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Funded by the Carl Zeiss foundation and opened in 1903, it was one of Germany's first free educational and cultural venues targeting working-class people. Today, the imposing historicist building is still used for meetings, cultural events, educational presentations as well as being home to the Ernst Abbe library and the Jenaer Philharmonie orchestra.
The Volkshaus in Jena was one of the first free educational institutions in Germany to be set up on the North American model.
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Jena philharmonic orchestra
Classical orchestra that cooperates with a philharmonic choir, boys choir and madrigal choir. Their concerts usually take place at the Volkshaus.
Optical museum
Comprehensive exhibition illustrating the development of optical instruments and technology through the ages, focusing on the work of physicist Ernst Abbe and entrepreneurs Carl Zeiss and Otto Schott and their respective companies. English-language guides available by prior appointment (€40 for the whole group), audioguides in English, French, German, Italian and Japanese (€1 per person plus €5 deposit).
Anatomy Tower
Ruined round tower that used to be part of Jena's town fortification. The remaining base once supported an anatomical theatre (hence the name) where courses for medical students took place and Goethe (who was not just a writer but also a scientist) did research on the premaxillary bone of humans and elephants.
Friedrich Schiller, one of the greatest classical German poets and playwrights lived in Jena from 1789 to 1799 with his wife Charlotte von Lengefeld, a native of nearby Rudolstadt. While Schiller's downtown home is lost, the garden house that he bought in 1797 to spend the Summers with his family outside the town (at that time) still exists. Some of Schiller's most notable works—the dramas "Wallenstein", "Mary Stuart" and "The Maid of Orleans" as well as several ballads—were created (at least in parts) in the study of this house. It now serves as a museum run by the Friedrich Schiller University with an exhibition dedicated to Schiller's years in Jena.
Municipal theatre, staging dramas, musical and dance theatre.
formerly known as Intershop Tower
144.5-m-high office tower built in the early 1970s for the university and intended by the communist rulers to be a dominant part of the "socialist city". It was designed by Hermann Henselmann (architect of the Berlin television tower) to remind of an upright telescope (alluding to Jena's optical industries). It was renovated and modernised around 2000, receiving its characteristic glass façade. Main tenant of offices is the e-commerce developer Intershop. There is a restaurant on the highest floor and an observation platform on the top.