Carl Zeiss Foundation

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Carl Zeiss Foundation
legal form Foundation (Germany)
founding 1889
founder Ernst Abbe
purpose Promotion of science
Chair Theresia Bauer
Managing directors Felix Streiter
sales 78,544,000 euros (2019)
Foundation capital 800,000,000 euros (2018)
Employees 12 (2020)
Website www.carl-zeiss-stiftung.de
100 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation
stamps of the GDR, 1989

The Carl Zeiss Foundation , based in Heidenheim an der Brenz and Jena, is the sole owner of Carl Zeiss AG and Schott AG . The foundation supports basic research and application-oriented research and teaching in the MINT departments (mathematics, computer science, natural sciences and technology). Founded in 1889 by the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe, the Carl Zeiss Foundation is the oldest private science-promoting foundation in Germany. Your projects are financed from the dividend distributions of the two foundation companies.

In addition to the classic areas of optics and precision mechanics or glass and special glass, the product portfolio of the foundation companies also includes the areas of optoelectronics and glass ceramics . The foundation companies and their subsidiaries employed more than 39,000 people worldwide in the 2012/2013 financial year and generated sales of over 6 billion euros.

history

founding

The foundation was established by the physicist and mathematician Ernst Abbe . He named it after his business partner and friend Carl Zeiss, who died in 1888 . The deed of foundation is dated May 19, 1889. On May 21, the foundation received its legal capacity as a legal entity through the approval of the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach . Abbe originally intended to transfer his shares in the companies Carl Zeiss and Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Genossen to the University of Jena. He believed that he owed his rise to the status of a wealthy entrepreneur. For this reason, Ernst Abbe set up the ministerial fund for scientific purposes as early as 1886, through which he anonymously donated considerable financial resources to the University of Jena every year. In addition, he financed the construction of a university observatory from his private budget in 1889.

The donation of his company shares to the university, originally planned by Abbe, was not legally possible. In cooperation with representatives of the Saxony-Weimar state government, the idea of ​​a foundation was born. The Carl Zeiss Foundation was established in 1889 and as early as 1891 Ernst Abbe brought his shares in the two companies and that of Roderich Zeiss, the son of Carl Zeiss, into this foundation. In 1919 Otto Schott also transferred his shares to the foundation, which made the foundation the sole owner of the glassworks. The drafting of the foundation statute lasted until 1896. A supplementary statute regulating the donations to the university followed in 1900.

The following general purposes of the foundation are laid down in paragraph 1 of these foundation statutes:

  • Economic security for the two foundation companies
  • Fulfilling social obligations towards employees
  • Promotion of general interests of the "fine technical" industry
  • Activities in non-profit organizations for the benefit of the working population of Jena
  • Promotion of scientific and mathematical science in research and teaching

In addition, the statute contains regulations on the organization of the foundation, in particular on the foundation bodies , on entrepreneurial activity and on social and labor law issues. The legal fixation and legal enforceability of employee rights were sociopolitically outstanding, visionary and trend-setting for the time. The peculiarity of the legal structure of the Carl Zeiss Foundation at that time was its design as a company sponsoring foundation in contrast to the current form as a participation sponsoring foundation. The foundation was therefore not a holding company that held shares in legally independent companies, but rather operated the business as an entrepreneur through its two legally dependent foundation companies.

The administration of the foundation lay with the Weimar Ministry of Culture. From there came the foundation commissioner, who oversaw the operations. The board members of the companies were appointed by the foundation administration. The first commissioner of the foundation was Carl Rothe until 1896. He was followed by Max Vollert , who remained in office until 1911. Friedrich Ebsen then held the office of Foundation Commissioner until 1933.

Foundation activity until 1945

Image Statute 1096.jpg
Partial bond for 1,000 guilders from the Carl Zeiss Foundation dated April 1, 1926

Right from the start, the foundation had extensive funding activities. At first it was primarily the Jena University that received funding. In some years the foundation's grants even exceeded the expenses of the four states that maintained the university at the time. In particular, an extensive construction program has been started, professorships and lectureships have been funded by the foundation, and grants or contributions in kind have been made to institutes or projects. Since 1909, the professors' salaries have also been increased with funds from the foundation. As stipulated in the statute, subsidies were also given out for municipal interests. During Ernst Abbe's lifetime, the foundation built the Volkshaus , which housed a library as well as club and assembly rooms. Further buildings followed and almost every club in the city received support over the next few years.

During the First World War, extensive reserves were set up for socio-political projects, but these fell victim to post-war inflation. Nevertheless, the foundation was able to resume funding activities soon afterwards. The most important of the funded projects was the construction of one of the first pure children's clinics in Germany in Jena. The Abbeanum , a striking Bauhaus-style building, also built in the interwar period , housed the Optical Institute and the Institute for Applied Mathematics and is now used as a teaching and research building for the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. In addition, the expansion of the Botanical Garden of the University of Jena was financed.

