitors do not stay onlookers but try things for themselves. The instructions for the stations are short: take your time, observe with all your senses, the station and yourself, and turn what puzzles you into questions; the station labels add short questions and prompts.[2] Out of doors stand a walk-in pinhole camera, the Leaning House of Jena, where eyes and balance disagree, and the House of Giant Dwarves, in which two people in opposite corners seem to change size.[7] Sustainability is to play a larger part in the station park, with new stations developed in the Imaginata's own and regional projects.[2]
Imaginative learning and the annual themes, since 1996
The scientific background was the project Imaginative Learning of the chair of school pedagogy at the University of Jena under Professor Peter Fauser, which worked on a theory of how ideas and mental images form and on forms of learning aimed at deep understanding; on 10 October 2019 the association's educational work received the Thuringian quality seal for education for sustainable development, renewed in 2022.[1] That chair, the office of the school competition Demokratisch Handeln and a programme for teaching and learning quality also have their seat in the substation. Since 1996 every Imaginata year has had a motto, from licht.optik.sehen in the first year through Hand und Fuß in 2006 to Leben mit Naturmaterialien in 2024, with readings, concerts, competitions and happenings around it.[3]
Gardens, energy and repair cafés, 2024
Besides the station park, the Imaginata offers workshops and projects for children and adults, centred on energy, climate and sustainability. Community gardens and installations for renewable energy have been laid out on the grounds, and swap markets and repair cafés take place there, supported by the Thuringian environment ministry.[3]
Visiting, today
The Imaginata stands on Löbstedter Straße and is easy to spot by the sphere on its roof and its lettering. On foot from the centre it takes about 25 minutes, via Saalbahnhofstraße, the pedestrian underpass beneath the railway and some two kilometres out along Löbstedter Straße; by tram, lines 1 and 4 towards Zwätzen reach the Kieshügel stop in about seven minutes, and drivers use the signposted car park reached from Ilmstraße.[8] Groups of ten or more are asked to book, and visits outside the regular hours can be arranged in advance; visitors to the Zeiss-Planetarium get a reduction on the same day.[2]
Questions visitors ask
- What is the Imaginata in Jena?
- An experimentarium for the senses in the former Jena-Nord electricity substation, with more than 100 interactive stations from mathematics, physics, technology and biology indoors and outdoors, plus concerts, talks, exhibitions and workshops.[1][2]
- When is the Imaginata open?
- During the Thuringian school holidays daily from 10 am to 6 pm; outside them Monday to Friday 10 am to 3 pm and Saturday and Sunday 10 am to 6 pm. The site closes over the turn of the year, from 22 December to 18 January.[2][7]
- How much is admission?
- 11 euros, reduced 9 euros for families, pupils and students among others; children of pre-school age with their parents go free. Registered groups always get a guided tour.[2]
- How do I get to the Imaginata?
- Take tram line 1 or 4 towards Zwätzen to the Kieshügel stop, about seven minutes from the centre, or walk about 25 minutes; the car park is reached from Ilmstraße.[8]
Sources (8)
- Die Idee der Imaginata — Imaginata e.V., retrieved 13 September 2026
- Stationenpark — Imaginata e.V., retrieved 13 September 2026
- Imaginata — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Chronik 2006–2016 — Imaginata e.V., retrieved 13 September 2026
- Räumlichkeiten und Vermietung — Imaginata e.V., retrieved 13 September 2026
- Festakt: 100 Jahre Umspannwerk — Imaginata e.V., retrieved 13 September 2026
- Mein Imaginata-Besuch — Imaginata e.V., retrieved 13 September 2026
- Anfahrt und Wegbeschreibung — Imaginata e.V., retrieved 13 September 2026
Visit Information
11 euros, reduced 9 euros; pre-school children with their parents free. Groups from 10 people by registration, always with a guided tour.
Thuringian school holidays: daily 10:00–18:00. Otherwise Mon–Fri 10:00–15:00, Sat–Sun 10:00–18:00. Closed 22 December–18 January.
Löbstedter Straße 67, 07749 Jena
50.9435, 11.6021
In the history of Jena
Historic sites
Fürstengraben 1, 07743 Jena
The first Sommer-Imaginata of June 1995 filled the main building and the streets around it, and the Imaginata's first sphere was built in front of it on Fürstengraben.
Leutragraben 1, 07743 Jena
During the Thüringentag of 2006 the Imaginata ran its falling-ball experiment in the tower's lift shaft, more than 100 metres high, to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth.
Around Weimar
19 km East
Jena's experimentarium for the senses, with more than 100 hands-on stations in the former Jena-Nord electricity substation on Löbstedter Straße.