In genealogy research I have often visited cemeteries. Sometimes cemeteries are in rural settings, and sometimes in cities. You sometimes find interesting monuments, or find graves of important people.

When I travel I will also sometime visit cemeteries like the Johannisfriedhof in Jena, Germany. This is a very interesting cemetery with the graves of quite a few famous people, however, they may not be well known outside of Germany or academia.

There is one particular grave that I visit in the cemetery. It is the grave of Dr. Carl Zeiss who was the founder of the company I work for. The Zeiss name is known around the world for optics.

The cemetery surrounds a baroque style church consecrated in 1693. The original name of the church was the Johann Georg Church. The church was named for John-George II the Duke of Saxe-Eisenach.

The cemetery itself is much older with the earliest documented reference of 1307.

There are many professors from the Jena University buried in the cemetery including Karl Snell who was the father-in-law of Ernst Abbe.

Ernst Abbe was a partner of Carl Zeiss and helped build the company.

This monument is on the side of the church building and is for the Kreußler family.

Members of the Kreußler family were fencing masters at the Jena University in the 1600’s.

Another grave that I visited was of Johanna Schopenhauer who was the first German woman to publish books without using a pseudonym. She died in Jena in 1838.

Her son Arthur Schopenhauer was a well known philosopher who influenced Nietzsche, Jung, Mann, Schrodinger and Einstein.

You can learn a lot about History while visiting a cemetery.

Steven