After the foundation of the German Empire in 1871, the infantry general Albrecht V. Stosch called for the establishment of a self-sustaining production of nautical instruments and chronometers and introduced national testing standards. In conjunction with these ambitious efforts and growing demand, a new industry of precision mechanics gradually developed in Germany. In this context, the Imperial Admiralty planned an observatory specifically for the purpose of examining and testing chronometers, which was completed in 1883. The Deutsche Seewarte in Hamburg set up a chronometer department, and in 1877 the first annual competition for the testing of chronometers was organised. A third important institution for testing chronometers was the Marine Observatory in Wilhelmshaven, built between 1874 and 1878, which also had other functions (geomagnetic and meteorological observations, tide prediction).