20th century: 1940 - 1949

Foreign forced laborers are increasingly deployed in municipal and foundation enterprises. Their total number rises to around 14,000 by the beginning of May 1945.

July/August: Evacuees from the Saarland temporarily housed in Jena after the start of the war are able to return home.

August 18/19: The first air raids on Jena cause only minor damage.

October: The publication of "Jenaer Judengeschichte" by Gerhard Buchmann is part of the extreme anti-Jewish agitation in Germany in preparation for the "Final Solution" of the Jewish question.

After completing their training, the police recruits trained in Jena are transferred to Krakowas Police Battalion 311 Jena under their commander Major Walter Danz. The unit is subsequently involved in war crimes.

October 10: The construction of nine high-rise bunkers in the city beginsas part of the "Sonderaktion Luftschutzbau" (special air-raid shelter construction campaign) ordered byHitler. Jena's classification as an "air-raid shelter of the first order" (the only city in Thuringia to do so) favors these construction projects.

May: At the newly built Jena-Schöngleina airfield, the gliding training program begins, primarily for students. The airfield is also used for test flights for armaments research and by the air force as an alternative airfield.

November 11: Clara Rosenthal, the widow of Professor Eduard Rosenthal, who made a great contribution to the development of the university, the city and the state of Thuringia , commits suicide in the face of increased anti-Jewish harassment and planned eviction from her home. Villa Rosenthal had been bequeathed to the city of Jena in 1928.

May 10: In a first transport, Jews from central Germany are deportedto Bełżyce in occupied Poland, where they are either killed by the end of the year or taken from there to the newly established extermination camps. This affects nine people from Jena.

September 7: The factory owner Wilhelm Härdrich establishes the charitable Wilhelm Härdrich Foundation, primarily to support the work of the Jenzig Society and other Jena mining companies.

September 20: Eight people from Jena are part of a transport of almost 900 Jews from Thuringia to the Theresienstadt camp.

End of June: Work begins on the underground relocation of armaments-related production facilities of Jena's armaments companies, primarily Zeiss and Schott. The corresponding buildings are only partially completed by the end of the war. Forced labourers are mainly used for the construction work, and several barrack camps are set up in the city to house them, including forced labour camps run by the Todt organization in Mühlenstraße and Jenzigweg from the autumn.

July 21: Magnus Poser, alongside Theodor Neubauer a leading figure in the anti-Nazi resistance in Thuringia, dies of his injuries after a failed escape attempt in the infirmary of Buchenwald concentration camp.

Summer: Plans to blow up the Fuchsturm so as not to provide a point of orientation for approaching enemy bombers take shape. A spectacular action by members of the Fuchsturm Society Willi Lemser and Otto Wagner, both of whom lock themselves in the tower, prevents the planned demolition.

October 4: The first 400 prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp are transferred to a satellite camp on Löbstedter Straße in Jena. By April 1945, a total of almost 1,000 prisoners are doing hard labor here repairing wagons and locomotives for the Reichsbahn repair works.

October/November: Male offspring from so-called mixed marriages between Jewish and "German-blooded" spouses and non-Jewish spouses from such marriages ("Jewish by blood") from Jena (around 40 people) are sent to forced labour camps run by the Organization Todt.

December 5: Carl Vogl, pastor emeritus of Vierzehnheiligen and religious socialist, dies. He remains in contact with the anti-Nazi resistance in Thuringia until the end.

January 31: The last transport of Jews from Jena departs for Theresienstadt. With the exception of the Lobeda doctor Klara Griefahn, who commits suicide upon receiving the deportation order, all those involved survive and are able to return to Jena. According to current knowledge, a total of around 100 people with a connection to Jena fall victim to the Nazi "Final Solution to the Jewish Question".

February to April: There are several bomb attacks on Jena. On February 9, the university library building is completely destroyed, killing library director Theodor Lockemann. The heaviest attack is carried out by American bombers on March 19. These and several major fires reduce 220 houses to rubble, mainly in the historic city center, and the city church of St. Michael is severely damaged. On April 9, the goods station is destroyed to paralyze rail traffic. A total of almost 800 people die in the bombing raids, including around 100 forced laborers. The number of Jena residents who lose their lives in World War II as members of the Wehrmacht and other military units is estimated at over 2,000.

April 11: More than 4,000 prisoners from the Buchenwald concentration camp are driven through Jena towards Eisenberg on a so-called evacuation march ("death march"). There is evidence of 16 victims in the Jena area who are buried in a common grave at the East Cemetery. Other prisoners who manage to escape are murdered near Großlöbichau by members of the Volkssturm.

April 12: The Camsdorf Bridge is one of the bridges blown up by the German Wehrmacht in the Jena area.

April 13: After small but fierce battles, the town, evacuated by Wehrmacht, SS and police units, is surrendered and occupied by US troops.

April 17: Dr. Rudolf Löhnis is appointed commissarial mayor.

May 11: Otto Wagner is appointed provisional Lord Mayor (in office until July 11).

June 23-25: 118 members of the management, leading scientists, designers and engineers from the Zeiss and Schott foundations and their families, as well as technical documents and patents, are transferred to the American occupation zone. The action ("we take the brain") forms the starting point for the subsequent foundation of Zeiss and Schott factories in the American occupation zone.

July 2: In accordance with the agreements between the Allies, Thuringia is transferred to the Soviet occupation zone. Soviet troops occupy Jena after the withdrawal of the Americans and take over the functions of the occupying power.

(from) August: The city is confronted with increasing numbers of refugees and displaced persons, mainly from the former German territories in Poland and the Czech Republic, thousands of whom are only staying temporarily as transients. Approximately 11,000 people remain in Jena on a permanent basis and have to be provided with housing and jobs.

