The story of Adolf Ferdinand Lange - watchmaking genius from Glashütte, Lange & Söhne

Ferdinand Adolph Lange (* 18 February 1815 in Dresden ; † 3 December 1875 in Glashütte ) was a German watchmaker , inventor, entrepreneur and regional politician.

Ferdinand Adolph Lange, baptized as "Fertinant Adolph" in Dresden on February 25, 1815, son of Johann Samuel Lange, grew up with foster parents who provided him with a proper education. At the age of 15, he entered the Dresden Polytechnic and subsequently apprenticed as a watchmaker under the Saxon court watchmaker Johann Christian Friedrich Gutkaes Sr. From 1837 onward, he embarked on the traditional journeyman's travels to France , Great Britain , and Switzerland to hone his knowledge and skills with renowned watchmakers. The famous Parisian watchmaker Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl offered him a lifetime position, but Lange returned to Saxony in 1841 and became a partner in the Dresden firm "Gutkaes & Lange" with Gustav Bernhard Gutkaes .

On December 7, 1845, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, together with his future brother-in-law, the watchmaker Friedrich August Adolf Schneider (1824–1878), and with financial support from the Royal Saxon government in the form of a repayable loan of 7,820 thalers , founded the watch manufactory "A. Lange, Dresden" in Glashütte. From 1868, after his son Richard Lange joined as a partner, the company operated under the name A. Lange & Söhne . In 1875, his son Friedrich Emil Lange also joined the company management. The economically disadvantaged region around Glashütte in the Eastern Ore Mountains offered, above all, the low wages essential for the start of commercially viable watch production. At the same time, he fulfilled his obligation to the Saxon government and began training watchmakers in Glashütte, thus laying the foundation for the developing watch industry. Lange further promoted its development by encouraging qualified employees to establish their own companies. Examples of this are the manufactories of Adolf Schneider and Julius Assmann .

In contrast to the largely artisanal watchmaking of the time, Lange strove for a division of labor in the production of individual components, seeking to deepen the theoretical foundations of precision mechanics and apply them to watchmaking. Ferdinand Adolph Lange developed, among other things, new precision tools and measuring instruments, such as the tenth-of-a-millimeter measure . These methods, along with the technical improvements Lange introduced to watchmaking, soon allowed for the production of high-quality and highly precise pocket watches at acceptable prices and in economically viable quantities.

Lange was mayor of the city of Glashütte from 1848 until March 30, 1867, and a member of the Saxon Landtag ( Estates Assembly of the Kingdom of Saxony) from 1857 until his death in 1875.