Microscope Museum

Collection of antique microscopes and other scientific instruments

 

      

Microscope 464 (Paul Waechter; stand IX microscope c. 1885)

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Paul Waechter (1847 - 1893) was trained to be an optician and mechanic at the famous Zeiss Optical Workshop in Jena, Germany. In 1872, Waechter founded his own optical workshop, and his earlier instruments were signed ‘Paul Waechter, Berlin’. Between 1872 and 1892, Waechter produced over 20,000 microscopes, mostly for the examination of trichinae in meat. By 1890, Paul Waechter moved his workshop to Friedenau and the microscopes produced were then signed ‘Paul Waechter, Friedenau’. After the death of Waechter in 1893, his longtime assistant, Herr Puchler, directed the company. Later, Puchler and another master mechanic, Paul Prasser, formed a partnership and continued the business into the early 20th century. At this time, the business was named ‘Optische Werkstaette Paul Waechter’. Microscopes produced by the company often did not bear a signature or serial number on the microscope itself, but these items were reserved for the wood case that normally accompanied the instrument. Sometime after the turn of the century, the firm was moved from Berlin to Potsdam in the former German State of Prussia (now Poland). At that time, instruments were signed ‘Paul Waechter, Potsdam’. By the mid-1930s the business was taken over by the Pridat family. Operations of the firm appear to have been suspended during and immediately after the Second World War. In 1958, the company again reappeared when their registered office moved to Wetzlar, Germany. Microscopes produced in the 1960s and 1970s were signed ‘P. Waechter, Wetzlar’. Microscope 464 is not signed but its original (but damaged) wooden box is engraved with “Paul Waechter, Berlin” and the serial number 6877. The instrument should be dated to c. 1885 (Figure 1). The instrument corresponds to the Waechter’s Stand IX microscope.

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Figure 1. Paul Waechter’s stand IX microscope as pictured in the Pharmazeutische Zentralhalle für Deutschland (1880).