Lange, Walter

Walter Lange

Walter Lange was a German watchmaker and watch entrepreneur.

Biography

Walter Lange, the son of Rudolf Lange and great-grandson of the famous founder Ferdinand Adolph Lange, was born in 1924. According to the family tradition, he completed a training as master watchmaker in Karlstein and Glashütte. 1942, at the age of 18, he was called for military service. Because of becoming severely wounded on May 7, 1945, Lange returned to Glashütte and there, a few hours before the war ceasefire, was forced to witness the almost complete destruction of the main building of the manufacture by bombs.

1948, the company A. Lange & Söhne was nationalized. This resulted in the company Lange VEB.

Walter Lange was obliged to labor service in uranium mining, but eluded this arbitrariness by fleeing to West Germany, where, together with his brother Ferdinand Adolf, he started the experiment to rebuild the company A. Lange & Söhne in Pforzheim under the traditional name “Original Lange Uhr”. However there was no economical success. During this time Walter Lange could build important contacts with the Swiss watch manufacture IWC - International Watch Co. Schaffhausen and their head Günter Blümlein. They helped him to organize the founding of the Lange Uhren GmbH on December 7, 1990, exactly 145 years to the day after the founding of the company A. Lange & Söhne.

Walter Lange won the Special Jury Prize at the Grand Prix d'Horlogerie de Genève in November, 2014.

Lange passed away on January 17, 2017.