Victoria and I visited Jena where we met Josh Schenk on his completion of the Thüringen Erfahren Asphalt bike tour. The route having passed close to the city and the battlefield of Jena.

Josh rode through heavy rain but it dried out later

Thüringen Erfahren Asphalt 2024

Gö Graveller Josh Schenk rode the asphalt version of the Thüringen Erfahren, a self-supporting Tour in Thüringen to the east of Göttingen on May 18/19, 2024.

The route he took was 508km with 6000m+ of elevation (gravel/300km) and on this day the weather was not kind to Josh or the rest of the riders.

We met Josh at his ride end to give him hugs and it was an amazing effort! He had retained his sense of humour.

Website: https://bueltge.de/thueringen-erfahren/

Jena Battlefield

Of further great interest to me was that the route went past the site of the 1806 Battle of Jena, a pivotal moment in Central European history when Napoleon Bonaparte defeated a combined Prussian/Hanoverian army sweeping away The Holy Roman Empire.

Based in Vienna and led by the Austrian Hapsburgs it had up until this point had been the arbiter of 100s of German speaking self-governing states. The French victory saw the myriad of rulers cut down to 32. Göttingen for instance was made part of Westphalia ruled by King Jerome the brother of Napoleon.

20,000 died on this battlefield on the high ground overlooking Jena and standing at the heart of the fight I imagined, the noise, the smell, the blinding cannon and musket smoke, and the ground trembling under the weight of mass waves of cavalry.

Jena City

The Thuringian city of Jena is known as a seat of learning with a university founded in the 1500s, and for its expertise for high technological developments. It is where Carl Zeiss set up his workshop creating optical instruments such as microscopes. Zeiss became a world leading firm, and it built the first high rise building in Germany in 1915 within Jena.

Jena´s reputation for liberal thought was suppressed during the National Socialist period and during World War Two the medieval city was destroyed. After 1945 the city was within the Soviet Zone of Occupation and was thus made part of East Germany. Sadly, to my mind the legacy of this period can be seen in the unsympathetic architecture that dominates the built environment and which towers over of what´s left of old Jena.

Danke to Victoria for her company.