Founded on May 5, 1955, Schäfter + Kirchhoff began as a company for classic lens design and customer-specific optical solutions. Gradually, the focus shifted to today’s product lines, which are still manufactured in Hamburg and distributed worldwide: polarization-maintaining fiber optics, lasers for industrial image processing, line scan cameras, as well as scanner, and inspection systems. Today, exactly seventy years later, the company is celebrating its milestone birthday with a big thank you to its customers, a large cake for its employees and a short journey through its history!

When the company was founded in 1955 by the two optical engineers Paul Schäfter and Kurt Kirchhoff, it excelled in the production of special optics, which were used, for example, for projection on cinema screens or in high-quality binoculars and some of which can still be seen in museums today. With the change of company owner to Gregor Federau in 1976, the focus slowly shifted from individual contract manufacturing to the company’s own product lines, such as the Multicube system, which is still in use today, or the so-called panoramic line scan camera. The company remained in private ownership until 2016, when it was transferred to the non-profit Gregor Federau Foundation, which was set up by the former company owner to promote child and youth welfare.

In the meantime, the special optical expertise has been passed on from generation to generation and the company’s portfolio has been expanded. An important example of today’s products is the laser beam coupler, which achieves outstanding coupling efficiency with long-term stability when coupling into polarization-maintaining fibers. The fiber optic products from Hamburg have also been used in quantum experiments for more than twenty years and can now also be combined with acousto-optic modulators for frequency and power modulation.

Today, Schäfter + Kirchhoff optomechanics is also used in image processing and enables the company to offer system solutions for industry and science, such as laser line generators or inspection systems for filiform corrosion and adhesive failure.

Starting out as a small optical engineering office in 1955, the components with their characteristic combination of high optical and high mechanical precision are now both an integral part of key technologies that drive the global economy forward and part of cutting-edge global research on key topics. The company can proudly look back on a 70-year history in which quality, stability and technical expertise have always been at the forefront.