Jenoptik

Jenoptik is a global technology group operating in the photonics market. Optical technologies are the core of our business. Our growth areas primarily include semiconductor technology, medical technology, metrology as well as smart mobility. Almost 4,500 people worldwide work for the Jenoptik Group, which is headquartered in Jena, Germany. JENOPTIK AG is listed on the German Stock Exchange in Frankfurt and is traded on the MDax and TecDax. In fiscal year 2025, Jenoptik generated revenue of 1,046 million euros. Sustainable quality and environmental responsibility is a fundamental part of our daily work. To meet the high requirements of our customers, we work continuously to develop our processes. At the same time we are using the latest measuring and testing methods for monitoring our products and processes. Changing the world with light demands for an exploring spirit. Discover challenges the world is facing, at Jenoptik you change the world.

Chemist Otto Schott, Zeiss, and Abbe start their own optical glass making plant. U.S. troops move patents and scientists to Oberkochen after World War II. 1950-80:Two companies, each with the name Carl Zeiss, exist in East and West Germany and fight for brand name rights. Carl Zeiss Oberkochen-Heidenheim is granted all brand name rights; Jenoptik GmbH becomes legal successor of the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena owned by the state of Thuringia. World War II brought a sudden end to the company's bright future. The American troops, who were the first to enter Jena, took with them when they left the core of the Zeiss company: patents, construction drawings, and the most brilliant people. While they set up a new Zeiss company in their own zone of occupation in the Swabian town of Oberkochen, Thuringia and Jena came under Soviet control. In 1946 the Oberste Alliierten Kontrollrat decided to dismantle the Zeiss production facilities as war reparations--and that could have been the end of the company. Just as Germany was divided into two separate states, so was the Zeiss enterprise divided into two separate companies. After the Soviets expropriated the Carl-Zeiss Stiftung in 1948, a new firm under the name of Carl Zeiss was officially registered in the West German town Heidenheim in 1951. Many of the key technical and managerial Carl Zeiss employees had moved to work in this new company in Germany's southwest region. However, most of the qualified staff and traditional ties remained in the Jena region. In an extraordinary endeavor, a new plant was established there during the 1950s. It started manufacturing products it had produced before the war and soon developed new versions, and eventually new instruments. By the mid-1950s the government-owned VEB Carl-Zeiss Jena was exporting its products to no less than 88 countries. The Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung was also re-established in Jena, resulting in a battle over brand name rights that went on for decades between the two foundations which had the same name. The unexpected fall of the Berlin Wall marked the next turning point in Jenoptik's history. For the second time it appeared the East German company would be unable to survive. With the introduction of the West German currency in East Germany in the summer of 1990, the company suddenly lost most of its business, as Eastern European countries were no longer able to pay for Jenoptik's products in hard currency. At the same time, the government subsidies that had traditionally kept Jenoptik's prices low, were abolished, and it was no longer competitive on the world market. Finally, the profitable business relationship with the East German military abruptly ceased. The consequence was huge financial losses. The legal situation following German reunification was complicated as well, especially in the case of the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena. According to the agreement between the East and West German governments, state-owned East German companies had to be privatized. This enormous task was taken over by a newly-established institution, the Treuhandanstalt , headquartered in Berlin. In July 1990, the Treuhandanstalt took over responsibility for the Kombinat Carl Zeiss Jena, which at that time consisted of 25 major subsidiaries at 11 locations with approximately 69,000 employees. They were split into several independent private companies. The core business was transformed into the Jenoptik Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, which included 13 major subsidiaries and over 30,000 employees. On June 16, 1991 a meeting held at the Berlin Treuhandanstalt determined the fate of the two Carl Zeiss foundations and the associated companies. It was decided that there should be only one Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung--the one in Heidenheim. The details were negotiated in a treaty between the German states of Baden-Würtemberg and Thuringia. The Carl-Zeiss Stiftung Jena transferred its brand name rights and licenses to the Heidenheim-based foundation. The core of the old Carl Zeiss production li