For Steiner, superb performance and bone-deep tenacity was born in the ruin of war. In 1947, in the face of demolished infrastructures and a collapsed economy, Karl Steiner started a one-man workshop in Bayreuth, Germany, obsessed with a single goal: creating optical products so functional, sturdy and uniformly flawless that nothing in the chaotic, mass-production post-war world could compare. His passion for unmatched optical perfection pushed Steiner-Optik from a hardscrabble startup to a 50-man factory within six years, and on to become a worldwide optical icon with binoculars and rifle scopes for every purpose, a history of innovation, and legions of diehard enthusiasts in every category.