If you want to have a really beautiful view of Jena, you should climb one of the many 400-meter high hills on the city's outskirts. From there, you can gaze down on the entire region and the Saale valley - a landscape with a Mediterranean air about it.

The only thing that doesn't quite fit into this picture is the cluster of modern buildings called Lobeda towards the south, home to 20 percent of Jena's residents. From this hilltop, you can also see that Jena has clear and simple dimensions. This city of 100,000 residents does not have many high-rise constructions. Its center mostly consists of well-preserved and renovated old-style buildings.

Intellectual center, military arena

Jena was first mentioned in official records in 1182 and over the centuries, it belonged to various principalities and duchies. Later, it became part of the Saxe-Weimar Duchy, where a well-known minister and poet by the name of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe looked after its interests. In 1794, Goethe forged a friendship with the university's patron and most famous Jena resident of all, Friedrich Schiller. In those days, at the end of the 18th century, Jena was one of Germany's most prominent intellectual centers.

The city was afflicted by various wars over the course of time, with the most violent battles taking place near Jena and Auerstedt. On the 14th of October 1806, the French army faced the allied Prussians and Saxons here. This resulted in a bloody fight out of which Napoleon's troops emerged victorious. The cost: 30,000 dead, countless wounded and a devastated region in the heart of Thuringia. This historic battle is to this day an important date in the city's chronicles and is re-enacted every year.

Old streets, new cooperation

Today's Jena is a high-tech place. Friedrich Schiller University works together with private research institutes and local industry. The rate of unemployment in the city is lower than in other parts of eastern Germany. And the inner city, with all its narrow streets, looks modern and colorful despite its age.

Author: Ronny Arnold