Rathenower Optical Works

First ROW production facility in Duncker's birthplace in Rathenow , Kirchplatz 12

School microscope by ROW (design Erich John )

The Rathenower Optischen Werke (ROW) were among the most important manufacturers of lenses and other optical instruments in the GDR . The company was founded in 1801 as a royal, privileged optical industrial institute by Pastor Johann Heinrich August Duncker and Samuel Christoph Wagener, the director of the Rathenower Garrison industrial school.

history

From the foundation in 1801 to 1945

Duncker had been making microscopes since 1790 . In 1801, the year the company was officially founded, he patented a multi-spindle grinding machine he had developed . With this machine, eleven lenses could be ground and then polished at the same time. The production of lenses and finished products equipped with them took place in part of Duncker's birthplace, a rectory . Important early products were lenses for microscopes, magnifying glasses and glasses as well as astronomical telescopes and microscopes. Invalid soldiers and orphans were used as the first workers . While Duncker was in charge of technical management, Wagener took care of sales. Despite difficult economic times, production grew steadily. From 1815 separate production rooms had to be rented.

Wagener left the company in 1806, but as co-owner of the patent was to be paid off for years. Due to illness, Duncker had to relinquish management of the company in 1819. The industrial establishment became the property of Duncker's son Eduard (* March 12, 1797, † 1888), who ran it until 1845. The focus of production at that time was on glasses, which were no longer sold through peddlers , but through trade shops and industrial fairs. In 1834 there was a move and thus significant expansion of the production facilities.

In 1845 Eduard Duncker's nephew Emil Busch took over management of the company. In 1848 a health insurance fund was established. From 1850 onwards, further optical companies were established in Rathenow. This development encouraged Busch to rationalize and introduce new products. By 1851 the number of employees rose to 130. In 1852, cameras and lenses were also added to the production range, among others. a. In 1865 the newly invented Pantoscop wide-angle lens .

Share over 1000 RM in Emil Busch AG from June 1942

In 1872 it was converted to Emil Busch Aktiengesellschaft . The products have been sold all over the world. The production of binoculars for the Prussian , German and foreign military became an important field of business until the First World War . From 1908 the company name was officially Emil Busch AG Optische Industrie . The First World War and the subsequent global economic crisis led to a reduction in the number of employees.

The interwar period was characterized by rapid technological developments.

In cooperation with the "Emil Busch AG Optische Industrie", Nicola Perscheid , for example, developed a special portrait lens called the Busch (Nicola) Perscheid lens. This is constructed as an aplanate from two identical and symmetrically arranged achromatic lenses with a central aperture between them . With the Busch-Perscheid lens, the degree of soft focus can be controlled via the aperture setting. It came on the market in 1921 and was often used for portraits in the following years, although after the end of the First World War the pictorialistic style of photography went out of fashion and was replaced by realism in the form of straight photography or New Objectivity .

Next put the Emil Busch AG 1927 an eye refractometer according Thorner to measure refractive error before. In the same year, the relationship between Busch and Carl Zeiss , which had been linked for a long time through cartel agreements , is said to have become even closer through capital links. Busch later obtained the lenses from Zeiss.

During the Second World War , the company was entirely active in the arms industry. For example, rangefinders for artillery and large binoculars (10 × 80) for aircraft detection were produced. Emil Busch AG products have the manufacturer codes cxn and krq . War production also came from a branch in Budapest . Emil Busch A. G. also employed forced laborers during this period . An external unit of the women's and youth prison in Berlin-Lichtenberg was attached to the company. From 1943 the Carl Zeiss Foundation became the majority shareholder. Shortly before the end of the war, the production facilities were largely destroyed.

Expropriation in 1945 and establishment of VEB ROW

Eyewear production in Rathenow, 1948

Emil Busch AG in Rathenow was officially expropriated by law after the end of the Second World War . The second largest optical company in Rathenow, Nitsche & Günther , was also expropriated in November 1945. In March 1946, Nitsche & Günther became the Rathenower optical works mbH . On July 1, 1948, the Rathenower facility of Emil Busch AG became the headquarters of the newly founded state- owned company Rathenower Optische Werke (VEB ROW), in which Rathenower Optik Werke mbH was merged . At the end of 1950 the VEB ROW was already employing 1,856 workers.

Large working polarization microscope Poladun VI. the Rathenower Optische Werke (ROW), here in the transmitted light structure. Produced between 1961 and 1965 (this example was delivered in November 1962).

The VEB ROW was incorporated into the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena combine from 1966 .

A large part of the small, non-nationalized optical companies in Rathenow were merged in March 1958 to form the Production Cooperative of the Crafts (PGH) J. H. A. Duncker . In 1972 the PGH became VEB Hermann Duncker , which in 1978 was also affiliated to the Carl Zeiss combine. In 1980, the two large Rathenower companies merged to form VEB Rathenower Optische Werke 'Hermann Duncker' . Until 1989, VEB was the sole manufacturer of glasses in the GDR. VEB ROW had around 4420 employees at the end of 1989. The last operations director at the plant was Albrecht Todte from 1983 to 1990. Extensive modernization investments were made during his time. In spite of the scarce foreign exchange funds in the GDR, a total of around 35,000,000 DM was invested in the acquisition of machines and systems from the USA, Austria, Italy and the FRG between 1988 and 1990.

Busch-AG is re-established in West Germany

Eyewear production at Emil Busch GmbH in Göttingen , 1953

The Emil Busch AG moved its headquarters in 1949 to Göttingen where he established a production of ophthalmic lenses on. From 1953 the company traded as Emil Busch GmbH, Göttingen . The company had specialized in the production of optical measuring instruments. In the meantime, the company has grown into Carl Zeiss AG.

