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The Zeiss Planetarium in Jena was not the world's first planetarium (that honor goes to ancient Greece), but it is the oldest operational planetarium that has been continuously operated and is still in operation today.
Jena is the center of Germany's optical industry. The first planetarium projector was designed here by optical engineer Walther Bauersfeld in 1919.
After a brief display in Munich, the projector was installed on the roof of a Zeiss factory building in Jena in 1924.
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Improved projectors were installed in the first permanent displays in 1926 in Wuppertal, Leipzig and Düsseldorf. On July 18, 1926, the Zeiss Planetarium in Jena opened at its present location.
The planetarium is named after inventor and engineer Carl Zeiss, who in 1846 in Jena opened an optical workshop that should become one of the world's leading manufacturers of optical instruments.
While the first three planetariums (in Wuppertal, Leipzig and Düsseldorf) were destroyed in World War II, the Zeiss planetarium survived and has been displaying "the second best starry sky (second only to mother nature)" for 90 years and counting. |
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 A modern planetarium projector
on display nearby in downtown Jena
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