Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/03/06

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Subject: Re: Barnack at Zeiss
From: Paul Schliesser <paulsc@eos.net>
Date: Thu, 6 Mar 97 04:18:55 -0400

>Barnack worked at Zeiss and then at ICA prior to going to Leitz.  He was a
>production foreman which entitled him to executive benefits, including
>health insurance.  Because he suffered from asthma, however, the company
>would not extend health insurance coverage to him, to his fiscal detriment,
>as he required pretty extensive medical care.
>
>Ernst Leitz heard of this and visited Barnack.  The one thing Barnack
>requested was that Leitz bear his medical bills, and this was agreed to
>readily, even though Leitz did NOT have any sort of company health-care
>plan.  So Barnack moved to Wetzlar and began work on what would be that
>famed bearer-of-an-accessory-shoe, the 'ur-Leica'.
>
>This is, of course, covered in (ah-HEM), Barringer & Small, THE ZEISS
>COMPENDIUM, Hove, 1995.

Marc,

Actually, your book is where I had read about this, originally. It's just 
when I tried to remember where, I didn't consider a book on 1939+ Zeiss 
cameras!

BTW, although I don't collect Zeiss cameras, I have always been 
interested in them, and your book makes sense of the bewildering 
collection of camera systems that they made. I had never understood the 
relationships of the various models and systems before.

- - Paul