The VEB ROW after 1990

At the end of 1989 the ROW were again separated from the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena combine and transferred to a GmbH in July 1990 . In 1991, the Treuhandanstalt spun off the microscope technology division from the GmbH, which today operates under the name ASKANIA Mikoskop Technik Rathenow GmbH .

Most of the ROW workforce was laid off and the old production halls demolished. In 1992 the remaining sole proprietorships were privatized and ROW's land and the remaining buildings were sold. A part now belongs to the optics manufacturer Essilor . The Fielmann company bought the former administration building in 1996 and had it renovated. The Rathenow city council has rented the house since February 1997.

Former ROW site (2015)

Products

ROW stand at the Leipzig autumn fair in 1954

Microscopes

Microscopes were among the first Duncker products before the company was officially founded. A well-known small microscope (model KMC , design: Erich John ) has been manufactured in around 500,000 copies since the mid-1960s.

Microscope production has been carried out at Askania Mikoskop Technik Rathenow since 1995.

(Astronomical) telescopes, riflescopes

As early as the world exhibition in London in 1851 , the Optische Industrie-Anstalt Rathenow offered an astronomical telescope with an opening of 105 mm. In 1914 the product range was expanded to include several small telescopes down to 68 mm. In addition to the telescopes, mounts , eyepieces and erecting prisms were offered. A 150 mm achromatic lens with a focal length of 2000 mm for self-construction of a telescope cost 900 marks at the time . After the Second World War, the production of astronomical telescopes was not resumed.

During the First World War, binoculars and telescopic sights were also manufactured (including the Visar model ). The Galileo 3 1 / 2x40 was a pair of binoculars .

Glasses

In addition to the industrial production of spectacle lenses, the production of spectacle frames with the engraved letters OIAR (Optische Industrie-Anstalt Rathenow) soon followed . Steel wire, horn, tortoiseshell , leather and nickel silver were used as materials. Emil Busch AG produced sunglasses under the name Ultrasin glasses from UV- absorbing glasses from Carl Zeiss . The later VEB ROW manufactured sports glasses like the START model .

As a special feature, binocular glasses were manufactured in the 1930s and 1940s (ROW Galistar ), later on the market as the Unistar multifunction binoculars kit (1964, design: Erich John ).

Cameras and camera lenses

Projection lens Diarectim 1: 4/250 (Dm. 62.5 mm)

The pantoscope as the first wide-angle lens was used from 1867 as a recording lens for a measuring image camera by Albrecht Meydenbauer (Berlin). The photos of the special camera built together with Meydenbauer could for the first time be used as an exact template for true-to-scale drawings of buildings. And there were also made standard lenses, such as portrait lenses by Petzval . Lenses for large format cameras were still a Glyptar anastigmat (e.g. 1: 3.5 / 75 mm) or a ROJA ( previously Emil Busch ) - Rapid Aplanat No.2 1: 8/200 mm.

From 1920 Nicola Perscheid lenses were offered in various focal lengths. The Tiaranar anastigmat (1: 4.5 / 135 mm) was a lens with a Compur shutter .

Lenses were offered for various two - lens medium format single-lens reflex cameras such as the Welta Reflekta , the Welta Reflekta II or the Welta Peerflekta II . This includes in particular the Pololyte 1: 3.5 / 75 but also the similarly specified Rectan lenses 1: 3.5 / 75.

In addition, the Pololyte was used as a screw-on lens in the single-lens Dresden SLR cameras Pilot 6 and Pilot Super .

From the turn of the century various cameras came onto the market under the name ROJA, for example a camera made of precious wood for negative plates measuring 13 × 18 cm with a Busch anastigmat lens Series II No.3 1: 5.5 / 190 mm. Handheld cameras were added to the production range around 1904. One example is the ROJA mirror reflex camera with a central shutter . The camera took 9 × 12 cm and 10 × 15 cm film plates and was able to take 6 × 13 cm stereoscopic pictures. Glaukar - Anastigmate 1: 3.1, Omnar- Anastigmate 1: 4.5 and a Bis-Telar 1: 7 were available as lenses . The price camera came onto the market around 1910 as a classic folding bellows camera , a model for the small budget. The viewfinder ( Sellar ) was designed as a small concave mirror .

Projection technology

The Emil Busch AG had already made in the early days of cinema technology projection lenses and condensers. The company's own optical products were advertised as the 'soul' of the projectors. The production of projection optics was continued by ROW after 1945. The ROW Diarectim and Epirectim lenses are known, for example, for Episkopes from the Leipzig company Heinrich Malinski . A projection lens with an outer diameter of 52 mm is the Neokino (f = 120 mm).

For the projection of wide-screen films, anamorphic lenses were produced under the brand name Rectimascop . Examples are the Rectimascop 48/2 × , the Rectimascop 80/2 × or the Rectimascop IV 64/2 × . A range of projection lenses for 'normal' cinema films was the Visionar (e.g. 1: 1.6 / 92, 1: 1.6 / 109 or 1: 1.9 / 130 and 1: 1.9 / 141). Rectimascop and Visionar were at least temporarily awarded the label for first quality GDR goods.

Compasses

Field compass from Emil Busch AG

During the Second World War, Emil Busch AG manufactured field compasses for the Wehrmacht. The compasses were made of sturdy Bakelite and were subject to the German Empire Utility Model (DRGM).