When the National Socialists came to power, the disadvantages of the state-oriented foundation structure became apparent. The Nazi activist Julius Dietz became the new foundation commissioner. There were violent arguments between him and the Gauleitung on the one hand and the management of the companies and individual brave citizens like Abbe's daughter Grete Unrein on the other. They culminated in a lawsuit against the Thuringian Minister of the Interior Fritz Wächtler because of the forced changes to the statute. Only gradually did the situation calm down. This reassurance was certainly also due to the importance of the two foundation companies for the armament that was starting up.

Foundation reforms by 1945

In order to ensure the long-term realization of his foundation idea, Ernst Abbe laid down strict requirements for changes to the statute in his foundation statute. According to this, changes may only be made if the legal, technical or economic framework has changed so seriously that maintaining the provisions of the statute is either not possible, impractical with a view to the foreseeable consequences or, taking into account the recognizable intentions of the founder, inappropriate would. In order to ensure that these requirements are met, the foundation statute grants the employees of the foundation companies the right to have changes to the foundation statutes checked by a court to determine whether they are necessary.

A first reform of the foundation was planned in the statute of 1896. After ten years, the functionality of the foundation's facilities should be checked and the statute adjusted accordingly. Other minor reforms followed.

After 1933, the National Socialist rulers implemented more extensive changes. Among other things, the requirement of tolerance towards ancestry, creed and party status of employees (Paragraph 56) was abolished. These changes were reversed in 1945. The planned reform of the foundation in the GDR never happened.

The division and the consequences: the trademark dispute

Jena was occupied by American troops in April 1945. When they left three months later, they took executives, current management and important documents with them to the West. First, the employees were interned in Heidenheim an der Brenz , the documents were taken to the USA for evaluation. In 1946, the Zeiss employees began building a plant in Oberkochen near Heidenheim under the name Opton. This project was initially financed and supported by the Jena Carl Zeiss Foundation. The Schott employees built a new plant in Mainz in 1951/52. In 1948 the Jena foundation companies were expropriated and transferred to state- owned companies . The Carl Zeiss Foundation was retained, but it limited its activities to the fulfillment of social tasks.

The Opton company then applied to the state government of Württemberg-Baden to relocate the foundation's headquarters to Heidenheim. This was granted by the Ministry of Justice in 1949. In Jena, however, the Carl Zeiss Foundation continued to exist. The Oberkochen company Opton was renamed Carl Zeiss in 1951. From 1951 there was a Carl Zeiss Foundation in Jena and a Carl Zeiss Foundation in Heidenheim, the VEBs Carl Zeiss and Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Gen. in Jena as well as the foundation companies Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen and Jenaer Glaswerk Schott & Gen. in Mainz. At first it was a peaceful coexistence. Carl Zeiss Jena supported the development in the west by providing documents and experts. In return, Oberkochen and Mainz delivered new developments to Jena.

At the beginning of 1953, the government of the GDR decided that in future foreign trade would no longer be handled directly by Carl Zeiss Jena, but only through DIA (German domestic and foreign trade). Shortly afterwards, 15 Zeiss employees from Jena were arrested who had stood for cooperation with the West. This made it clear on the part of the GDR government that cooperation between Zeiss East and West would no longer be tolerated.

Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen did not want to tolerate the use of the name Zeiss by the DIA and first sued the regional court in Stuttgart. This led to an avalanche of litigation that led to countless litigation in a number of countries. The various judgments essentially reflected the political proximity of the respective country to either the Federal Republic or the GDR.

Although the companies concerned suffered from the financial burdens resulting from the numerous legal proceedings, they were only able to come to an agreement in 1971 in the so-called London Agreement on the worldwide use of the trademarks. The compromise negotiated resulted in everyone being allowed to use the name Carl Zeiss or Jenaer Glaswerk in their political hemisphere. The Jena company therefore appeared in the west under the name "Jenoptik", the Oberkochener in the east under "Opton". In 1980 the Schott company in Jena renounced the name “Schott” and the Mainz Schott company did away with the name “Jenaer”.

reunion

After the Berlin Wall opened, the idea was to reunite the foundations and their foundation companies in East and West. In the Biebelried Declaration of May 1990, the board members of the companies involved declared that the aim was to merge all companies into a Carl Zeiss Foundation. The content of the basic agreement concluded in June 1991 between the state governments of Baden-Württemberg and Thuringia , the Treuhandanstalt and the companies involved included: a. the merger of the two Carl Zeiss foundations in one Carl Zeiss foundation based in Heidenheim an der Brenz and Jena, and the takeover of the optics and glass core business of VEB Carl Zeiss Jena by Carl Zeiss in Oberkochen and Schott in Mainz. A large number of smaller companies were spun off from the former VEB Carl Zeiss Jena combine. Including Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, which took over the optical core business of the combine, and Jenaer Glaswerk GmbH. Both companies became daughters of the West German corporations.

