Jena

Jena, with its 100,000 inhabitants, is the largest city in the Saale valley,

Portions of the wall and some corner towers from the 14th century

situated in Thuringia, the 'Green Heart of Germany'.

Goethes House. Goethe's gingko tree over 200 years, 21 m, planted in the Botanical Garden near Goethes House

The city is 150m above sea level and surrounded by Muschelkalk hills with extensive forest areas, which appear almost Mediterranean and are home to 40 species of orchids. Jena's history lay with science and technology.

Jena has been an important intellectual center of Germany for centuries achieved European reputation as the most popular place to study in all Germany after the founding of the university in 1558. The university reached its height in the late 18th and early 19th cent. Goethe known as the "Shakespeare of Germany" was at this university. Jena was an especially important city in Goethe's life, which he visited frequently between 1775 and 1830. It was here that he first met Friedrich Schiller. Friedrich Schiller, taught here as a professor. These two literary giants were good friends. The university in Jena was named after Friedrich Schiller in 1934.The philosophers Hegel, Fichte, and Schelling, and the poet August Wilhelm von Schlegel taught there. Karl Marx received his doctorate from Jena. The university continues to characterize the city as an important academic location. The roughly 21 000 students of the Friedrich Schiller University and the University of Applied Sciences give an eternally youthful flair to the city.

The botanical garden in Jena is over 200 years old. It counts more than 2000 species from over the world. It situated next to Goethes House. Across the street there is the row of statues of the university's distinguished faculty in front of the old university buildings. Teachers and students are given particularly large statues. Hegel, the intellectual godfather and Jena's most notorious professor, seems neglected with only a small bust.

Jena is the birthplace of the optics industry in Germany. Natural scientists and technicians Ernst Abbe, Otto Schott, and Carl Zeiss made a name for themselves . The famous German instrument maker Carl

Sculptures by Frank Stella on Ernst -Abbe-Platz

Zeiss founded his precision engineering optical workshop in Jena in 1846, the success of the Zeiss plant brought numerous highly qualified workers to the city, and the population rose sharply by 150%. One of the world's leading manufacturers of optical microscopes and related equipment, the company still dominates international optical manufacturing. Jena is also the home of the world's oldest planetarium. The planetarium was set up as a history for the Carl Zeiss Optical Works, Jena's famed industry. At the city's Optics Museum you can see one of Europe's biggest collections of spectacles and a fascinating exhibition on the history of Zeiss microscopes. Thanks to Carl Zeiss, Jena now not only enjoys world-wide renown for precision engineering and its optical industry, but also in the last few years for biotechnology and the new economy.

Old buildings tell about the long history of this city. At the end of World War II in 1945, Jena was severely damaged by several bomb raids. After the war, large parts of the historic town centre were demolished until 1970.
Five Frank Stella's metal sculptures are erected on Ernst-Abbe-Platz. In the city's centre of the market-place can be found the statue of the founder of university, Johann Friedrich I., called Hanfried. This statue was erected by Johann Friedrich Drake to the 300-year-celebration of university in 1858.