It is one of the Group’s largest investment projects worldwide: A new, ultra-modern high-tech Zeiss campus has been taking shape at a site covering roughly eight hectares in Jena’s center since 2019. Currently, around 80 different trades with 500 to 600 employees are working on the gigantic construction site. The next step will be the interior finishing and installation of building equipment in the building complex. Designed by Nething, a Neu-Ulm-based architectural firm, the complex is scheduled for completion at the end of 2026 and will have approximately 118,000 square meters of usable space. All of ZEISS’s development units in Jena and most local production and administration departments will then be consolidated at Jena’s West Train Station site, which was previously used by the high-tech group Schott. The Group anticipates that department consolidation will unlock greater synergies in its operating processes and make it easier to communicate with suppliers and partners. In two years’ time, around 2,000 of the 3,500 ZEISS employees who work in Jena will be conducting research and developing new products at the new company headquarters. Most of them are relocating from old sites that are also located in Jena; these vacated sites will be developed and marketed by LEG in its capacity as an economic development agency.
Jena is the second largest ZEISS location in the world; the company got its start in this eastern Thuringian city. This was where mechanic Carl Zeiss founded the company in the 19th century. The new ZEISS high-tech campus will further strengthen Jena’s reputation and importance as a storied yet forward-looking center for investment and high-tech industries.
