Book Launch of TECNANJA: The First Children’s Book on Jena as a Regional Technological Hub

Jena (Germany), June 1, 2015 – Covering Jena and its technological achievements from a child’s perspective, the five-part children’s book with the German title "Die Federsammler – Fietje und Arti in TECNANJA" delves into the wonderful world of Analytik Jena, JENOPTIK, Schott, the Stadtwerke Jena utility group, and the town’s Zeiss Planetarium. A total of 34 young writing talents in the sixth and seventh grades of Jena’s Adolf Reichwein and Angergymnasium schools combined to write gripping stories about Fietje, his parrot Arti, and their adventures in the regional technological hub. This was the sixth and most recent addition to the international "Federsammler" series for children. The book will be launched this afternoon at Jena’s Zeiss Planetarium to mark International Children’s Day on June 1.

Copies will be presented to the budding young authors by the sponsors, including Jena’s technology companies and institutions JENOPTIK AG, Schott AG, Zeiss Planetarium, Stadtwerke Jena Group, and Analytik Jena AG. It was indeed these sponsors who made it possible for the authors to combine their creative energies into a proper publication.

As Analytik Jena AG CEO Klaus Berka put it: “We are glad to have been able to take part in this special project, and had a lot of fun doing so. All of our employees’ children will receive their own personal copies of the new Analytik Jena children’s book. They can then read all about where their mommy or daddy works.”

The global project began in Jena in 2012 and has already made stops in Zwickau, Erlangen, and Frankfurt, Germany as well as Porto Alegre, Brazil. Books from Ukraine, Nuremberg, Göttingen, and Berlin are all in the pipeline. “The students from Jena are now part of a global writers’ community, which has continued to collaborate online on the series. With their stories, they proved that 11-to-14-year-olds can explore their home towns in a special way as authors of children’s novels,”explained Antje Hübner, the initiator of the series, and managing director of the series’ publisher, Jugend will ... gGmbH. The Jena-based non-profit organization brought the project to life in 2011 in cooperation with the Goethe Institute.