Our production plant is built on a historic site. Here in Ilmenau, glass has roots as deep as anywhere in the world. Three centuries ago, in the year 1675, glass makers founded the first glass works in Ilmenau.

The Thuringian Forest's wood and the rich silica sand deposits provided the ideal conditions for establishing a glass-melting furnace.

From the early 18th century, Ilmenau's glass makers specialized in producing technical instruments. The opening of Ilmenau's third glass works in 1836 marked the first steps towards industrialized production. At the close of the 1800s, Ilmenau was ideally equipped for the twentieth century, with a railway line, a thermometer verification and calibration institute, and a college of glass technology.

After the second World War, the region's glass industry was gradually concentrated in a major combine. In the 1970s, Ilmenau was the site of the world's first glass works with all-electric melting baths.

Five years after the German unification, the Ilmenau glassmakers once again took full advantage of the chance to make a fresh start with the founding of Technisches Glaswerk Ilmenau, one of Europe's most advanced glass production plants.