How did it all begin?

Back in 1846, when Carl Zeiss set up a workshop for precision mechanics and optics in Jena, his work was groundbreaking. Today, well over a century-and-a-half later, the achievements of Carl Zeiss, Ernst Abbe and Otto Schott are still the defining standard. In its early days, the brand-new workshop manufactured microscopes almost exclusively. Yet in 1890, physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe, a Carl Zeiss shareholder by that stage, expanded the product range to include photo lenses and binoculars. Glass types with much-improved optical qualities, first produced by Otto Schott in the 1880s, further opened up completely new possibilities and allowed Carl Zeiss to develop new types of lenses with hitherto unheard-of light gathering power. Ernst Abbe also developed groundbreaking insights that enhanced our understanding of optical systems that are still the foundation for high-performance optics today. In this tradition, Carl Zeiss has always sought to perfect its calculation systems, a fact that has contributed to its position as a global leader in optics design.