Jena, University of

(also, Friedrich Schiller University), one of the major universities in the German Democratic Republic. It was founded in 1558 from an academy in Jena. At the time of its founding, the university had faculties of theology, law, and medicine, as well as a preparatory faculty of the fine arts. Until the end of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–48), it was a stronghold of orthodox Lutheranism.

The university’s first significant period of development occurred in the second half of the 17th century. In 1663, G. von Leibniz became a student there. In the 1690’s the university began to experience a period of declining importance that lasted until the end of the 18th century. It subsequently became a center of 19th-century German romanticism, which embodied the ideas of the revolutionary bourgeoisie, and of classical bourgeois philosophy. Among those associated with the University of Jena at that time were J. W. von Goethe, J. G. Fichte, F. von Schelling, and F. von Schiller. From 1801 to 1807, G. Hegel taught a philosophy course at Jena. The well-known scientist and physiophilosopher L. Oken also played a major role at the university in the early 19th century. In 1841, Karl Marx defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Jena. During the second half of the 19th century, the significance of natural science specializations became particularly great. The physicist E. Abbe and the biologist E. Haeckel did their work at the university. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries the University of Jena was the focus of extremely reactionary national-chauvinistic and aggressive imperialist ideology. In 1933 it became a center of fascist ideology.

Although it was heavily damaged during World War II, the university was reopened in 1945. It was the first university in the German Democratic Republic to be reopened after the war. A faculty for workers and peasants, which offered secondary school level courses, was organized there. As of the academic year 1971–72, there were 15 faculties: Marxism-Leninism, philosophy and history, philology, economics and cybernetics, pedagogy, literature and art, medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, technology, law, theology, and physical education. Approximately 5, 000 students were enrolled at the university; the teaching staff numbered more than 500. The university library, which was founded in 1558, housed more than 2 million volumes in 1971.