Optical Institute at Benediktbeuern

The Optical Institute at Benediktbeuern was a Bavarian business that made optical glass, lenses and scientific instruments. Joseph von Utzschneider established glassmaking and optical workshops in the buildings of the secularised Benediktbeuern Abbey from 1805. Joseph von Fraunhofer later developed a complete production system that covered glass selection, lens shaping, calculation, assembly and testing. Its main products included achromatic objectives, the large front lenses of telescopes, designed to reduce coloured blur. The works became contractually independent of the Munich Mathematical-Mechanical Institute in 1809. By making optical glass and working it into precise lenses, the institute supplied astronomical and surveying instruments across Europe. Utzschneider wanted a reliable local supply of optical glass instead of depending on scarce and uneven imports. He recruited the Swiss glassmaker Pierre-Louis Guinand, while Fraunhofer reorganised glass selection, lens grinding and polishing, optical calculation and final testing. The Optical Institute and the later Munich mechanical workshops remained separate organisations but exchanged telescope objectives, mountings and other components. In 1819 most lens working and instrument assembly moved to Munich, though glass continued to be melted at Benediktbeuern, where Fraunhofer supervised individual batches. A major instrument completed during his lifetime was the large refractor delivered to Dorpat Observatory in 1824. After Fraunhofer's death in 1826, Georg Merz directed the optical work and Franz Joseph Mahler directed the mechanical department. They bought shares from Utzschneider in 1838 and acquired the whole enterprise in 1839, trading as Merz and Mahler. Georg Merz later continued the business with his sons, and Sigmund Merz became sole owner in 1867. Relatives divided the Munich workshop from the Benediktbeuern glassworks in 1882 and 1883, and glassmaking ended during the following years. Jakob Merz sold the Munich business to Paul Zschokke in 1903, and it later moved to Pasing and became G. & S. Merz GmbH, a limited liability company. The company entered liquidation in 1932 and was removed from the commercial register in 1938.

History

Origins and establishment Joseph von Utzschneider entered precision-instrument manufacture as the financial and commercial partner of Georg Friedrich von Reichenbach and Joseph Liebherr. Their agreement of 20 August 1804 created the Mathematical-Mechanical Institute in Munich. It made surveying and astronomical instruments. Reichenbach designed instruments and carried out the most demanding mechanical work, Liebherr supervised production, and Utzschneider supplied money and managed the business. The workshop needed high-quality optical parts, but suitable flint glass was difficult to obtain during the Napoleonic Wars and usually had to be imported from a few English makers. Utzschneider and the optician Josef Niggl attempted experimental optical-glass melts-individual batches of molten glass-at the Ettal glassworks near present-day Grafenaschau around 1804. The results were insufficient for regular production. Utzschneider therefore sought a specialist who could make even, flaw-free flint glass in pieces large enough for telescope objectives. He found Pierre-Louis Guinand, a self-taught Swiss glassmaker who had developed ways to stir molten glass more evenly and had made small achromatic telescopes. After negotiations in 1805, Guinand and members of his family moved to Benediktbeuern. Utzschneider offered to buy the former monastery complex on 3 May 1805 and received possession on 6 July, although the legal transfer was not completed until 23 October 1807. The large buildings, available water power, fuel and distance from crowded areas made the site suitable for furnaces and workshops. Guinand reported from Benediktbeuern in October 1805. Samples from the first recorded trials in crown and flint glass were sent to Munich in January 1806. Under a contract dated 10 May 1806, Guinand was responsible for making optical and coloured glass and for work on achromatic telescopes. Joseph von Fraunhofer entered the Munich enterprise in 1806 and was assigned to optical work at Benediktbeuern in 1807. By 1808 he was living there continuously. He began as a lens grinder and Guinand's assistant, but soon took responsibility for calculations, workshop equipment and checking the glass for defects. The move of optical work from Munich happened gradually: sales and stored goods remained in the capital, while glass melting, lens grinding and instrument work were developed at Benediktbeuern.

Separation and Fraunhofer's direction

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