Zeiss, Germany, celebrates its 175th anniversary and looks back over a history packed with 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 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.
Zeiss has always focused on enabling tomorrow’s technologies: be it at the optician’s lathe in 1900 or while producing the EUV illumination system that comprises 15,000 individual components and weighs in at 1.5 tons. With this move, the Zeiss Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology (SMT) segment, in collaboration with ASML, achieved a breakthrough in EUV lithography that enabled the duo to make a major technological leap in the history of chip production. The efforts of Zeiss and its international partners in developing EUV lithography were officially recognized when the team was awarded the German Future Prize in 2020.
Today, Zeiss is a globally leading technology company operating in the optical and optoelectronic industries. It is divided into four segments: Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, Industrial Quality & Research, Medical Technology and Consumer Markets. Zeiss employs over 34,000 people in almost 50 countries. Following Carl Zeiss’ death, Ernst Abbe established the Carl Zeiss Foundation in 1889, and it remains one of Germany’s biggest foundations for the promotion of science to this day.
The company will be celebrating its 175th anniversary through a variety of activities and events. An official anniversary celebration is set to be held in November 2021. Employees from around the world will be able to tune into a virtual event, which will also welcome prominent figures from the worlds of science, politics and the economy.
Image – From microscopes, Nobel Prize winners and photos of the first Moon landing through to EUV technology for digitalization, Zeiss celebrates its technological milestones and 175th anniversary in 2021. Courtesy of Zeiss Archives and Zeiss.
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