Siegfried Czapski

Czapski was born on May 28, 1861, on the Obra estate near Koschmin, in present-day Poland. His father Simon owned the estate, which he took over in a poor condition and wanted to rebuild it through new breeding and cultivation methods. Siegfried's mother came from a family of merchants and landowners. He was the third of five children. All were educated partly privately and in the schools of neighboring towns. After an unfortunate accident of his father, his family moved to Breslau, because he became unable to work and had to sell the estate. In Breslau he attended the Maria-Magdalenen-Gymnasium from 1872. In 1879 he graduated from high school there. He then studied physics, math and philosophy for one semester in Göttingen, as he was not required to attend military service due to his poor eyesight. Later he studied in the University of Breslau. In 1881 he moved to the University of Berlin, wrote his dissertation under Hermann Helmholtz and finally completed his doctorate there in 1884. The estate was taken over again by Siegfried's eldest brother in 1904. Czapski was not spared the wave of academic anti-Semitism around 1880, which can be traced in his letters to his friend Rudolf Heidenhain. Due to the aggressive nationalism in student associations at that time, Czapski also resigned from the "Kleiner literarischer Verein zu Breslau". After his studies, Czapski initially worked for Bamberg's "Workshop for Scientific Instruments" and mainly completed computing assignments. Technical optics interested Czapski very much, as it was also developing considerably in his time. On the recommendation of Helmholtz and Loewenherz, he turned to the scientist Ernst Abbe, who was already running the Carl Zeiss company in Jena. He invited him to get a picture of his work and to support him in various tasks.

In early September 1884, Czapski arrived in Jena. He was very taken with the city because it was quiet, academic, and friendly. He even attended lectures by the new historian Dietrich Schaefer. Czapski also got along with his boss Ernst Abbe right away, which was to become a lifelong friendship. When Czapski came to Jena, the company was in full swing working on new glasses for microscopes and telescopes, in a newly built glassworks. These were produced in collaboration with the glass chemist Otto Schott. Czapski was convinced of the new glasses. Initially, he was to learn the measuring and testing equipment and calculate telescope lenses for the Berlin observatory. Since he was assured to support Abbe also in purely scientific work, he accepted the extension offer of his employment contract for the Zeiss company. Czapski's work for the observatory was highly appreciated by the client Bamberg and he received three further orders to calculate telescopes for the observatory. He thus laid the foundation for the astronomical telescopes Zeiss later developed. Shortly thereafter, Czapski published three articles in the journal for "Instrumentenkunde über die Messgeräte", which he became acquainted with. In 1885 he met the granddaughter of the mathematician Karl Snell, Margarete, and became engaged to her after a few weeks. His parents soon came to terms with the non-Jewish daughter-in-law, and Magarete's father was also displeased. He even refrained from publicly announcing the engagement. He seemed to like it so much in Jena that he did not accept Loewenherz's offer for the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt, although he would have received twice as much salary, namely 1500 Thaler. However, he himself was aware of having to read in and learn more in order to be included in the microscope calculations. On April 3, he then signed a three-year employment contract. He often had to substitute for Abbe, which seemed to be limited for him due to his health condition and he put himself under pressure. He had to attend numerous events and had responsible tasks in the company. Often tasks simply fell by the wayside or he finished them late. For example, it took him five years to write his contribution to the book "Handbook of Physics". He therefore went to psychological treatment and took part in various cures, but this only brought temporary success. So even then, success had its dark side. He eventually became managing director of the company together with Abbe and Schott. 

Since Abbe's death, his responsibilities became even greater; he took over the management of the company and gave lectures at Friedrich Schiller University. Even before his death, Abbe wanted the university to inherit his assets. However, this was not legally possible, so he secretly established the Carl Zeiss Foundation for the time being. The branches of scientific industry were also to benefit. In his memorandum before his death, he declared Czapski to be the official successor. He regarded economic profit as a public good anyway, since it exceeded what was reasonable. By drafting the Foundation Statute, in which Czapski was involved by Abbe, he inevitably dealt with the problems of labor in his time. The statute included the establishment of an eight-hour day for Zeiss employees, as well as the introduction of a pension fund for employees. This gave them even more legal security, which made the statute so revolutionary at the time. The foundation supported the entire society in Jena, as the university and thus science was promoted. It also expanded the public, for example by building the Volkshaus in Jena and establishing a reading hall and the people's library. Politically, he was in favor of a middle way between socialism and liberalism; in his opinion, people should be able to act individually, but there should be no excessively rich. Czapski witnessed events that changed the social landscape in Jena, especially through his work as a deputy plenipotentiary of the foundation. In 1897 he moved with his family to the villa at Forstweg 23, which was built especially for him. Until the end of his days he still worked for Zeiss, on June 29, 1907 he died of a pulmonary embolism, as a result of an appendectomy.