Walter Lange’s 85th birthday
Walter Lange
At 66 years old, an age when other people are enjoying their retirement, Walter Lange revived the A. Lange & Söhne watch brand in Saxony, which had been founded by his great-grandfather Ferdinand Adolph Lange. That was in 1990. Now about to celebrate his 85th birthday, he is still in-volved in his life’s work.
The fact that there is once again an A. Lange & Söhne brand today is due to the political events of 1989 and 1990. With the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany, history opened a historical win-dow of opportunity for Walter Lange. His interest was not solely in reviving the tradition of A. Lange & Söhne brand watches. Above all, he wanted to give the people in his former hometown hope for the future.
Four years of development, qualification, engineering, and planning resulted on 24 October 1994 in the first presentation of a collection of Lange watches for over 40 years. The new product launches exceeded all public expectations. The legendary watch brand was reborn.
On his 85th birthday Walter Lange can look back on his life’s work with pride as the small town of Glashütte is today the centre of German precision watchmaking again. More than a thousand people are now employed here in the watchmaking industry. It has trans-formed the region into a “blooming landscape” whose nucleus and motive force is the company founded by Walter Lange.
