Zeiss

Ever since Zeiss was founded in 1846, the company and its employees have aspired to have the right vision. The workshop for precision mechanics and optics opened by Carl Zeiss in Jena experienced unimagined entrepreneurial success in its early years. It was probably the founder of cell biology, Matthias Schleiden, who increasingly encouraged Carl Zeiss to become involved in the manufacture of microscopes. In 1866, Carl Zeiss recruited the physicist Ernst Abbe, who was just 26 years old, as a freelance research assistant for his company. Abbe was to free the construction of microscopic optics from "trial and error" and finally put it on a sound basis. Within a few years, this collaboration between Zeiss and Abbe would trigger a whole cascade of decisive advances and new developments in microscope construction. Carl Zeiss' quality control is almost legendary. The founder, scientist and visionary died in 1888 at the age of 42.

 

In 1889, one year after the death of Carl Zeiss, Abbe created the Carl Zeiss Foundation, to which he transferred his shares in the Optische Werkstätte and the Jena glassworks in 1891. In 1896, Ernst Abbe gave the foundation a statute in which he laid down the type of business activity and the use of the proceeds in a legally effective form. In doing so, he realized his desire to ensure the company's long-term scientific and technical advancement, to maintain a core workforce for the sensitive production of precision mechanical and optical devices and to promote all those scientists at Jena University who could be useful to the company.

 

In the turmoil following the Second World War and the division of Germany into East and West, Carl Zeiss, Oberkochen, and the state-owned enterprise (VEB) Carl Zeiss Jena developed independently of each other. Carl Zeiss Oberkochen now steered an independent course and called itself only "Carl Zeiss" and the word "Jena" was removed from the lens. There were court cases around the world to clarify the use of the Carl Zeiss name, the lens mark and other trademarks and product names by Carl Zeiss Jena in the Federal Republic of Germany. This resulted in the longest court case in the history of the GDR. It was not until the reunification of Germany in 1990 that the two competitors merged again to form a single company. The development and manufacture of optical devices of high precision and optical brilliance has been pleasing the eye for more than 170 years. Zeiss is represented in many product areas: from microscopes to measuring machines, spectacle lenses and binoculars to photographic lenses. Customers looking for quality, durability and stable value in products will find what they are looking for at Zeiss. The high-precision and light intensity Zeiss binoculars are a statement for an intensive experience of nature, the joy of seeing and the fascination for the hidden and beautiful. Zeiss offers many binoculars for hunting, nature and bird watching outdoors. Most products are robust and waterproof.