The history of Raytheon Anschütz has strongly influenced the navigation on board of ships. It all started with the gyro compass. Around the turn of the 20th century a classic problem of high-seas navigation was reliable course-keeping, especially near the poles. Since the magnetic compass does not work properly in steel ships and near a pole, the young Dr. Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe 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 invented the gyro compass.

One year later, in 1905, the company Anschütz & Co. GmbH was founded and started the production of gyro compasses in Kiel, Germany. In 1908 the company presented the first gyro compass that could be used on board a ship. Further innovations followed the gyro compass, for example, the world’s first chart plotter, a great grandfather of the present generation of electronic sea chart systems. And another innovation of Anschütz has made a deep impact on navigating: the first autopilot for ships, the so-called “iron helmsman”.

In 1995 Anschütz was acquired by the Raytheon Company (USA). Anschütz & Co. was renamed to Raytheon Anschütz GmbH and the traditional product range was extended to radars, electronic sea charts and radio stations.