German Optical Museum

German Optical Museum

The German Optical Museum (DOM for short) Jena is a science and technology museum. The museum has been closed to visitors since July 2019.

On the weekend of July 6th and 7th, 2019, the DOM said goodbye to a multi-year renovation phase to completely redesign the museum.

With the closure of the museum, preparatory measures began which are not compatible with the regular visitor traffic. This is followed by the complete renovation of the house and the complete redesign of the exhibition. In the future, optical phenomena of everyday life and technically used optical effects will be made comprehensively experimental in a world of optics. For this purpose, historical optical instruments and their use to gain knowledge are presented holistically and, in addition, current scientific findings are always conveyed in order to serve as a showcase for optical research.

The new museum is to build on the optical traditions of Jena at a historical site in the city center and preserve, scientifically develop and present existing collections.

The reopening of the German Optical Museum is planned for the first half of 2023.

history

In addition to the production of microscopes , Carl Zeiss also repaired optical devices from other manufacturers. He also did this to follow the development of the competition. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the employees of Carl Zeiss began collecting the optical instruments.

In June 1922 the Carl Zeiss Foundation established the Optical Museum; the exhibition was in the now neighboring Volkshaus . A building was designed by the architects Johannes Schreiter and Hans Schlag for the “Staatliche Optikerschule zu Jena” founded in 1917 . The reinforced concrete construction was carried out in 1923/24 by the Dyckerhoff & Widmann company from Nuremberg. In October 1924, the exhibition moved to the newly constructed building at Carl-Zeiß-Platz  12. The collection was only available to a select group of people for research purposes.

During the Second World War in 1941/42, the exhibition was moved to underground production facilities in the vicinity of Jena for protection. Unlike the Zeiss factory, the Optical Museum was not dismantled by the Soviet occupying forces in 1946. The exhibition was opened to the public again in 1965, but initially in the Griesbach garden house. The building at Carl-Zeiss-Platz 12 moved back into the building in 1976/77. On the 100th anniversary of Carl Zeiss' death, the historic Zeiss workshop from around 1860 was opened in the neighboring Volkshaus in December 1988.

In this context, the Optical Museum was renamed the "Zeiss Museum", but this was reversed in 1991. In June 1992 the newly established Ernst Abbe Foundation took over the sponsorship of the museum. The historical Zeiss workshop was transferred from the Volkshaus to the Optical Museum in 2002.

On September 9, 2016, the Carl Zeiss Foundation, the Ernst Abbe Foundation, Carl Zeiss AG and the City of Jena, as well as the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, set up the “Foundation German Optical Museum” based in Jena. The foundation has the task of expanding the existing museum into the "German Optical Museum". Since July 1, 2018, the museum has been sponsored by the German Optical Museum Foundation and also operates under the name of the German Optical Museum.

Web links

Commons : Optical Museum Jena  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• German Optical Museum

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Articles of Association (version of April 13, 2017) Foundation German Optical Museum. (PDF) April 13, 2017, accessed June 30, 2017 . 

Coordinates: 50 ° 55 ′ 40.1 ″  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 45.4 ″  E