Exhibition in Jena -- September 2004

Through the combined efforts of the new factory, the Spielhausverein in Rudolstadt and the CVA, a two week Anchor exhibition was held in late September in Jena.  Jena is world famous for the university and the Carl Zeiss company.  The US Army took many of the assets of Carl Zeiss were taken to southern Germany in the late Spring of 1945. The result was two Zeiss companies -- the original one in the DDR and the new one in the BRD.  Since the Wende (reunificaiton) the two Carl Zeiss companies have recombined, with its headquarters in Oberkochen, Bavaria.  But Carl Zeiss, Jena, is still very active.  An American engineer, Steven Braman, who works for Carl Zeiss Meditec Inc., sent me pictures of the exhibits, plus an impression of the exhibition itself.

The exhibition was in the Goethe Gallerie.  "Almost every evening there was a group of people building different buildings in one designated area.  They would also spill out multiple large boxes of the larger stones on a table for children to build things each day."  In addition there was "a table where they had information and were selling sets and puzzles and answering questions."  Unfortunately for Steve, no one at this table spoke English very well.

"They also had several display cases of large models, old Anker sets, puzzles, pictures and information about the history of Ankerstein."  In addition there was "an area of long tables where they must have had competitions with kids to build buildings.  I never saw them actually being built, but one night they were full of buildings that looked like they were built by kids in the range of 8 - 14."

You will get a good impression of the exhibition from the pictures below.

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * * * * * * * * *