The rise of a global company – From the microscope to the moon landing

175 years ago, Carl Zeiss opened a small workshop for precision mechanics and optics in the German city of Jena. His humble beginnings became the foundation of the technology company, Zeiss, which now operates worldwide. The production of glass with game-changing optical properties was one of the developments that helped him create a company that valued scientific research highly, while never forgetting science’s social impact. To this day, Zeiss microscopes offer unrivaled image resolution, with lenses that can display structures one thousand times smaller than a human hair. Light microscopes allow living cells to be examined with extreme gentleness and speed, as well. With these instruments, over 30 Nobel Prize winners have made history.

The Zeiss company played a key role in the moon landing of 1969, and thus helped us redefine our limits. Images of this historic event were captured using Zeiss camera lenses developed specially for space. These lenses were instrumental in the later development of photolithography, which plays a decisive role in the production of microchips. Their developments in extreme ultraviolet lithography won Zeiss the German Future Prize together with the Fraunhofer Institute and the Trumpf company. Tune in to “Third Person,” a riveting documentary that delves deep into Carl Zeiss’ exemplary life as an innovator and inventor, and his contributions to technology, history, and science.