Town fortifications Jena - Anatomieturm

The Anatomy Tower is a ruined round tower and part of the remains of the city wall of Jena. It was the southwestern corner point of the medieval city perimeter, located at the Teichgraben and Leutragraben, and in the immediate vicinity of the Anatomical Institute and the Collegium Jenense. The preserved section is the window-poor base. Built upon it from 1750 to approx. 1850 was an anatomical theatre with windows several meters high. Sloping towards the center, rows of wooden benches surrounded the dissection table. Here, preparatory demonstrations took place for medical teaching and scientific purposes, primarily for medical students. The Anatomy Tower thus provided good illumination of the body donor through the high windows, and also maintained discretion both through the location of the anatomical theatre several meters high and through the lecture-hall-like slope. In the Anatomy Tower, Johann Wolfgang Goethe and Justus Christian Loder researched the premaxilla of the human embryo and the elephant. However, the premaxilla was already known to the scientific world before, so Goethe's and Loder's research – contrary to their mistaken belief – did not represent a new discovery.