17th century

1606	In Unterlauengasse, the "Platanenhaus" is built as the home and craftsman's house of a tanner.
1610	December 23: For the first time, the university issues a mandate against so-called pennalism. The subordination of first-year students to the older student cohorts, enforced by humiliating procedures, and the struggle of the university and state authorities against this is a defining feature of university history in the 17th century.
1613	May 29/30: The "Thuringian Deluge", an extremely stationary thunderstorm accompanied by heavy rain, causes severe damage in Jena and the surrounding area.
1616	Johann Gerhard, one of the most important representatives of Lutheran orthodoxy, becomes a professor at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Jena and determines its development until his death in 1637.
1619	Wilhelm Kreußler, the founder of a widely ramified dynasty of fencing masters who shaped student fencing in Germany until the beginning of the 19th century, comes to Jena as a fencing master.
1620	March 2: The Duke of Weimar openly sides with the Elector Palatine, who is elected King of Bohemia, thus plunging his country into the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.
1621	Pieces of kreuzer from a tipper coin minted by the Dukes of Weimar in Burgau have survived. 1623 The inferior copper coins are disreputable throughout the country.
1623	The "Großmann Collection", a setting of the 116th Psalm of the Bible by 16 well-known composers from central Germany, initiated and funded bythe Jena aristocrat Burckhard Großmann, is published.
1625	The Dukes of Weimar order the city walls to be repaired and transfer soldiers to Jena.
1626	Autumn: the plague rages in Jena.
1628	The reform pedagogue Wolfgang Ratke (Ratichius), who among other things advocates the use of the German language in school and university teaching, stays in Jena several times until 1631 and promotes his reform proposals without finding much favor. September 3: The Jena city council complains to the state government about the extremely high tax burden caused by the war and the financial burden of constant quartering.
1629	February: Werner Rolfinck accepts an appointment to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Jena, where he represents the subjects of surgery, anatomy, botany and (later) iatrochemistry. He became famous for his public dissections of the bodies of executed people in the Theatrum anatomicum (anatomy tower), which he set up. Under his direction, the botanical garden near the anatomy tower is considerably enlarged.
1632	October: A large number of soldiers are quartered in Jena for the first time during the Thirty Years' War.
1633	March: The transfer of two secular feudal estates, the manor of Remda and the manor of Apolda, to the university significantly improves its financial resources.
1636	from August: Around 500 plague victims are mourned in Jena.
1637	February 3: Swedish units flee from imperial troops through Jena. To secure their retreat, they demolish the last arch of the Saale bridge to Camsdorf, killing 36 people - mainly civilians called in for the demolition work. February 5/6: General looting by imperial troops takes place. Most of the municipal and private buildings are damaged and the council records are almost completely destroyed. February 24: The well-known legal scholar and imperial publicist Dominicus Arumaeus dies from the abuse inflicted on him by soldiers.
1639	The chronicles report severe famine ("Many died of hunger in the streets and in houses.") March: Swedish troops pillage the town.
1640	March/December: Swedish and French troops are again quartered, causing severe devastation and looting in the town and its surroundings.
1641	The number of students has reached an all-time low of around 250.
1643	January: Johannes Musäus is appointed Professor of History and Poetry at the university. As Professor of Theology (from 1646), he is one of the pioneers of the early Enlightenment in Jena. September 17: Excise duties on drinks and grain rise rapidly due to the introduction of an excise duty.
from 1644	The burdens caused by quartering and the passage of troops ease and the town slowly begins to recover.
1646	December: Adam Struve is appointed Professor of Law in Jena. His teaching and research activities, which last until his death in 1692 and are interrupted by activities for the Ernestine courts - for example, he is in charge of the guardianship affairs in Saxony-Jena from 1680 to 1690 - lead to the Jena Faculty of Law joining the modern legal developments in Germany.
1650	A "Teutscher Schreib- und Rechenmeister", who teaches pupils elementary German writing and arithmetic in a class preceding the Ratsschule, is documented for the first time. February 6: A ducal patent grants tax remission to all those who repossess and rebuild their houses and farms destroyed or abandoned during the war. August 19/20: The end of the Thirty Years' War is celebrated with a great peace festival following the withdrawal of the Swedish occupation from Erfurt.
1653	July 16: Erhard Weigel, newly appointed Professor of Mathematics at the alma mater, gives his inaugural lecture. Weigel - who teaches in Jena until his death in 1699 - also makes significant contributions as an astronomer, philosopher and didactician. As one of the most popular academic teachers in Germany, he played a decisive role in the rapid increase in student numbers in Jena in the following years, with over 1,000 students at times.
1655	October 13: The Saale bridge near Camsdorf, which was severely damaged several times during the Thirty Years' War, is completely rebuiltunder the direction of the Weimar master builder Johann Moritz Richter. Until then, it had only been possible to cross the Saale using temporary wooden bridges.
1656	January 5: Johann Andreas Bose is appointed to a professorship in Jena, which is designated exclusively for history for the first time.
1657	November 28: The papermaker Joachim Heinrich Schmidt is granted a privilege to operate a paper mill as the new owner of the "Nasenmühle" in Mühltal.
