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I conducted a fair of research into the history of the Leica and found that many historians, me included, were wrong. One name that stands out is Gianni Rogliatti. To no fault of his own. his account of the prototype or Ur-Leica is incorrect, including his claim of a second Ur-Leica that supposedly belonged to Konrad Barnack, the son of Oskar Barnack. In a nutshell, there was only one Ur-Leica, not two as so often claimed.

You can read the entire story on my LEICA Barnack Berek Blog at:

LEICA Barnack Berek Blog: THE REVISED HISTORY OF THE LEICA

Edited by pop
Changed Giannu to Gianni
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Nice research. News like this are not a surprise to me: there were and there are still many errors in the first publications on the Leitz history. I knew the opinion of Rolf Fricke.

Often the word of mouth has caused the spread of urban legends. This lasts until serious historians, involved in a multidisciplinary way to search, want to know more.

For ex. it's impossible to reconstruct some background without studying the historical context. I think that there is still much to discover.

Thank you to share and good luck for the next research.

 

cheers.

 

P.S.:I will go too in the near future for research purposes In Germany. I will also go to the Leitz, so, if you meet someone strange, lost in thought, you know who is ...:)

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I have been spending a lot of time just trying to be as correct as possible regarding the history of cameras. One big problem is the fact that off-the-cuff, unsubstantiated and erroneous comments on any forum will often turn up in searches for years and gain veracity with time. And there is a strange lack of critical review when something turns up on a Google search which results in the errors being repeated on and on. I was corrected (and rightly so) regarding a statement I made on my site regarding Franz Kochman. Peer review simply will never exist across the internet so it is important to correct errors as quickly as they are discovered.

 

David Tomei

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I conducted a fair of research into the history of the Leica and found that many historians, me included, were wrong. One name that stands out is Giannu Rogliatti. To no fault of his own. his account of the prototype or Ur-Leica is incorrect, including his claim of a second Ur-Leica that supposedly belonged to Konrad Barnack, the son of Oskar Barnack. In a nutshell, there was only one Ur-Leica, not two as so often claimed.

You can read the entire story on my LEICA Barnack Berek Blog at:

LEICA Barnack Berek Blog: THE REVISED HISTORY OF THE LEICA

 

Looking for error ? His first name was Gianni

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  • 1 month later...

Heinz,

In your article Rolf Fricke made the following comment:

 

". . . the former Leitz CEO Alfred Loew brought it [ur-Leica] to Rochester, NY in conjunction with a presentation he gave at a Photo History Symposium at George Eastman House . . . [in 1979]"

 

From the LHSA report of their symposium, Alfred Loew was Leica's "Managing Director, Marketing" in 1979. When was he CEO?

Tim

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I suspect Alfred Loew was not a Leitz /Leica CEO /president. Other than Fricke's comment I've never found other web reference. Does anyone know?

 

You are right. I am sure Rolf made a simple mistake by referring to Alfred Loew as CEO. I will be quite happy if the mistakes I make are as insignificant as this one when I am at the same age as Rolf is now.

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