Four generations of Rodenstock family

Randolf Rodenstock joined the company in 1976 and initially managed the company together with his father following his study of physics at Munich University and a subsequent MBA at the Insead management school in Fontainbleu, France. He took over general responsibility for the company in 1990 and focused the company on the demands of increasing industrial globalisation.

The increasing pressure of costs in Germany and on global markets made it necessary for Randolf Rodenstock to outsource large parts of production outside Germany in order to ensure the company’s competitiveness. At the same time, he promoted the revitalisation of the Rodenstock brand. He used gentle, but firm pressure to break down the patriarchal structures of the company, to modernise it and to put it on a more professional footing. By concentrating on the core business of "spectacles" at the end of the 1990s, the company put the focus on spectacle wearers, their demands and their emotional needs.

Rodenstock, as the only major manufacture of lenses and frames, recognised its special expertise for spectacles in a holistic sense and has since focused constantly on this unique position. In 2002, he gave the family company a structure suitable for the capital market and opened it up for shareholders outside the family as a first step to going public.

Effective November 1, 2003, he changed from being Chairman of the Management Board to the Supervisory Board of the Rodenstock Group and still remains closely connected to the company and ophthalmic optics in this capacity.

Randolf Rodenstock holds a number of honorary positions; he is, for example, the head of the "Association of Bavarian Industry (vbw)", Munich; the "Association of the Bavarian Metal and Electrical Industry (VBM), Munich; and is a member of the board of the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI), Berlin. He is a member of the board of the "New Social Market Economy Initiative" for which he wrote the highly respected book "Opportunities for all".

Rolf Rodenstock had a diploma in general business, a doctorate and a professorship. He took over the helm of the family company from his father in 1953. He supervised the reconstruction of the company and Rodenstock’s own "economic miracle" and was considered one of the most respected corporate personalities of the still young Federal Republic.

In addition to lenses, he focused primarily on the production of spectacle frames and so laid the foundation for the rise of the Rodenstock brand. Under his management, the company introduced modern, industrial planning and production methods and founded subsidiaries in many countries.

Rolf Rodenstock also took on important responsibility in society beyond his responsibility for his company. From 1978 to 1984, for instance, he became president of the Federal Association of German Industry (BDI) at a difficult time in the history of Germany. He had been a board member since 1952. From 1966 to 1978 he was the president of the Institute of German Industry (IW), Cologne and from 1971 to 1990 he was the chairman of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) for Munich and Upper Bavaria, Munich. From 1956 to the 1980s he gave very popular lectures in the business administration faculty of Munich University.

Alexander Rodenstock joined the company at the age of 22 in 1905. He had given up his studies of physics and economics at the urging of his father and started to prepare to take over the management of the family company; he did so in 1919.

At the time he joined the company, Rodenstock had just 200 employees; by 1953 (the year of Alexander’s death), the workforce had increased more than tenfold. His era was characterised by stamina and tenacity. Phases of growth such as before WWI and in the 1930s were countered by catastrophic developments such as two world wars and the global depression.

Despite all the ups and downs, Alexander consistently adhered to the private character of the family company and successfully withstood takeover attempts and the enforced merger with a competitor during the National Socialist period.

Alexander Rodenstock took part in the Munich soviet revolution on the side of the bourgeois counter-revolutionaries and was a Munich town councillor for the Bavarian People’s Party from 1919 to 1925. In addition, Alexander Rodenstock held a number of honorary offices in industrial and socio-political institutes.

On 1 January 1878, Josef Rodenstock (32), a peddler of self-designed measuring instruments and spectacle frames from Thuringia, began business operations together with his brother Michael of the company "G. Rodenstock" which had been founded in Würzburg in 1877.

The head office of the still young company was moved to Munich in 1883 and is still located there today. The self-taught and self-made man, who enjoyed taking risks, married Maria Schmöger in 1880 and had three sons and six daughters with her. The company founder coupled a pronounced inventive mind with daring and an extraordinary mental capacity. He was considered just, helpful and humorous, but "terrible in his anger over errors or inability".

He built up the company from nothing, without any formal education and with no capital, with huge amounts of energy and an iron will to work. Although he was soon very wealthy, he remained modest in his own needs.

As a businessman, he never walked away from an argument if he was convinced that it was important for the development of his company. He combated "unprofessional spectacle traders", took legal proceedings against competitors who wanted to have his patents revoked and fought against ophthalmologists who complained about Rodenstock’s refraction work and his "educational tracts".