SMS Gneisenau
SMS "Gneisenau" was an armored cruiser of the German navy, part of the two-ship . She was named after August von Gneisenau, a Prussian general of the Napoleonic Wars. The ship was laid down in 1904 at the AG Weser dockyard in Bremen, launched in June 1906, and completed in March 1908, at a cost of over 19 million goldmarks. She was armed with a main battery of eight guns, had a top speed of , and displaced at full combat load.
Ilmenau station
Ilmenau station was built by the Prussian state railways in 1879 as a relatively simple, red brick building typical of the time. The three-storey building is very similar to the station buildings of Elgersburg, Plaue and above all Arnstadt. In the 1920s, an entrance hall was erected on the street side, but it was well adapted to the building. In GDR times, the western side of the station was covered with red asbestos shingles, which disrupted the originally uniform brick architecture. After the station building was unused between 1998 and 2005, a Deutsche Bahn "Servicecenter" was opened in autumn 2005, but this was closed in 2008.
A locomotive shed for four locomotives in the north-western station area and the north and south signal boxes were added. When the Rennsteig Railway was opened in 1904, two platforms and a platform subway were added. Later, the subway was extended to platform 2/3, which is now closed due to dilapidation. A long goods shed that joined to the north of the station building was built, but it was demolished in the 1990s and the area is now used for a car park.
After the purchase of the station building by the town, its reconstruction began in the summer of 2010. It has been supplemented by a few extensions in modern glass architecture and was intended to be used as a commercial building. In addition, the island platform is to be demolished and another commercial building is to be built in its place. The reconstruction was expected to be completed in the middle of 2011, but its completion was delayed. The renovation of the main building and the construction of extensions was followed by a redesign of the station surrounds and the forecourt, which was completed in the spring of 2014. In the station building there are currently a waiting room, a tax office as well as a bike shop and various offices (as of 2014).