The non-profit Ernst Abbe Foundation was established in 1992 , to which the non-industrial assets of the Jena Carl Zeiss Foundation such as B. the Optical Museum and the Zeiss Planetarium as well as the housing stock was transferred.

Reform in the face of globalization

In the course of the global business activities of the two foundation companies, it became increasingly clear that the historical model of a corporate foundation no longer adequately does justice to the legal and economic framework conditions of globally operating companies. The grown structure turned out not only to be an obstacle to competition - for example in the implementation of different forms of cooperation with other companies - but also to be non-transparent and therefore also risky due to the mutual liability association of the two foundation companies. At the end of the 1990s, this led the foundation bodies to believe that the almost 100-year-old statute would be adapted to the requirements of the globalized economy, the serious changes in tax, labor and company law and the now strongly separated business activities of the foundation companies. This reform process came to an end in 2004 with the publication of a completely revised statute.

The focus of the reform was the spin-off of the two foundation companies into independent stock corporations, of which the Carl Zeiss Foundation is the sole shareholder. With the reform of the foundation, the corporate governance principles and the rules of corporate co-determination, as they correspond to today's company law and co-determination law, are now taken into account. At the same time, the language was updated.

Although the foundation bodies claimed to have carefully examined the necessity of the various amendments to the statutes when they were revising the statutes of the foundation and to orientate themselves in detail to the goals and specifications of the founder Ernst Abbe, essential formulations disappeared from the original statutes. For example, § 3 of the foundation statute said: "The legal seat of the foundation is Jena." And § 94 contained the following formulation:

“The salaries of civil servants in the foundation companies are always to be received in the various civil servant classes in an appropriate proportion to the average wages of adult workers in the companies. The highest annual income that is granted to a civil servant, including the members of the management board, for his contractual service may not exceed ten times the average annual income of all those over 24 years of age and at least three years in the company at the time of determination normal wages for all foundation companies, based on the average of the last three financial years. "

In connection with the foundation reform, some of the company's employees went to court. With their lawsuit, they appealed against an amendment to paragraphs 37 and 116 made in 2000, which created the legal basis for transferring the foundation companies to another legal form. They were of the opinion that this change would undermine fundamental provisions of the foundation statute created by Ernst Abbe. Among other things, the plaintiffs were of the opinion that the new version of Section 37 of the Foundation Statute would result in a change in the foundation's purpose. However, the employee's lawsuit was unsuccessful. In its judgment announced on June 27, 2003, the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court declared the changes to Paragraphs 37 and 116 to be legal.

The Foundation's work today

The Carl Zeiss Foundation today has three foundation bodies: foundation administration, foundation council and board of directors. These primarily have the following tasks:

  • Foundation administration
    • Allocation of funding for research and teaching
    • Change of the foundation statute
    • Appointment of the members of the Board of Trustees
  • Board of Trustees
    • Protects the foundation's economic interests as the sole shareholder of the foundation companies
    • Chairman should be elected chairman of the supervisory board of the foundation company ("link" between the foundation and the foundation company)
  • Board advisory board with a hearing and advisory function at
    • Selection of the members of the Board of Trustees
    • Allocation of funding
    • Change of the foundation statute

Felix Streiter is the managing director of the foundation. Since 2018, the Carl Zeiss Foundation has been promoting breakthroughs , perspectives and transfer primarily within the framework of the three major program lines . In addition, it supports the appointments of German scientists who have been working abroad for at least two years. Various - mostly short-term - funding activities are combined in the Impulse program . Its funding activities focus on the three federal states of Baden-Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Thuringia.

literature

  • Werner Plumpe : A vision. Two companies. 125 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation . CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66285-0 .
  • Sebastian Demel: On the way to becoming a responsible society. Ernst Abbe and the Carl Zeiss Foundation in the German Empire . Wallstein, Göttingen 2014, ISBN 978-3-8353-1526-6 .
  • Christoph Matthes: financier - sponsor - contractual partner. The University of Jena and the optical industry 1886 - 1971. Böhlau u. a., Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-412-21068-7 .
  • Katharina Schreiner, Klaus-Dieter Gattnar, Horst Skoludek: Carl Zeiss East and West - History of a Reunification . Jena 2006.
  • Wolfgang Wimmer: The relationship between the Carl Zeiss Foundation and Zeisswerk to the university until 1933. In: Matthias Steinbach , Stefan Gerber (ed.): Classical university and academic province. Studies at the University of Jena from the middle of the 19th to the thirties of the 20th century . Dr. Bussert & Stadeler, Jena 2005, pp. 59–76.
  • Friedrich Schomerus : Development and nature of the Carl Zeiss Foundation. 2nd Edition. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart 1955.
  • Walter David: The Carl Zeiss Foundation, its past and its current legal situation . Heidenheim 1954.
  • Statute of the Carl Zeiss Foundation in Jena. 1896 ( online ), 1906, 1921, 1935, 1972, 1998, 2004 ( PDF file; 156 KB ), 2010 ( online )
  • Justification for the new version of the statutes of the Carl Zeiss Foundation.

