Spectacles have been manufactured in Rathenow an der Havel - the cradle of German optics - since 1801. The largest production and logistics site of the Fielmann Group is located here: Rathenower Optik GmbH. Plastic lenses are manufactured under one roof and assembled with the frames ordered to make glasses in the edge grinding shop. Rathenower Optik is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Fielmann Group.
Facts and figures
1.000
Employees
11.000
Glasses produced per day
8.000
Eyeglasses produced per day
2.6
km
Conveyor length
240
h
Longest single test duration
600.000
Parcels sent per year
as at January 01, 2025
Our history
Rathenow has been the home of German eyewear for 200 years. In the former GDR, the “VEB Rathenow” supplied the entire Soviet Union with spectacle lenses and optical devices. However, the happy connection between Fielmann and Rathenow only came much later, after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1990.
1990
Rathenower Optische Werke (ROW for short) has been acting as a service provider for Fielmann since 1990.
1994
In 1994, Fielmann acquired Rathenower Optische Werke and founded Rathenower Optik GmbH. Since then, it has been a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Fielmann Group.
1999
The rapid pace of Fielmann's expansion led to a rapid increase in order volume: we now produce well over 1 million spectacle lenses per year. By the end of the 1990s, the number of employees had already doubled to 120.
2000
In 2000, just in time for the 200th anniversary of the optics industry in Rathenow, Fielmann announced that the industry's most modern manufacturing and logistics site would be built in Rathenow. Günther Fielmann and the then Minister President of Brandenburg, Manfred Stolpe, attended the laying of the foundation stone. To the right of Günther Fielmann is his son Marc, the current CEO of the Fielmann Group.
2001
Since opening in 2001, we have continuously expanded capacity at the site, automated processes and invested in new technologies. The number of employees has risen from 125 at the end of the 1990s to almost 500 at the beginning of the 2000s.
2021
While we produced just under 2 million lenses and 1 million pairs of glasses in the early 2000s, in 2021 we produced 4.5 million lenses and just as many complete pairs of glasses.