German manufacturers rank second in importance, after the United Kingdom, in the history of European microscopy. The manufacturers of German compound microscopes are characterized by a small number of workshops, which will eventually be absorbed by the two large optics companies that still remain today: Leitz de Wetzlar and Carl Zeiss.
They were the first to adopt the chain production method, which will lead to great progress in manufacturing. Thus in 1900 Leitz had manufactured 55,000 microscopes and Zeiss, 40,000. While in the UK, older brands such as Beck & Beck had made 20,000 and Henry Crouch, only 6,000.
The first German manufacturers of modern compound microscopes are possibly Carl Pistor and Frederick Schiek who signed the first apparatus in 1816. They designed it based on the London Jones models. Simultaneously, similar models are also produced by George Oberhaüser in Paris and Ploss in Vienna. The influences on the design of the appliances are simultaneous.
Finally, the real explosion of new microscope workshops must be highlighted, which occurs in Germany as a result of the demand for the examination of meats to control trichinosis. They will make only cheap, simple, robust and easy-to-use models. Trichinoscopes were exported throughout the civilized world; thus the Waechter factory manufactured 24,000 devices in a few years. After a few years, most of these companies were absorbed and disappeared.