In the decades to follow, the watchmakers' trust in their own strength, together with their determination never to give up in the face of difficulties, were to prove decisive. The course of history struck the little town with full force, leading finally in 1951 to the merging of the surviving Glashütte watchmakers into a state-owned company Volkseigener Betrieb, VEB. Since 1994 the Glashütte Original brand has taken up this tradition in a seamless manner, assuming the heritage of the Glashütte watch companies from whose DNA it emerged following German reunification. Alongside the Swatch Group, of which Glashütte Original has been a member since the year 2000, the manufactory's watchmaking vision knows no bounds.