Editing Jena (section)

== History ==

=== Middle Ages ===
[[File:Lobdeburg near Jena by Night.jpg|thumb|Lobdeburg Castle above Lobeda district]]
Until the [[High Middle Ages]], the [[Saale]] was the border between [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] regions in the west and [[Slavs|Slavic]] regions in the east. Owing to its function as a river crossing, Jena was conveniently located. Nevertheless, there were also some more important Saale crossings such as the nearby cities of [[Naumburg (Saale)|Naumburg]] to the north and [[Saalfeld]] to the south, so that the relevance of Jena was more local during the Middle Ages. The first unequivocal mention of Jena was in an 1182 document. The first local rulers of the region were the Lords of [[Lobdeburg]] with their eponymous castle near [[Lobeda]], roughly {{convert|6|km|0|abbr=on}} south of the city centre on the eastern hillside of the Saale valley.

In the 13th century, the Lords of Lobdeburg founded two towns in the valley: Jena on the west bank and Lobeda&nbsp;– which is one of Jena's constituent communities today&nbsp;– {{convert|4|km|0|abbr=on}} to the south on the east bank. Around 1230, Jena received town rights and a regular city grid was established between today's Fürstengraben, Löbdergraben, Teichgraben and Leutragraben. The city got a marketplace, main church, town hall, council and city walls during the late 13th and early 14th centuries making it into a full-fledged town. In this time, the city's economy was based mainly on wine production on the warm and sunny hillsides of the Saale valley. The two monasteries of the [[Dominican Order|Dominicans]] (1286) and the [[Cistercian]]s (1301) rounded out Jena's medieval appearance.

As the political circumstances in Thuringia changed in the middle of the 14th century, the weakened Lords of Lobdeburg sold Jena to the aspiring [[House of Wettin|Wettins]] in 1331. Jena obtained the [[Gotha]] municipal law and the citizens strengthened their rights and wealth during the 14th and 15th centuries. Moreover, the Wettins were more interested in their residence in the nearby city of [[Weimar]], and so Jena could develop itself relatively autonomously.

=== Early modern period ===
[[File:Jena (Merian).jpg|thumb|Jena in 1650]]
The [[Protestant Reformation]] was brought to the city in 1523. [[Martin Luther]] visited the town to reorganize the clerical relations and Jena became an early centre of his doctrine. In the following years, the Dominican and the [[Carmelites|Carmelite]] convents were attacked by the townsmen and abolished in 1525 (Carmelite) and 1548 (Dominican).

An important step in Jena's history was the foundation of the [[University of Jena|university]] in 1558. Ernestine Elector [[John Frederick, Elector of Saxony|John Frederick the Magnanimous]] founded it, because he had lost his old university in [[Wittenberg]] to the [[House of Wettin|Albertines]] after the [[Schmalkaldic War]]. During the [[Little Ice Age]], [[Viticulture|wine-growing]] declined in the 17th century, so that the new university became one of the most important sources of income for the city. The same century brought a boom in printing business caused by the rising importance of books (and the population's ability to read) in the Lutheran doctrine, and Jena was the second-largest printing location in Germany after [[Leipzig]].

The list of the so-called "[[Seven Wonders of Jena]]" was composed by students of the university at this time, supposedly as a test of local knowledge in order to confirm that a person who claimed to have studied in Jena was actually familiar with the city.

Beginning in the 16th century, the Ernestine dynasty saw many territorial partitions. Initially, Jena remained a part of [[Saxe-Weimar]], but in 1672 it became the capital of its own small duchy ([[Saxe-Jena]]). In 1692, after two dukes ([[Bernhard II, Duke of Saxe-Jena|Bernhard II]] and [[Johann Wilhelm, Duke of Saxe-Jena|Johann Wilhelm]]), the dukes of Saxe-Jena died out and the duchy became part of [[Saxe-Eisenach]] and, in 1741, of the [[Duchy of Saxe-Weimar]], to which it belonged until 1809. From 1809 to 1918, Jena was part of the Duchy (from 1815 Grand Duchy) of [[Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach|Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach]], which from 1871 was also part of the [[German Empire]].

