in june 1922, the carl-zeiss-stiftung established the optical museum; the exhibition was located in the neighbouring volkshaus (community hall). johannes schreiter and hans schlag designed a building for the 1917 founded "college of ophthalmology". the reinforced concrete construction was carried out during 1923/24 by the company dyckerhoff & widmann (dywidag) from nuremberg. in october 1924, the exhibition was moved into the new building at no. 12 carl-zeiss-platz in which it is still housed today. the collections were reserved for a selected group of people for purposes of research and not open to the public.