Anniversary and premiere “100 years of the Planetarium

On 21 October 1923, a planetarium star projector was demonstrated for the first time – the birth of the modern planetarium. The historic device was commissioned by the Deutsches Museum in Munich and manufactured by the Carl Zeiss company in Jena. Celebrated by the enthusiastic public as the “Miracle of Jena”, the invention quickly spread around the world; today there are over 4000 planetariums on every continent. In the 100 years since 1923, planetariums have evolved and diversified. Their original purpose was to demonstrate the course of the planets in a deceptively realistic replica of the starry sky. Today, planetariums also use projections of digital 3D models of the cosmos to illustrate our place in the universe, the latest findings in astronomy and other sciences, and also offer a stage for art and culture in their 360° projections.

This success story of planetariums over the past 100 years is being celebrated by the Gesellschaft Deutschsprachiger Planetarien e.V. (GDP) and the International Planetarium Society (IPS) worldwide under the motto “The stars were only the beginning”. The opening ceremony of the anniversary year will take place on 21 October 2023 in Jena and Munich; anniversary artworks will be unveiled, and the anniversary planetarium show “KIRA” will be presented for the first time in the 360° image format of the planetariums.