[Leica] Lager's Great Leica Books, and a Lady on a Bicyle

[leicanikon at earthlink.net (Stephen Gandy)]

Among the very best Leica books are Jim Lager's   LEICA: An Illustrated
History Volumes I, II, III by Jim Lager.  Camerabooks.com bought out all
of Jim's remaining stock and is selling the set at a new lower price of
$325.  These books are very much worth it if you are serious about
collecting Leica.  There may be a few other authors who some consider as
good as Lager,  but I can't imagine anyone seriously being thought of as
a better Leica source.   These are all first editions.  Petra at
Camerabooks.com tells me there will be no second printing.

Also newly available with the 50th anniversary of the Leica M is  50
Years Leica M by Gunter Osterloh.  It too is a well done book,  well
worth having.  Personally,  the most important story in the book was not
about Leica cameras, but about a lady on a bicycle.   At the end of WWII
Elsie Kuhn-Leitz (daughter of Ernst Leitz II, sister of Ernst Leitz III
and Ludwig Leitz II, mother of Knut Kuhn-Leitz)  approached an advancing
enemy American tank brigade on a bicycle armed with a white flag.  She
convinced the Americans that Wetzlar would offer no resistance, thereby
saving the people, the city, and of course the Leica factory  from
bombardment.  The man standing down the tank formation at Tiananmen
Square in 1989 is world famous.  Elsie was no less courageous as far as
I concerned.    Unlike Tiananmen,  she was in a war zone, facing an
invading army.   If there is not a statue of Elsie on that bicycle with
the white flag in Wetzlar, there certainly should be.   Perhaps Solms
could combine efforts with the various national Leica Historical
societies.  A Leica special edition MP honoring her would not be a bad
idea either.

Stephen Gandy