From collective combine to global player

The roots of today’s Jenoptik AG date back to the year 1846, when Carl Zeiss, one of the pioneers of the optical industry in Germany, established an independent optical workshop in Jena, specializing in fine mechanical optometry. A milestone in the history of the company – named after its founder Carl Zeiss – was the beginning of the cooperation with Ernst Abbe, a professor of physics at the University of Jena, in 1866. The combined efforts of Zeiss and Abbe led for example to the development of the calibrated microscope, which was produced by Carl Zeiss after 1872.1