Jen-Tower

The JenTower is a skyscraper in Jena, Germany.

The tower has been known by many names, official and unofficial. From 1992 until January 2005, the tower was called the Intershop Tower after its principal tenant, Intershop Communications AG. On November 30, 2004, the building was renamed the JenTower. Until 1995 the building was used by the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, and therefore it is still colloquially known as the University Tower.

Further unofficial names include Phallus Jenensis, Cookie Roll (Keksrolle), or the Henselmann tower, after the architect Hermann Henselmann. Often it is just called the tower.

The JenTower stands directly opposite to the so-called Building 15, which was the first German multistoried building. Building 15 was erected in to a height of 43 meters in 1915, based on plans by the architect Friedrich Puetzer (1871–1922). Other buildings in the neighborhood are Building 36 (today seat of the Jenoptik) and Building 59 (Carl Zeiss Jena Research building), likewise designed by Henselmann.

The architect of the tower was Hermann Henselmann, one of the most famous architects of the former German Democratic Republic. The idea of a monolithic tower as an "urban crown" was developed by Bruno Taut, who was city architect in Magdeburg in the 1920s.

Construction began in June 1969, in a residential and business quarter spared by the Second World War. The foundation stone was laid on April 30, 1970. Construction took place in sliding scarf building method, and was completed on October 2, 1972 at the original height of 127 meters. The circular tower is a reinforced concrete construction with two basements, a 3.20-meter-thick mat foundation and a diameter of 33 meters.

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