1659	January 31: The conversion and further expansion of Jena Castle is begun on the orders of Duke Wilhelm IVof Weimar . It is largely completed by 1661 under the direction of Erhard Weigel.
1660	August: The imprisonment of three students for violating mandates against pennalism leads to riots that claim four lives. The government in Weimar sends the military to Jena.
1662	May 17: After the death of Duke Wilhelm IV of Weimar , his four sons divide the income of the land and certain sovereign rights between them. The youngest duke, Bernhard (born 1638), is awarded the castle, town and office of Jena with Burgau and Lobeda, among other things. Bernhard, married to Maria de la Trémouille from a distinguished French Calvinist aristocratic family , moves into Jena Castle in December and sets up his own court.
1663	June 10: The future polymath and one of the most important pioneers of the Enlightenment, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, registers as a 15-year-old at Jena University to study there in the following fall semester.
1664	A court chapel is established at the Jena court under Adam Drese, who has come to Jena from Weimar , as court conductor.
1665	Johann Bielcke begins his work as a publisher in Jena. He and his son Johann Felix Bielcke establish Jena's fame as the second most important German publishing center after Leipzig.
1666	July 3: Duke Bernhard relinquishes jurisdiction and convoy (owned by the city since 1480) against the will of the city council. The courts are returned as early as 1675, as revenues fall short of expectations.
1668	A "guild of firemen", consisting of around 40 people, is formed to fight fires.
1669	On the site of the Carmelite monastery, which was finally demolished in 1642 and is described in detailby the city chronicler Adrian Beier in his "Architectus Jenensis", published in 1672, the "Gasthaus zum Engel" (also "Zum goldenen (or yellow) Engel") opens. Bartholomäus Paulßen - progenitor of the later highly respected Paulßen merchant family - is first documented as a court painter in Jena. Containers for storing fire extinguishers are attached to the town and collegiate churches.
1670	Opposite the castle (today: Fürstengraben), the "Ballhaus", which can be reached via a bridge over the moat, is built. The new municipal brewery is completed in Leutragasse. The drinking water supply is improved by increasing the number of water supply pipes into the city and new wells in Löbdergasse and Jenergasse. Construction work on the "Weigelsche Haus" in Johannisgasse is completed. The house, probably designedby Weigel as a technical museum to demonstrate his inventions, is one of Jena's "seven wonders".
1672	July 25: The Dukes of Weimar divide their territory among themselves. Jena becomes the capital and residence of a formally independent Duchy of Saxony-Jena under Duke Bernhard. He establishes a consistory in Jena as the supreme spiritual authority for his duchy, otherwise important sovereign rights remain with Saxe-Weimar.
1674	The "Prince's Chair" is set up for the Duke and his family in the town church. April 20: Duke Bernhard grants the publisher and bookseller Johann Ludwig Neuenhahn the privilege of publishing the "Jenaische Wöchentliche Anzeigen", whose successor papers (most recently: "Jenaische Zeitung") appear until 1945. Autumn: A brief stay in Jenaby the atheist critic of religion Matthias Knutzen is documented. According to his own statements, the sect of conscientious objectors he founded is said to have found numerous followers in the city.
1675	July: "Nationalism" - student associations - emerges openly at Jena University and is immediately banned (ducal decree of prohibition dated July 22).
1678	April 23: The archdeacon, town chronicler and historian Adrian Beier dies (born 1600). He penned the source works "Syllabus rectorum et professorum Jenensium", "Geographus Jenensis" and "Architectus Jenensis", which are still important today in the history of the city and the university. May 3: Duke Bernhard of Saxony-Jena dies. His underage son and successor Johann Wilhelm is alternately under the guardianship of the ducal houses of Eisenach and Weimar. The court in Jena is largely dissolved.
1683	Caspar Sagittarius (jr.), Professor of History, has the "Rose" renovated and has the stone rosebush, which still exists today (in copy) as a memorial, installed "to adorn the university".
1686	The lawyer Matthias Bieler receives a ducal privilege as "general postmaster" in Jena. August 18: The foundation stone is laid for a new cemetery church, which is builtunder the direction of Johann Mützel, who later works as a master builder at all Ernestine courts.
1688	Erhard Weigel establishes an experimental and training school ("school of virtue") in his house for the practical testing of the pedagogical principles he has developed.
1689	A census reveals a total of 1,098 students in the city.
1690	Johann Nikolaus Bach (d. 1753), a member of the Bach family, becomes organist in Jena. He also emerges as a composer, orchestra leader and instrument maker. November 4: Duke Johann Wilhelm of Saxony-Jena dies at the age of 15 from infantile hemorrhage. With him, the Jena ducal family dies out.
1691	July 12: The Houses of Saxe-Eisenach and Saxe-Weimar divide the inheritance of the Duchy of Saxe-Jena. The town and office of Jena then fall to Eisenach.
1693	February 16: The new burial church in the Johannis cemetery is consecrated as the Johann-Georgs-Kirche (later the Garnisonskirche or Friedenskirche).
1697	June 7: The new church near Jakobsspital in Nollendorfer Vorstadt is consecrated (Spittelkirche or Juliane-Christiane-Kirche; demolished in 1908).