175 Years of ZEISS: Powering Innovation for the Future

ZEISS celebrates 175th anniversary in 2021 and looks back over a history packed with a pioneering spirit, seized opportunities, and new prospects.

The company’s success story began 175 years ago, in a small workshop. On 17 November 1846, young mechanic Carl Zeiss opened his workshop for precision mechanics and optics in Jena, thus laying the foundation for what would become today’s global technology player ZEISS. Zeiss went on to join forces with physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe 20 years later, which proved to be the first step toward the workshop’s transformation into a fully fledged company. This collaboration also led to the company’s close links to science forming a part of its DNA.

“ZEISS has a very unique and rather turbulent history. And its many technological milestones attest to its repeated – and successful – attempts to challenge the limits of what is physically and technically feasible. This unique innovative spirit has imbued the company with real staying power while helping both us and our customers to be successful,” says Dr. Karl Lamprecht, ZEISS President, and CEO.