The unveiling of a monument to Ferdinand A. Lange by 15 apprentices of the company’s own watchmaker school was the highlight of a ceremony at which Lange Uhren GmbH inaugurated the A. Lange & Söhne Park in Glashütte on 15 July. With this, the company pays tribute to the founder of Germany’s fine watchmaking industry, who opened the first watchmaker workshop in the region in 1845 with 15 apprentices.
Also among the more than one hundred guests was his great grandson Walter Lange, who has carried on the family tradition since reunification, as well as the Vice President of the Saxon State Parliament, Andrea Dombois. In her word of welcome she honoured the social involvement of the company which is expressed in so many ways, even beyond the creation of highly qualified jobs. A current example is the tourist guide system for Glashütte, recently initiated by Lange, which guides visitors to the sights of the city.
The more than 3,000 square metre park was designed by the landscape architects Michael Wolf and Dirk Radzanowski from Penig in Saxony, and built by the company Grünkonzept from Bannewitz near Dresden. The bronze bust of Ferdinand A. Lange is the work of the Swiss sculptor, Beat Künzler. A musical setting at the ceremony was provided by the American mezzo-soprano Emily Righter and the Italian baritone Andrè Schuen. Both are stipendiaries of the “Young Singers Project” of the Salzburg Festival, with which the company maintains a close partnership.
This coming Sunday, visitors who come to the city of Glashütte can be the first to discover a new park abound with roses, hedges, ornamentals, and grasses. On the occasion of the summer festival organised by the Sächsische Zeitung, A. Lange & Söhne is opening the doors to its manufactory and inviting the public to get acquainted with precision watchmaking in many different ways. The planned ascents in a tethered balloon are likely to be very popular: they offer a totally new outlook on Glashütte as a hub of horology (A. Lange & Söhne, 2010).
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