=== 18th century ===
[[File:Napoleon.Jena.jpg|thumb|The battle of Jena in 1806]]
Around 1790, the university became the largest and most famous one among the German states and made Jena the centre of the self-centred, idealist philosophy of ‘Ich' (with professors such as [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]], [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], [[Friedrich Schiller]], and [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling]]). It was also home to the early [[German Romanticism|Romanticism]] (with poets such as Novalis, the brothers [[August Wilhelm Schlegel|August]] and [[Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel|Friedrich Schlegel]], and [[Ludwig Tieck]]).<ref>Wulf, Andrea, ''[https://aeon.co/essays/english-romanticism-was-born-from-a-serious-germanomania The First Romantics]'', [[Aeon]], December 20, 2022</ref>

In 1794, the poets [[Goethe]] and [[Schiller]] met at the university and established a long lasting friendship, based on their love of Shakespeare. Consequently, the reputation of the University and the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach as liberal and open-minded, but severely self-absorbed, was established and enhanced.

=== 19th century ===
On 14&nbsp;October 1806, [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleon]] fought and defeated the [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussian]] army here in the [[Battle of Jena-Auerstedt]], near the district of Vierzehnheiligen. Resistance against the French occupation was strong, especially among the students. Many of the students fought in the [[Lützow Free Corps]] in 1813. Two years later, the [[Urburschenschaft]] fraternity was founded in the city.

During the later 19th century, the famous biologist [[Ernst Haeckel]] was professor at the university. The expansion of science and medicine faculties was closely linked to the industrial boom that Jena saw after 1871. The initial spark of industrialization in Jena was the (relatively late) connection to the railway. The [[Saal Railway]] (''Saalbahn'', opened in 1874) was the connection from [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]] and [[Leipzig]] along the Saale valley to [[Nuremberg]] and the [[Weimar–Gera railway]] (opened 1876) connected Jena with [[Frankfurt]] and [[Erfurt]] in the west as well as [[Dresden]] and [[Gera]] in the east. Famous pioneers of the Jenaer industry were [[Carl Zeiss]] and [[Ernst Abbe]] (with their [[Carl Zeiss AG]]) as well as [[Otto Schott]] ([[Schott AG]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Walter|first=Rolf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqPstAEACAAJ|title=Carl Zeiss: Zeiss 1905-1945|date=1996|publisher=Böhlau Verlag|isbn=978-3-412-11096-3|pages=18|language=de}}</ref> Since that time, production of optical items, precision machinery and laboratory glassware have been the main branches of Jena's economy; [[Jena glass]] is even named after the city. Zeiss, Abbe and Schott worked also as social reformers who wanted to improve the living conditions of their workers and the local wealth in general. When Zeiss died in 1889, his company passed to the [[Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung]], which uses great amounts of the company's profits for social benefits such as research projects at universities etc. This model became an example for other German companies (e.g. the [[Robert Bosch Stiftung]]). In 1898 it was agreed on with several personalities from the Jenaer industrial sector that the city was in need of an electricity generator<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Walter|first=Rolf|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fqPstAEACAAJ|title=Carl Zeiss: Zeiss 1905-1945|date=1996|publisher=Böhlau Verlag|isbn=978-3-412-11096-3|pages=25|language=de}}</ref> and in the first years of the 1900s an electrified tramway was founded in Jena.<ref name=":0" />

=== 20th century ===
[[File:Jena Zeiss Bau 15.jpg|thumb|Bau 15 of the Carl Zeiss factory, Germany's first high-rise building, established in 1915]]
Industrialization fundamentally changed the social structure of Jena. The former academic town became a working-class city; the population rose from 8,000 around 1870 up to 71,000 at the beginning of [[World War II]]. The city expanded along the Saale valley to the north and the south and its side valleys to the east and the west. In 1901, the [[tram]] system started its operation and the university got a new main building (established between 1906 and 1908 on the former castle's site). After the foundation of [[Thuringia]] in 1920, Jena was one of the three biggest cities (together with [[Weimar]] and [[Gera]], while [[Erfurt]] remained part of [[Free State of Prussia|Prussia]]) and became an [[independent city]] in 1922. The modern optical and glass industry kept booming and the city grew further during [[Weimar Republic|Weimar times]].

