Hans Knöll
In return the company offered him the opportunity to establish and manage its bacterial lab—a full-time job Knöll began in November 1938.
[2] In the same year this successful cooperation led to the transformation of the four-employee lab into the Institute of Microbiology, also known as the Schott-Zeiss-Institute because it was financially supported by the two firms.
In 1950 the Institute of Microbiology officially became an independent nationally owned factory, the VEB Jenapharm, and Knöll was appointed its director.
[6] In 1949 Knöll obtained his Habilitation degree,[1] and a year later he became professor of bacteriology at the University of Jena, but he also continued to lead Jenapharm.
[6] A year later Knöll left Jenapharm to become the director of the newly founded Institute of Microbiology and Experimental Therapy (IMET) built on the same Beutenber Hill, according to his directions.
[3] In the twenty years that Knöll led ZIMET, the institute became one of the largest in the GDR with over 1000 employees, and engaged in research and development in antibiotics, biotechnology, experimental therapy, medical and environ microbiology, microbial genetics, and steroids.
[2] Immediately after World War II ended, following Soviet leadership, reconstruction in Jena had emphasized preserving the historically developed structure of East German cities, as well as regional building styles.
Walter Ulbricht, the Socialist Unity Party leader, personally pushed for these developments in early 1968 during a visit to Jena.
[3] Collegium Jenense was a thirteenth-century Dominican cloister that was the principal site of the University of Jena from its founding until the mid-nineteenth century.
The Collegium was not located exactly on the building site of the Zeiss skyscraper, but it was meant to be demolished to make room for an adjacent recreational center that was intended to be connected to the tower.
[3] Taking advantage of his fame he pressured the architect Hermann Henselmann, the city's mayor, the university's rector, Zeiss' general director and other local authorities.
[3] Taking advantage of the economic difficulties that VEB Zeiss faced at the time, Knöll demanded immediate assurances that the Collegium would not be demolished until the firm actually had the money to build the recreation center.
