ZEISS Museum of Optics

More than 1,000 exciting and often unique exhibits on an area of 1,000 m2.

In ten different categories, you can enjoy interesting, valuable and unexpected encounters with the history of product and technology development that are important to ZEISS. 

The exhibition takes you from the present into the past: from leading-edge medical technology systems ad the photo of Neil Armstrong, which he captured with a ZEISS lens during the first moon langing, right up to one of Napoleon’s telescopes.
 

Opening Hours
Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Closed on weekends and public holidays, and at the following times:

You’re interested in booking a museum tour or have a group with more than 10 people: Here’s the link to the form.

Suitable for children aged 12 and up

Photography and Filming
Photography, filming, video recordings and other types of image capture without a tripod or flash as well as drawings are allowed so long as they are intended exclusively for personal use. We would ask that you be courteous to other visitors when taking photos or filming and ensure that other people are only photographed with their consent. 

Licensing these images/videos to third parties for commercial purposes or positing them on the Internet is not permitted. Photographs for editorial purposes require the consent of the Press Office (pr ess @zeiss .com).

Photography and filming are not permitted on the rest of the premises.
 

Handling the Exhibits
The objects on display have already been pre-adjusted for you. Thus no further adjustments are needed.

Accessibility
Our museum is wheelchair accessible on request. Please inform us of your needs in advance.

Eating and Drinking
A cafe is located on the first floor of the Forum (directly above the exhibition spaces). Here you can enjoy hot and cold drinks as well as snacks. 

Visitors are not permitted to eat or drink in the museum itself.

Lockers
A large number of lockers are available at the museum for your bag. These require a one or two-euro coin.

Parking
A limited number of parking spaces for cars is available directly in front of the museum. On-street parking requires a "parking disc."

A special exhibit entitled "See beyond. Go beyond. The journey to the Moon and ZEISS" is currently being held at the ZEISS Museum of Optics in Oberkochen. It features selected items from the ZEISS Archives.

The technological achievements and valuable observations made by some of the first pioneers in space were not the only reason the race to the Moon proved so impressive. Even today, we continue to be fascinated by the stunning photographs the astronauts brought back to Earth from their missions and from the Moon itself. Camera lenses specially designed by ZEISS for use in space played an important role in capturing these images.

They can be seen at the special exhibit. It also features a ZEISS Ikon Contarex camera, which the Gemini 4 pilot used during the first American spacewalk, and the legendary Hasselblad camera from the Apollo 11 mission.

https://www.zeiss.com/moon