Against the embittered resistance of the workforce, Carl Zeiss Jena was nationalized on 1 July 1948. At the same time, VVB Optik was established with a view to coordinating the work of the VEBs in the field of optics. In the first few years, the foreman of VEB Carl Zeiss Jena was also top executive of this VVB. ZEISS was soon adapted to the needs of the state-controlled economy. This organizational structure did not see any major changes over the next few years. Only the Employment Directorate was set up in 1953.

Major changes were commonplace at Research and Development. This affected the intermediate levels more than it did the individual Research and Development departments.

However, the documents on this level can be allocated to the individual laboratories. For this reason, precise reconstruction of these organizational changes is not important for document indexing.

On 1 January 1965, VEB Carl Zeiss Jena was turned into a combine. At the same time, it was allocated to VEB Rathenower Optische Werke (ROW).

Organizational change was rather a slow process. While the former management team did become independent enterprises (telescope management (FBL) became the F enterprise), officially they remained production facilities. The core areas (Research, Development, Technology, Sales) remained dominant. It took a while for them to become fully integrated enterprises.

As these enterprises hardly left any trail behind them, and in order to make the structures less complex, the few documents (45 units, primarily from the G, F and P enterprises) were allocated to the former management and a new stock was only formed with the establishment of a new, fully integrated enterprise. The same process was applied to the documents from Research and Development (see also the Research Operations section). They were allocated to the former laboratories until the establishment of the Research Center in 1971.

Since the mid 1960s, substantial investments were approved for ZEISS. The aim of the investments was to increase the production of scientific precision instruments for the needs of the former East Germany and for exports.

One of the greatest construction projects was that of building 6/70. It became the center of the South Production System (aka Factory II), which saw a large part of the South Factory consolidated into a technological system. The three parent companies G, F and P relocated to building 6/70 once the investments were complete and were consolidated in "Factory 2". Effective 7 December 1971, the project management team in charge of building 6/70 since 20 March 1971, also known as the "building team", was dissolved. As of 6 December 1971, the plant management of Factory 2, which was renamed G enterprise, assumed its duties. Also effective 6 December 1971, the F, G and P enterprises were allocated to plant management for Factory II. The responsibilities of the specialist management teams was consistent across all the enterprises of the combine. It was conducted horizontally, by responsibilities.

After conclusion of the reforms, the organizational strcuture of Factory 2, or the G enterprise, remained intact until the dissolution of the G enterpise. The Security department was renamed GX in 1977 and the inspection office assigned to it, which had previously been directly below the plant manager. An order management team (GA) was formed and assumed the construction management tasks of the GT department.

After the combine was formed in 1965, an initial attempt was made to expand the enterprises into full-fledged companies. For this reason, Research and Development were allocated to the individual enterprises. A central directorate for Research and Development was retained, which was primarily in charge of initial and basic research. 

The internal organizational structure of the laboratories and development offices had hardly any impact on the new setup. The laboratories retained their names and roles, even if the structural acronyms changed. The laboratories remained in the research block constructed in 1959. This means that only minor adjustments were made to the informal processes as well. This continuity is evident in the documents: they were simply continued. Their allocation to the enterprises only lasted a short while. After a detailed analysis of these documents, it came to light that the document structure did not permit any sort of major change. What's more, this would result in increased complexity. For this reason, the documentation remained allocated to the origin classification of the VEB's old research institutes. This led to a skewed structure: while the VEB's other documents only go back as far as 1964, the documents for research
and development up to 1970 have been allocated to the VEB. This did not change until the Research Center was established on 1 January 1971. Here, not only were Research and Development merged, but also Technology Development for the "Technology" Management team. 

After a number of experiments at the organization, in 1976 a structure was created that essentially remained intact throughout the life of the Research Center. Meanwhile, the experiments concerned the laboratories and development offices than they did the levels between them and the Research Management team. The laboratories were thus split into two groups for a time: WL and WS. 

In 1968, a dedicated Research Center was established for the automation of the AUTEVO technical preparation. The Research Control Center LZ AUTEVO was funded by the state budget and tasked with driving research in computer-assisted production preparation in international collaboration and with the other branches of industry. Funding resources were provided, which were utilized in mechanical engineering, systems construction, and the electronics and building industries. In 1979, the Research Center, which had by now been reduced to the AUTEVO coordination point, was closed. The topics and some of the staff initially moved to the X department, then to WEH, and later on to WEK.