Carl Zeiss Foundation

Figure 3.28 Ernst Abbe, who developed the Abbe sine condition—a design specification derived from wave theory for ensuring good image quality in microscopes. He also transformed the Zeiss optical company into the Carl Zeiss Foundation in 1889. The greatness of this company was not only in the quality of its optical products, but equally in the care it took of its workers at a time when exploitation and oppressive poverty were the rule. (Courtesy of the Carl Zeiss Archives.)...

In 1889, he established the Carl Zeiss Foundation, and two years later he transferred to the Foundation his ownership of the optical works and his half-share in the glassworks. By so doing, he gave up his position of owner to become one of the team of four managers who governed the company according to the statutes. ... 

Following the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the two Carl Zeiss Foundations were reunited and are flourishing now as ever. Being at the forefront of modern technological developments, they are continually turning out new instruments for research and production, new microscopes, telescopes, spectroscopes, lithographic exposure tool lenses, precision measuring instruments, etc. ... 

The investment of resources by Schott and its employees to produce the Schott Series is, as already stated, necessary for the interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration that are traditional at Schott. A model we still find exemplary today of a fruitful dialogue between fundamental research, glass research, and glass manufacture was achieved in the collaboration of Ernst Abbe, Otto Schott, and Carl Zeiss. It resulted in the manufacture of optical microscopes that realized in practice the maximum theoretically achievable resolution. It was especially such experiences that shaped the formulation of the founding statute of the Carl Zeiss Foundation, and the initiative for the Schott Series is in accord with the commitment expressed in the founding statute to promote methodical scientific studies . 

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