Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2007/07/05
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]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! _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information