The Weimar–Gera railway is a line in the German state of Thuringia, connecting the city of Weimar via Jena, Stadtroda and Hermsdorf to Gera. It was built by the Weimar-Gera Railway Company, which was founded in June 1872, and the line was officially accepted into operation in June 1876.

Jena is a city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a population of about 110,000. Jena is a centre of education and research; the university was founded in 1558 and had 18,000 students in 2017 and the Ernst-Abbe-Fachhochschule Jena counts another 5,000 students. Furthermore, there are many institutes of the leading German research societies.