History

Anschütz was obsessed with finding a suitable course-keeping instrument and concentrated on locating the geographical north direction with the help of a gyro. In 1904, he was able to test the first “gyro course keeper” on the Kiel Fjord which led to the first patents.

Anschütz was fascinated by the technology and driven by his ambition to solve the encountered problems. He had the opportunity, given by the German Navy, to test his invention onboard the ship “Undine” in the Kiel Fjord where he had the perfect test conditions. He observed that the new apparatus was quite stable against any vibrations, but that it was dramatically influenced by the waves on the outer Kiel Fjord! Anschütz concluded that the basic principle was good, but he was sure that further improvements had to be integrated in order to stabilise the system for the usage on seagoing vessels.

Anschütz was no scientist but a practical thinking man, and he continued to optimise his gyrocompass until it was suited to withstand the rough conditions at sea. In 1905, the company Anschütz & Co. GmbH was founded and later presented the first gyrocompass that could be used onboard a ship in 1908, starting the production of gyrocompasses in Kiel, Germany. A few years later, the commercial shipping industry was keen to get their hands on gyrocompasses as well. In the year 1913, the passenger ship “Imperator” of the HAPAG Line was the first commercial ship equipped with an Anschütz gyrocompass, being the biggest ship in those days with a size of 52,000 tonnes. 

Meanwhile, Anschütz met a scientist called Albert Einstein. A friendship developed between the two, during which Einstein regularly visited Anschütz in Kiel and the two went sailing on the Kiel Fjord. Einstein was very interested in the gyrocompass, its technology and its laws. He and Anschütz had a lively dialogue about improvements and further developments, which led to the legendary principle of the two-gyrosphere compass in the mid-1920s.

Following the gyrocompass, there have been subsequent innovations, for example, the world’s first chart plotter, a great-grandfather of the present generation of electronic sea chart systems. Also, further innovations by Anschütz have made a deep impact on navigating: the first autopilot for ships, the so-called “Iron Helmsman”, the track control system, the adaptive (“fuel-saving”) autopilot, and the world’s first type-approved integrated navigation system. 

Since 2023, Anschütz is part of the German DMB Dr. Dieter Murmann Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a diversified, medium-sized global group. Anschütz previously belonged to the Carl Zeiss Group and Raytheon Technologies (formerly Raytheon Company) for many decades. During this time, Anschütz expanded the product range to include radar systems and Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDISs) and evolved into a versatile integrator of customer-specific and sophisticated bridge systems and mission systems (command and control systems).