Optical Museum Jena

The Deutsches Optisches Museum stands in Jena, a city in central Germany known for its optical industry. The museum occupies a reinforced-concrete building from the early 1920s on Carl-Zeiss-Platz. It traces eight centuries of optical instruments, linking their development to Jena’s rise as an optical centre since the mid-19th century. The displays connect the work of Ernst Abbe, Carl Zeiss and Otto Schott to the city’s industrial growth. Special exhibitions, arranged with the local art club, add non-optical themes from time to time. The collection began when Zeiss staff started gathering instruments in the late 19th century. In 1924 the museum opened in its present building, originally for research rather than public viewing. During the Second World War the exhibits were moved to underground sites to avoid damage. After 1945 the collection survived Soviet dismantling and reopened in stages, finally returning to Carl-Zeiss-Platz in 1977. The historical Zeiss workshop, dating from about 1860, joined the museum in 1988 and was relocated inside in 2002. Visitors find three floors of displays. The ground floor covers glasses, microscopes, telescopes, photography and ophthalmology, with sections on Zeiss, Abbe and Schott. The basement holds the restored Zeiss workshop of 1860, a hologram collection, colour exhibits and an optical laboratory for classes. The upper floor features planetarium equipment, a changing special exhibition and a lecture hall. Altogether the museum offers 1,200 square metres of technical and cultural history.