Jena

From Free net encyclopedia

This article is about the German town of Jena. For the battle refer to Battle of Jena-Auerstedt and for the town in the United States refer to Jena, Louisiana.

Template:Infobox Town DE Jena is a town in central Germany on the River Saale. With a population of 102,442 (as of 31 December 2004) it is the third biggest town in the federal state of Thuringia.

1 History
2 Economy
3 Buildings
4 Colleges, Universities and Research Institutes
5 Museums
6 Culture
7 Food and drink
8 Famous residents
9 External links

[edit]

History

Jena was first mentioned in 1236 and developed as a market town up until the foundation of the university in 1558.

On 14 October 1806 Napoleon fought and defeated the Prussian army here in the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt.

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.

[edit]

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 cities economy diversifies into bioinformatics, biotechnology, software and photonics. The metropolitan area of Jena is among Germany´s 50 fastest growing regions.

[edit]

Buildings

Jen-Tower

[edit]

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 1990.
The Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology is an important research center and offers a Ph.D. program.
The Max Planck Institute for Economics
The Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry
The Institute for Physical High Technology
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 for Infectuous Disease Control
The Jena Center for Bioinformatics

[edit]

Museums

Optical Museum Jena - history of optical instruments
Schott GlassMuseum - production and usage of glass
townmuseum Göhre - history of the town
Botanical Garden
Phyletical Museum - biology
Romanticism House - literary
Memorial to Goethe - literary

[edit]

Culture

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

[edit]

Food and drink

Köstritzer is the maker of the favorite local beer. They make a dark "Schwarzbier" that is quite popular. A favorite local food is a kind of long sausage, "bratwurst", which is perhaps twelve inches in length and is eaten with brown mustard in a crusty baguette style bun that is perhaps 3-4 inches long, leaving 4 inches or more of sausage hanging from each end. Quite a sight.

[edit]