“Two hundred thousand lenses” the old ledger declared. Imagine the Optische Anstalt C P Goerz back then. A bustling hive of activity. Here in Berlin Friedenau at Rheinstrasse 44-46 it all began.
The Optische Anstalt C P Goerz wasn’t just a factory. It was a dream. Carl Paul Goerz’s dream. In 1886 it started small. A mail order company selling drawing tools. One assistant. But Carl had a vision. He saw beyond pencils and rulers. He saw lenses. He saw cameras.
In 1888 he bought a workshop. Soon cameras rolled off the assembly line. But Carl’s true genius lay in the lenses. The Lynkeioskop C/2 was born around 1889. Lens making became the heart of the Optische Anstalt C P Goerz. They moved to a larger factory in Schoneberg. The name changed to Optische Anstalt C P Goerz in 1890. Success was immediate. They showcased their products at the Chicago World’s Fair. An American office followed.
The Optische Anstalt C P Goerz innovated constantly. In 1892 and 1893 they introduced double anastigmat lenses. These were revolutionary. They were the first symmetrical lenses fully corrected for astigmatism. This was thanks to E Von Hoegh’s brilliant designs. The Dagor lens became a legend. By 1894 twenty thousand lenses had been sold. That’s twenty thousand windows into the world.
The Optische Anstalt C P Goerz kept expanding. They acquired the rights to the Anschutz shutter. This allowed for breathtakingly fast exposures. Cameras branded Goerz-Anschutz appeared. They were later shortened to Ango. They diversified into binoculars and military telescopes. Their Trieder binoculars were tiny but powerful. By 1900 sixty thousand lenses had been sold. By 1903 a hundred thousand. The Optische Anstalt C P Goerz had become a global powerhouse.
In 1908 an amazing two hundred thousand lenses had been sold. This expansion necessitated a move. The optical manufacturing was transferred to a new purpose-built factory in Friedenau. It employed nearly two thousand workers. By 1910 they owned the Sendlinger Optische Glaswerke a glassmaker near Munich. The Optische Anstalt C P Goerz controlled the entire process. From raw glass to finished lens.
In 1923 Carl Paul Goerz died. His legacy however lived on. For a while. In 1926 the German branch merged with others to form Zeiss Ikon. The Optische Anstalt C P Goerz name faded in Germany. But the American branch continued. It was eventually bought by Burke & James. Finally in 1975 the American branch closed. But the story of the Optische Anstalt C P Goerz remains a testament to German ingenuity. To the power of a single dream. A dream that changed the way we see the world. One lens at a time.