Industry and Nature
Few towns are as closely associated with optics and precision engineering as Rathenow, situated 80 kilometres west of Berlin. Over 200 years ago, Johann Heinrich August Duncker invented the multi-grinding machine here, which was later patented. This machine made it possible, for the first time, to produce large quantities of lenses, which was nothing short of a revolution for the optical industry. Duncker thus became one of the founders of the modern optical industry in Germany – a tradition that has been preserved in Rathenow to this day.
With around 1,300 employees, the ‘City of Optics’ forms the centre of the optical industry in the state of Brandenburg. The depth of value creation in the fields of ophthalmic optics and precision engineering, which is actively promoted here, is unmatched by any other location in Germany. Its core competencies include not only the manufacture of spectacle lenses and frames, special lenses, ophthalmic implants and visual aids, but also the construction of ophthalmic production equipment and workshop technology. Microscopes and laboratory instruments are developed locally for use in research and industry.
In Rathenow, alongside the global player Fielmann, around 24 small and medium-sized enterprises operate in the optics sector, making it one of Germany’s leading centres for ophthalmic optics.