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| Expansion of the Production Portfolio |
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| (Original appeared in 1996 in a publication issued by the Regional Center for Political Education, Thuringia. Reproduced here with the kind permission of the authors: Wolfgang Mühlfriedel and Edith Hellmuth.) |
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With the assistance of creative scientists and engineers, Abbe started to expand the company’s production portfolio in the late 1880s. From the refractometers and spectrometers originally created by Abbe for his own needs, the department for Optical Measuring Instruments set up in 1890 developed a large number of further instruments. These were used to analyze the composition of transparent solid and liquid materials on the basis of optical measuring parameters and were utilized in the food industry, medicine and, from the 1920s onwards, also in metallurgy and the metal processing industry. The department also produced rangefinders and photogrammetric instruments.
The Photo-optics department also founded in 1890 already launched the first photo-optical lens on the market in its first year of existence. In 1902, after a decade of intensive work, the Tessar lens, the “eagle eye” of the camera, was presented. This universal camera lens was further developed in many different versions.
Incorporated in the “Tele” department in 1894, the production of binoculars grew very rapidly. In the period to January 1900, 20,000 binoculars were sold. The relief telescopes, periscopes and binoculars were used by the armed forces in many different countries.
After the turn of the century, the astronomical telescopes developed by the “Astro” department in the 1890s met with great interest in the public. With the first large instruments, the reflecting telescope for Heidelberg Observatory and the then most powerful instrument for Innsbruck Observatory, the Zeiss Works earned an excellent reputation in the world of astronomy.
Motivated by the Swedish doctor ALLVAR GULLSTRAND, the Zeiss Works turned its attention to the development of eyeglasses and measuring instruments for ophthalmology in the period 1908-1912. From 1908, geodetic instruments enriched the production spectrum of the Jena enterprise.
The expansion of the production portfolio was accompanied by an expansion of the production facilities and the workforce. In June 1914, the Zeiss Works employed 5,280 people.
The First World War interrupted work on the instruments intended for civilian use. Production was almost exclusively focused on optical and other instruments for military use. Only the “Astro” department was able to build Europe’s then largest reflecting telescope for the Potsdam- Babelsberg Observatory.
The military defeat of Germany and the armament restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versaille prompted the Zeiss Works to devote its attention to precision metrology. The department set up for this purpose soon developed not only simple measuring devices, but also complex, powerful instruments for measuring screw threads, tools, gears, etc. Also in the other product groups, the following two decades saw the use of many different physical and chemical effects for the development of new instruments. Here, the Jena scientists repeatedly implemented the ideas of the instrument users. In microscope construction, not only white but also ultraviolet light was used, and luminescence phenomena were utilized to enhance contrast in the structure of specimens. In the 1930s, the development of the phase contrast technique and the use of polarized light opened up new fields of application. Specially developed cameras simplified the capture and documentation of microscope images.
The first planetarium built for the Deutsches Museum in Munich attracted the attention of wide sections of the public and resulted in many new orders form all over the world. Until the end of the 1930s, 21 planetariums were built, e.g. for Chicago, Milan, Philadelphia and Tokyo.
Although the production of instruments for civilian use had been dominant in the 1920s and early 1930s, Jena never lost sight of the development of military instruments, as the advances being achieved at that time in the field of precision engineering and optics were equally suitable for civilian and military purposes. With its new developments, the Jena enterprise wanted to also maintain its presence on the international military instrument market which experienced rapid growth during these decades.
In the years of the Nazi dictatorship, the company’s scientific and production potential was increasingly focused on equipping the German armed forces. Airplanes, submarines, tanks and guns were fitted with Zeiss instruments.
After the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces, the allies also held Zeiss responsible for its contribution to the preparation and conducting of the Nazi war of aggression. The Americans, who occupied the Zeiss Works from April to June 1945, requisitioned patents, design documents and special production equipment. They weakened the potential of the company by deporting leading specialist staff to Heidenheim a.d. Brenz in the West. In 1946/47, the Soviet occupation power dismantled all production equipment and took scientists, engineers and specialist staff to the USSR.
The German Economic Commission (DWK) nationalized the industrial assets of the Carl Zeiss Foundation on 1 June 1948 on account of the company’s role as an armaments manufacturer during the war. Robbed of its entrepreneurial character, the foundation then focused its activities primarily on social and cultural issues.
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