Welcome to the green heart of Germany: Thüringen.
In this region there’s a city famous for its achievements in optics as well as its football team’s triumph over AS Rom in 1980: this is our beloved city called Jena.
But of course there’s more to this city and its inhabitants. Jena is the second largest city in the federal state of Thuringia. Together with the neighbour-cities Erfurt and Weimar it forms the central metropolitan area with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a population of nearly 110,000. Furthermore, Jena is well-known for its education and research. The Friedrich Schiller University was founded 1558 and with around 21,000 students one out of 5 people on the street is probably a student there. Another 5,000 students attend the University of Applied Sciences in Jena.
Nowadays, Jena is a mecca for students of optics and physics which definitely has its root in the history of the city. During most of the 20th century, Jena has been a world centre of optical industry around companies like Carl Zeiss, Schott and Jenoptik. Traces of this history can be found everywhere (street names, places, sights).
Between 1790 and 1850, Jena was a focal point of German Vormärz as well as of student liberal and unification movement and German Romanticism.
Amongst the most notable persons that lived in Jena are Goethe and Schiller, probably the two greatest German writers, as well as for example the biologist Ernst Haeckel, the physicists Ernst Abbe and Erwin Schrödinger and the philosopher Karl Marx.
Nowadays, Jena is widely known as a pure student paradise and we hope you’re going to like this town.
After your arrival take some time to get around and discover your new home. Doesn't matter whether you come for studying or partying, you will have a great time living in our city.
For official information about the city please see www.jena.de
