Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/08/11

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Subject: [Leica] Bah to Jim Brick and His BMW Fetish!
From: Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net>
Date: Wed, 11 Aug 1999 18:23:35 -0400

At 05:48 PM 8/11/1999 -0400, Ray Rubey wrote:
>(Auto Union is now Audi)

With dread at restarting the Great Rover Thread (and I learned to drive on
a REAL Rover, a 2000TC, back in the Red Dog Saloon era), I am a content
partner with an '84 Audi 4000S yclept Clytemnestra and desire no finer car,
as My Lady answers all my needs and desires.

Auto Union has ALWAYS been "Audi", and vice-versa.  "Audi" is simply the
German manner of saying the name, and, yes, in the same tone, "Nazi" was
the German manner of saying "National Social Democratic Worker's Party"!  

The Camera Connexion is a simple one:  in 1926, the German gummit
determined to save ailing industries by compelling them to merge.  Four car
companies were thus merged into Auto-Union, as reflected in the four-circle
logo carried by Audi's to this day.  And, that same year, four camera
companies were forced to merge into a Zeiss-dominated entity, Zeiss Ikon.
The four were ICA, already Zeiss-owned, and three in which the Zeiss
Foundation held minority interests:  CP Goerz, Ernemann, and
Contessa-Nettel.  (The majority stockholder in the last went on to make the
first camera known to be carried to the summit of Mount Everest, but that
is a tale for another day!)

The early '80's Audi 4000S may well be the closest thing to automotive
perfection yet built.  Mine has 200,000 miles (325,000 km, give or take) on
the clock, and is chomping for another roll-over on the odometer.

Marc

msmall@roanoke.infi.net  FAX:  +540/343-7315
Cha robh bas fir gun ghras fir!