[[File:Jena 700 Jahre Stadt poster (1936).jpg|thumb|left|1936 poster marking the 700th anniversary of the city of Jena]]
During the [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]] period, conflicts deepened in Jena between the influential left-wing milieus (communists and social democrats) and the right-wing Nazi milieus. On the one hand, the university suffered from new restrictions against its independence, but on the other hand, it consolidated the Nazi ideology, for example with a professorship of social anthropology (which sought to scientifically legitimize the [[racial policy of Nazi Germany]]). [[Kristallnacht]] in 1938 led to more discrimination against [[Jew]]s in Jena, many of whom either emigrated or were arrested and murdered by the German government. This weakened the academic milieu, because many academics were Jews (especially in medicine). During [[World War II]], the Germans operated two [[List of subcamps of Buchenwald|subcamps]] of the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]] in the city,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tenhumbergreinhard.de/1933-1945-lager-1/1933-1945-lager-j/jena-leutrastrae-32.html|title=Jena Leutrastraße 32|access-date=21 February 2021|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tenhumbergreinhard.de/1933-1945-lager-1/1933-1945-lager-j/jena-loebstedter-strae-50.html|title=Jena Löbstedter Straße 50|access-date=21 February 2021|language=de}}</ref> and a subcamp of the prison in [[Sieradz]] in [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Studnicka-Mariańczyk|first=Karolina|year=2018|title=Zakład Karny w Sieradzu w okresie okupacji hitlerowskiej 1939–1945|journal=Zeszyty Historyczne|language=pl|volume=17|page=187}}</ref>

In 1945, toward the end of [[World War II]], Jena was repeatedly targeted by [[Strategic bombing during World War II|Allied bombing raids]]. 709 people were killed, 2,000 injured, and most of the medieval town centre was destroyed, but in parts restored after the end of the war. No other Thuringian city suffered worse damage, except [[Nordhausen, Thuringia|Nordhausen]], whose destruction was utter. Today most of the city consists of buildings from before World War II.<ref>https://zensus2011.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/Publikationen/Aufsaetze_Archiv/2015_12_NI_GWZ_endgueltig.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=4 {{Bare URL inline|date=August 2024}}</ref> Jena was occupied by [[United States Armed Forces|American troops]] on 13 April 1945 and was left to the [[Red Army]] on 1 July 1945.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

Jena fell within the [[Occupation of Germany|Soviet zone of occupation]] in post-World War II Germany. In 1949, it became part of the new [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] (GDR). The Soviets dismantled great parts of the Zeiss and Schott factories and took them to the [[Soviet Union]]. On the other hand, the GDR government founded a new [[Pharmaceutical industry|pharmaceutical]] factory in 1950, [[Jenapharm]], which is part of [[Bayer]] today. In 1953, Jena was a centre of the [[Uprising of 1953 in East Germany|East German Uprising]] against GDR policy. The protests with 30,000 participants drew fire from Soviet [[tank]]s.{{citation needed|date=September 2022}}

[[File:Der_Holzmarkt_in_der_Jenaer_Innenstadt.jpg|thumb|The "Holzmarkt" in the city centre]]
The following decades brought some radical shifts in city planning. During the 1960s, another part of the historic city centre was demolished to build the [[Jen Tower]]. The Eichplatz in front of the tower is still unbuilt and its future is still the subject of ongoing heated discussion. Big [[Plattenbau]] settlements were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, because the population was still rising and the housing shortage remained a perpetual problem. New districts established in the north (near Rautal) and in the south (around Winzerla and Lobeda). The opposition against the GDR government was reinforced during the late 1980s in Jena, fed by academic and clerical circles. In autumn 1989, the city saw the largest protests in its history before the GDR government was dissolved.

After 1990, Jena became part of the refounded state of [[Thuringia]]. Industry came into a heavy crisis during the 1990s, but finally it managed the transition to the [[market economy]] and today, it is one of the leading economic centres of eastern Germany. Furthermore, the university was enlarged and many new research institutes were founded.

Especially between 1995 and 1997 several far-right crimes were committed in Jena. The city's far-right scene of the 1990s gave rise to the [[National Socialist Underground]] (NSU) terror group. However, the city is no longer considered a far-right hotspot.