[rollei_list] On a Sentimental Journey to Dresden and Jena.
- From: Ferdi Stutterheim <fstutterheim@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, rolleiusers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 15:42:14 +0200
Hello All,
Each year our local (Drachten, The Netherlands) museum organises a
foreign tour to a number of museums and art galleries. My wife Ann is
a keen participant. Let me fist explain that the word "museum" in
most continental European languages comprises both what is "museum"
and "art gallery" in the English language. This year the tour was to
the German cities of Dresden, Leipzig, Erfurt and Weimar. Usually I
do not participate. Trotting through three art galleries per day for
a week is a too tall order for me.
However visiting Dresden and Weimar was tempting. I decided to join
but make my own plans. On the first day when the group was on their
way to visit the paintings and Meissen of the Dresden Zwinger
exhibitions I decided to be AWAL and took the Nr.4 Stadbahn (City
Railway) from Theater Platz to Laubegast. After a 15 minutes ride I
reached Schandauer Strasse and got off at the stop "Pohland Platz -
Technische Sammlungen". About 50 meters down the road at nr.48 I
found the Ernemann-Werke with the famous Ernemann Tower. In a later
era known as the Pentacon Tower. The Ernemann Works are now home to
the municipal collection of technical instruments. I had no time to
see the collection but took my Rolleiflex TLR out of the bag to take
a few pictures. On the back wall of the factory a faded reference to
Zeiss-Ikon days was faintly visible. Time to move on. There was more
to see!
I continued to walk down Schandauer Strasse. I little bit further I
hoped to find another Zeiss-Ikon building. After walking about 500
meters there it was at nr.76. The ICA-Werke, home of the Contax
cameras. It was de-sacred by a huge sign "Pentapark" but the building
itself was completely restored and refurbished into modern offices
ready to be rented. I myself would have preferred "ICA-Haus" to
"Pentapark" but I suppose to the local community the memory of the
huge Pentacon Works is much stronger than the memory of the pre-Zeiss-
Ikon ICA factory. Anyway my Contax II was made here. The Nr.4 took me
back to Theater Platz just in time to join the group for tea. Well,
beer.
A few days later while at Erfurt I planned another escape from the
arts. This time it was an announced desertion. The group was off to
the Wartburg where Martin Luther (the real one, not the Rev. King)
translated the Bible into German. We Dutch are first and fore all
followers of Calvin rather then Luther anyway. That is probably what
most of the group thought I presume, but I was off to the railway
station to take the train to nearby Jena. A short stroll from
Westbahnhof (Jena West railway station) took me to Carl Zeiss Platz.
In the centre of the Platz I found the rather uninspiring Ernst Abbe
Memorial. On one side the "Volkshaus" (People's House) and the
Optical Museum. Both are now owned by the Ernst Abbe Foundation.
Well, I can boast I visited a museum that day. It houses a good
collection of microscopes and planetarium equipment from the pre-war
and GDR era. Just a few cameras that were actually made in Jena.
Among them the famous Jena Contax of 1947. It was explained that the
Jena ones had the C and O, and the A and X in the Contax name further
apart than the Dresden ones.
On the other side of the Platz I found what it was all about. 1, Carl-
Zeiss-Strasse is the former Zeiss Hauptwerk (Main Factory) with the
proud Ernst-Abbe-Hochhaus. A Hochhaus, literally a "tall building",
is the German name for a tower building. This 1935 tower is not
exactly a sky scraper but high enough for Jena to be called a tower.
The tower now shows the Jenoptik name in capitals. The tower is home
to the group head-office. A plaque testifies to its place in history.
A photo gallery in the Hochhaus was closed: Saturday. The Zeiss
factory area was completely redeveloped in the 1990's. Production is
gone and the buildings were party demolished and the rest restored
and converted into offices and shops. Next to the Ernst-Abbe-Haus is
now the Goethe Passage, a two level shopping mall. From the mall I
had a good view on the dome of the former roof-top planetary. The
present-day planetary is in a new building in a nearby park. The
former Hauptwerk comprises a entire block in the city centre of Jena.
What I believe was a former factory courtyard is now opened up and
named Ernst-Abbe-Platz. Many offices in the former Hauptwerk are now
in use by the Friedrich Schiller University. In the city centre
memories is all what is left. Both independent Jenoptik and the
Oberkochen subsidiary Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH are located out of the
city centre.
Photographs are to come. E6-processing over-here is down to once a
week and I missed last weeks dead-line. In a week I shall leave for
the U.K. for a few weeks and I do not know if there will be enough
time to put them on a server before I leave.
----------
For those planning a similar visit.
In Dresden city centre, Theater Platz for instance, take the Nr.4
Stadtbahn (City Railway) to Laubegast. Please note that the Nr. 4
also runs to Radebeul in the other direction. The directions are
clearly indicated on the electronic displays at the stops. Get off at
"Pohland Platz - Technische Sammlungen" for the Ernemann works and 2
stops further at "Altenberger Strasse" for the ICA (Contax) works. It
is a 15 minutes ride.
Leave Jena West Railway Station at the station building side.
Opposite the station exit is a small bus station. Well hidden behind
the busses a Jena town map can be found. Off course the map itself is
not visible from the railway station side but you will have to walk
around the thing to the back side to see it. Anyway from the station
exit turn left. At the next crossing (on your left is a tunnel where
the elevated railway crosses the street) turn right. You have turned
into Westbahnhof Strasse. A few hundred meters down the road at
traffic lights turn left into Ernst Haeckel Platz. It is sign posted
"Volkshaus". Keep to the right. A 100 meters further is Carl Zeiss
Platz.
Best regards,
Ferdi Stutterheim,
Drachten, The Netherlands.
---
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