August 5: The first newspaper to appear is the KPD-affiliated "Thüringer Volkszeitung".

September 13: The municipal theater resumes performances.

October 1: Teaching continues in the Jena schools.

The city savings bank resumes its activities. In 1947, by order of the state, it also takes over the assets of the Stiftungssparkasse, which was founded in 1833 and thus ceases its activities. Its building in Ludwig-Weimar-Gasse becomes the main branch of the Stadtsparkasse.

October 15: Friedrich Schiller University is one of the first German universities to reopen with a ceremony. On October 6, the classical philologist Friedrich Zucker, who had previously held the position of Managing Director, was electedRector . Teaching resumed in most subjects on December 3. The University of Jena was one of the few German universities not to be closed during the war.

Max Keßler founds the Wartburg publishing house in Jena. The publishing house, which was privately run until 1986 and transformed into a limited company based in Weimar after 1990, publishes the Protestant weekly newspaper "Glaube und Heimat" for Thuringia, among other things.

January 19/20: A "unity conference" of the SPD and KPD in the Jena Volkshaus with party leaders Otto Grotewohl and Wilhelm Pieck prepares the unification of the two parties at state level in Gotha in April, which takes place under KPD hegemony.

May 15: A preparatory school is opened at Friedrich Schiller University. The Workers' and Farmers' Faculty (ABF) emerges from it in 1949.

June 24: The "Advisory State Assembly of Thuringia" is constituted under the honorary chairmanship of the Jena writer Ricarda Huch and under the presidency of the Jena criminal lawyer Richard Lange as the pre-parliament of the first post-war Thuringian state parliament.

July 13: Reconstruction of the blown-up Camsdorf Bridge is completed.

August 1: The small town of Lobeda and the village of Wöllnitz are incorporated into Jena.

August 29: The garrison church is renamed the Friedenskirche.

September 8: After the last municipal elections held according to democratic principles, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is elected to the new municipal council with 21 representatives, the SED with 18, the CDU with 10 and the Kulturbund with one. Heinrich Mertens (LDP) is elected Lord Mayor (until September 11, 1947).

October 22: As part of reparations to the Soviet Union, the dismantling of the Jena Zeiss factory and the Jena glassworks begins (completed in March 1947). The planned total dismantling can be prevented due to protests by the plant management and the Thuringian state government, but only a small part of the production facilities remain in Jena. The dismantling is accompanied by the transfer of over 300 special forces from both plants (some with their families) to the Soviet Union.

December 23: Eduard Heintz (SED) and Dr. Friedrich Schomerus (LDP) are made honorary citizens of the city.

A professional fire department begins its work. The previous system of voluntary fire departments remains in place.

Winter: The extremely long and cold winter of 1946/47 considerably hinders and delays the debris removal work in the city center.

June 18: The local branch of the Society for the Study of the Culture of the Soviet Union (from 1949 the Society for German-Soviet Friendship = DSF) is founded.

November 21: Johannes Herdegen (LDP) is elected by the city council to replace Heinrich Mertens, who has fled to West Berlin, as the new mayor of Jena.

December 24: The new bells of St. Michael's Church ring out for Christmas.

from March: Increasing interference by the Soviet occupying power and the Ministry of Education in Weimar under Marie Torhorst in the autonomy of the university leads to the "Jena University Crisis". This led to the dismissal without notice of the philosophy professor Hans Leisegang on October 27 . Leisegang, temporarily imprisoned during the Nazi era and stripped of his professorship, was considered a critic of Soviet and SED university and academic policy. Following the resignation of two bourgeois professors from the rector's office, Otto Schwarz, a member of the SED, was elected rector of the alma mater for the first time on November 8. At the end of the year, the democratically elected student council is finally dissolved.

April 1: Confirmed by the Thuringian state government, the "Municipal Music School of the University City of Jena" begins its activities (from 1951 "Volksmusikschule", since 1990 "Musik- und Kunstschule Jena").

June 24-28: As part of a currency reform in the Soviet occupation zone, the Reichsmark - the so-called coupon money, because the Reichsmark stocks were previously provided with an adhesive stamp - is replaced by Deutsche Mark banknotes from the Deutsche Notenbank.

July: The Burgau waterworks goes into operation. Water is drawn from deep wells in the Saale valley and the Roda valley

July 1: The nationalization process of the Carl Zeiss and Schott foundation companies is completed despite resistance from the foundation and company representatives. They are reorganized as "Volkseigene Betriebe" (VEB), initially as part of the VVB Optik. Hugo Schradebecomes General Director of VEB Carl Zeiss Jena (until 1966).

24 November: The first store of the State Trading Organization (HO) is opened on the market square, where consumer goods and foodstuffs can be purchased at greatly inflated prices without ration coupons or ration cards.

March 30: The municipal hospital at Dornburger Straße 159 is created from the merger of smaller auxiliary hospitals in the north of Jena.

May: The "Workers' and Farmers' Faculty" (ABF) emerges from a preliminary studies department that has existed at the university since 1946. The institution, which exists until July 12, 1963, prepares children from previously uneducated sections of the population for university studies. At the same time, it serves to educate an intelligentsia that conforms to the system and promotes the change in elites that has been initiated. The ABF is assigned the former Higher Regional Court building in August-Bebel-Straße as its school building.

After the war-related destruction of the Jena City Museum in Weigelstraße, a first exhibition entitled "Jena through the ages" opens in the Prinzessinnenschlösschen.

September: The demolition of the city center is largely completed.

7 October: With the founding of the GDR and the dissolution of the Soviet military organization in Thuringia, the Jena Command officially hands over management of the city administration to the Lord Mayor.