Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/07/05

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Subject: [Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.
From: hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson)
Date: Thu Jul 5 17:41:01 2007
References: <AB29058F-4CFF-4A39-B7D5-879503019D49@optonline.net><DC4B73A4105FCE4FAE0CEF799BF84B36013F1EDF@case-email><001301c7bf23$d4127b10$6601a8c0@asus930> <200707051851.l65IpniY030691@server1.waverley.reid.org>

Marc, I stand corrected ;-)
Cheers
Hoppy

-----Original Message-----
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.

At 12:45 PM 7/5/2007, G Hopkinson wrote:
 >Actually, I imagine that the minute the war ended, Herr Leitz was
 >actually checking himself for bullet holes and watching train
 >loads of his precious equipment and infrastructure heading off to the
 >victors. Also noting that the number of Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe
 >and Kreigsmarine marked Leicas available on das eBay would shortly
 >exceed 20 times the production figures that he recalled.

Well, no.  The Engineer Battalion which occupied 
the Leitz works at Wetzlar had as its unit 
photogapher a fellow named Tink Ewald.  Tink is 
now dead but was a good friend of mine.  Henri 
Dumur was the general manager of Leitz and was a 
Swiss national, and he played the Swiss card 
REALLY hard, clear up to Eisenhower.  There was 
absolutely no looting of the Wetzlar works, 
though "gifts" were given, and I suspect that 
Tink's Leica accumulation began then, though he 
would only confirm that he picked up an enlarger 
and camera body for use by his Engineer 
Battalion.  (I own a Hohner accordion gifted to 
the father of my best friend from High School in 
a similar way.  It now needs rebuilt again but, 
as is the case with a Leica body, this is readily done.)

The US Army sent in Emil Keller, then a Sergeant, 
but also a long-time friend of the Leitz family, 
as the occupation director.  Ernst Leitz II and 
SSgt Keller cut an early deal with the PX system 
which ensured a consistent demand for Leica 
cameras for the next twelve or fifteen 
years.  Leitz enjoyed an almost seamless 
transition from wartime conditions to the Postwar 
life and it never suffered the sort of horrors 
experienced by Volksw?gen AG.  A similar 
situation occurred in Braunschweig with the 
Franke & Heidecke and Voigtl?nder plants, which 
the British froze and secured.  And Ihagee in 
Dresden was protected by its Dutch 
ownership.  The situation was different for the 
Carl Zeiss lensworks at Jena and the Zeiss Ikon 
works at the Ernemann Tower in Dresden (the old 
ICA works having been destroyed in the 
fire-bombing).  The memoirs of George Goddard and 
Hub Zemke are rich sources for the situation in 
Jena immediately after the end of the War.

So, no, Ernst Leitz Wetzlar was never looted and 
its status was dramatically improved through the efforts of Emil Keller.

Marc
\

msmall@aya.yale.edu
Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!



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Replies: Reply from raimo.m.korhonen at uusikaupunki.fi (Raimo K) ([Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.)
In reply to: Message from lrzeitlin at optonline.net (Lawrence Zeitlin) ([Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.)
Message from drodgers at casefarms.com (David Rodgers) ([Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.)
Message from hoppyman at bigpond.net.au (G Hopkinson) ([Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.)
Message from marcsmall at comcast.net (Marc James Small) ([Leica] Re: Gear I wish I'd kept.)