For years there was a rumor that a prison cell for students in Jena had been painted with blood and feces. As it has now turned out, the history of the University of Jena has to be rewritten on this point.
Jena (dpa/th) – 200 days after it was painted, a historic detention cell at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena is being restored. According to legend, the Swiss painter and caricaturist Martin Disteli (1802-1844) painted various people on the walls with blood and feces in the approximately 15 square meter cell – a so-called prison cell – as the university announced on Saturday. During the restoration work by the prison specialist and restorer Katharina Heiling, however, it turned out that Disteli had been working with colors that were common 200 years ago.
Heiling also assigned the story that Disteli painted the prison as a prisoner in a cloak-and-dagger operation to the realm of myths. It is now assumed that Disteli was not incarcerated, but was visiting the university and took the opportunity to paint the previously white walls of the prison, said the university curator, Babett Forster. The final day of the work is said to have been exactly 200 years ago, on July 30, 1822.
Out of concern for disturbances, the prison has so far only been open to visitors on special occasions. That should change after the restoration: “By the day of the open monument in September, everyone involved hopes to have finished the restoration and to be able to open the refreshed and conserved prison to the public from time to time,” the university said in a statement .
