Zeiss Planetarium Jena

The Zeiss Planetarium in Jena, opened on 18 July 1926, is the oldest continuously operating large projection planetarium in the world. The idea came from Oskar von Miller of the Deutsches Museum in Munich, who turned to Carl Zeiss in 1913, and in 1919 Walther Bauersfeld designed the opto-mechanical star projector, installed in Munich in 1924 as Model I; from late July 1924 some 80,000 people came to trial shows in a temporary dome on the roof of the Zeiss works, hailed as the miracle of Jena. The permanent 25 m (82 ft) dome by the architects Schreiter & Schlag, begun at the end of 1924 in the former Princesses' Garden, opened as the fourth large planetarium in the world, after Wuppertal-Barmen, Leipzig and Düsseldorf; its stars and planets are projected onto the inside of a white dome. It is a Historic Landmark of Civil Engineering in Germany, became Europe's first laser fulldome planetarium in 2006, has used a Zeiss Powerdome Velvet system since 2011, belongs to the Ernst Abbe Foundation and counted over 170,000 visits in 2024.

Background

The Zeiss-Planetarium in Jena, Germany, which opened on 18 July 1926 to a design engineered by Walther Bauersfeld, is the world's oldest planetarium in continuous operation. It is a projection planetarium, casting the planets and fixed stars onto the inside of a white dome, and it belongs to the Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung.

Source: Wikipedia, "Zeiss-Planetarium Jena"

What you'll find

• The 1926 building - the world's oldest planetarium still in operation.
• The 25-metre dome - a Historic Landmark of Civil Engineering in Germany.
• The optical projector - a Zeiss star projector alongside digital systems.
• The 1924 trial shows - the miracle of Jena on the roof of the Zeiss works.

When to go

Any time of year.

Before you go

It is a busy place: over 170,000 visits were counted in 2024.

Nearby

Jena Paradies station is about 0.8 km (0.5 mi) to the south and Weimar about 19 km (11.7 mi) to the west-north-west, both in a straight line.

Key facts