About 4000 years ago, Egyptians discovered, once again probably accidentally, how one could artificially produce glass. In the cuneiform script tablet library of the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal, the most ancient recipe for glass that is known was written as follows: take sixty parts sand, one hundred eighty parts seaweed ash, and five parts chalk.

The egyptians were able to form their glass already – but only by pouring it into molds made out of sand with a solid center. Because of this, the surfaces turned out to be rough and opaque. But the new products were still beautiful, and so the art of the glassmaker spread over the course of Centuries throughout the entire Mediterranean area.

Before our ancestors came in contact with the culture of Rome, the hard and brittle material of glass was unknown to them. The Germanic tribes were fascinated by glass trade beads, and they gave the beads the same name as the word for amber – “glasa” which means sparkling or shimmering.

At the beginning of the 12th century, glass production emerged north of the Alps. Because of costly churches being built, the need for glass increased considerably. Many glassmaker´s established themselves in the Mittelgebirge of Germany, and founded the so-called Forest Glass Huts. In this way, Lauscha was also founded and settled. (see the story of the Farbglashuette )

During the 15th Century, the production of the Forest Glass Huts focused on everyday useful objects. But in the 16th Century, glass production became important in the fields of science and technology. Inventions such as the thermometer and microscope would not have been possible without glass. Throughout Europe, scientists and hobby researchers, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, searched for new fabrication procedures. The industrial revolution of the 19th Century created an entire industry out of the existing craft industry. Today, life is unimaginable without glass: vessels, bottles, bowls, vases, window panes, decorative objects, insulation or high-tech optical products, for data transmission or research – all impossible without glass.