Web links

Commons : Carl Zeiss Foundation  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Carl Zeiss Foundation (publisher): Annual report of the Carl Zeiss Foundation for the 2012/13 financial year ( memo of the original dated November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Retrieved November 17, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / carl-zeiss-stiftung.de
  2. For the establishment, see: Friedrich Schomerus: Werden und Wesen der Carl Zeiss Foundation. 2nd Edition. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart 1955.
  3. www-personal.umich.edu ( Memento of the original from September 8, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www-personal.umich.edu
  4. ^ The statute can also be found in: Ernst Abbe: Lectures, speeches and writings with socio-political and related content. (= Collected treatises by Ernst Abbe. Volume 3.) Reprint of the Jena 1906 edition. Georg Olms, Hildesheim u. a. 1989. Available online at: The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gesammelte Abhandlungen III, by Ernst Abbe. Accessed November 17, 2014.
  5. For the activity see: Werner Plumpe (Ed.): Eine Vision. Two companies. 125 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation . CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66285-0 .
  6. Wolfgang Plumpe: The Carl Zeiss Foundation 1896 to 1933. In: Werner Plumpe (Ed.): A vision. Two companies. 125 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation . CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66285-0 , pp. 87-145.
  7. ^ Wolfgang Wimmer: The relationship between the Carl Zeiss Foundation and Zeisswerk to the university until 1933 . In: Matthias Steinbach, Stefan Gerber (eds.): "Classical University" and "Academic Province". Studies at the University of Jena from the middle of the 19th to the thirties of the 20th century. Dr. Bussert & Stadeler, Jena u. a. 2005, pp. 59-76.
  8. ^ Wolfgang Wimmer: Carl Zeiss in the First World War. In: Birgitt Hellmann, Matias Mieth (Ed.): Home Front. A central German university town during the First World War. (= Building blocks for Jena city history. Volume 17.) Jena City Museum, Jena 2014, ISBN 978-3-942176-32-3 , pp. 193–212.
  9. Johannes Bär: The Carl Zeiss Foundation and the foundation companies in the "Third Reich". In: Werner Plumpe (Ed.): A vision. Two companies. 125 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation . CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66285-0 , pp. 147-193.
  10. ^ Edith Hellmuth, Wolfgang Mühlfriedel: Carl Zeiss 1945–1990. (= Carl Zeiss. The history of a company. Volume 3). Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2004, ISBN 3-412-11196-1 , pp. 3-23.
  11. For the development of the Carl Zeiss Foundation in the West see: Dieter Ziegler: The Carl Zeiss Foundation Heidenheim 1948 to 1989. In: Werner Plumpe (Hrsg.): Eine Vision. Two companies. 125 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation . CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66285-0 , pp. 239-291.
  12. For the development of the Carl Zeiss Foundation in the East see: Rainer Karlsch: The Carl Zeiss Foundation in Jena 1945 to 1989. In: Werner Plumpe (Ed.): Eine Vision. Two companies. 125 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation . CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66285-0 , pp. 195-237.
  13. Stephan Paetrow: ... what belongs together. 20 years of reunification of Carl Zeiss. Hanseatischer Merkur, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-922857-51-8 .
  14. ^ Christian Kleinschmidt: The 21st Century - the Foundation Reform. In: Werner Plumpe (Ed.): A vision. Two companies. 125 years of the Carl Zeiss Foundation . CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3-406-66285-0 , pp. 331-361.
  15. ^ Carl Zeiss Foundation (ed.): Statute of the Carl Zeiss Foundation. 2004. Heidenheim an der Brenz and Jena, 2003. ( PDF file; 156 KB ( memento of the original dated November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link accordingly Instructions and then remove this notice. ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / carl-zeiss-stiftung.de
  16. Carl Zeiss Foundation (ed.): Justification for the new version of the Carl Zeiss Foundation statute 2004.
  17. ^ The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gesammelte Abhandlungen III, by Ernst Abbe
  18. What we promote . Carl Zeiss Foundation. Retrieved June 12, 2019.