The University of Jena owes its existence to a military defeat. As the emperor's opponent, Elector Johann Friedrich I of Saxony had led the Schmalkaldic League. The Protestant princes of the empire had united in it. On April 24, 1547, near Mühlberg, the adherents of the new faith suffered a painful defeat. The Hanfried, as the prince is still called in Jena, was taken prisoner and had to fear for his life. Later pardoned by the emperor, he lost his electoral dignity and large parts of his dominion. Among them were the city of Wittenberg and its university. The beneficiary was his cousin Moritz, who had sided with the emperor. The prince had to create a replacement. While he chose Weimar as his new residence, he decided on the neighboring Jena as the location for a high school. The new educational institution was primarily intended to train pastors who were to spread the gospel according to Luther's teachings. There were initially 171 studiosi who began teaching in 1548 with the professors Johannes Stigel and Victorius Strigel in the Collegium Jenense. This Collegium Jenense, the founding place of the university in a former Dominican monastery, still exists today. Strigel taught theology, his colleague Stigel represented philology and philosophy. The basic equipment of the High School was modest. But at least Hanfried had brought the valuable Bibliotheca Electoralis from Wittenberg. With the students moving into Jena, the calm in the city will probably be over. The gentlemen Studiosi - at that time there was still no thought of female students - bring their own customs and habits with them. From a spiritual point of view, however, the new educational institution soon blossomed: as early as the mid-1550s, Jena was regarded as the leading center of the Reformation, and the Jena Luther edition left the competition from Wittenberg behind. In 1557 the high school received the university privilege of the king and was allowed to call itself a university from then on.
