Brief history of Leitz/Leica & associated companies to year 2000

[dkCambridgeshire]

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http://www.meyerinst.com/html/wild/

 

dunk 

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[Michael Geschlecht]

Hello Dunk,

 

Thanx.

 

Interesting.

 

I wonder if the people who did this also did the time period for the years 2000 thru now & if that description might be available somewhere else?

 

By the way, during the time period somewhere in the 1940's or/& the 1950's Leitz New York was owned by a cigarette Company. I will try to remember their name.

Best Regards,

 

Michael

Edited March 13, 2018 by Michael Geschlecht

[dkCambridgeshire]

Hello Dunk,

 

Thanx.

 

Interesting.

 

I wonder if the people who did this also did the time period for the years 2000 thru now & if that description might be available somewhere else?

 

By the way, during the time period somewhere in the 1940's or/& the 1950's Leitz New York was owned by a cigarette Company. I will try to remember their name.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

 

 

Hello Michael, The article was discovered by chance when sourcing a user manual for a 1970 Wild M4A stereo microscope I've ordered. Meyer based in Houston Texas is an independent microscope dealer specialising in microscopy digital imaging systems and supply of all types and many makes of microscope … but their current inventory does not include Leica products … so unlikely Meyer would have updated their year 2000 history to include recent Leica history. 

 

Regards

 

dunk 

 

 

 

[jc_braconi]

In 1990 my company, under my order and our need  bought a theodolite  WILD TC 1600 from Wild Leitz AG.
​people appreciated the optic quality under difficult conditions.

[Michael Geschlecht]

  Hello Dunk,

 

You might be able to find the name of the Cigarette Company from the Leitz History. I think that this happened during the time period following World War II. It might have been around 1947. The Cigarette Company might have been Parliment.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

[dkCambridgeshire]

  Hello Dunk,

 

You might be able to find the name of the Cigarette Company from the Leitz History. I think that this happened during the time period following World War II. It might have been around 1947. The Cigarette Company might have been Parliment.

 

Best Regards,

 

Michael

 

 

Parliament was a Philip Morris tobacco company brand but so far cannot trace any connection with E. Leitz Inc. New York.

 

Regards

 

dunk  

Edited March 14, 2018 by dkCambridgeshire

[alan mcfall]

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From my poor memory; and during the hectic times of various Leitz divisions (camera, microscope, binoculars, surveying and so on) in the 1980's and early 1990's, there were many part owners, employee buyouts, stock launches and often near bankruptancy conditions.  Both Laney and the large Puts Compendium give many details of this difficult time.

I believe that for a while a cigar company was involved as a part owner of some aspects of historical Leitz.  The better known were Cambridge, Hughes, Hermes, Wild, Leica AG, Leica Plc, and others. As best I can recall it was the  "Roos" cigar company, but I cannot find anything now on the web or the above mentioned references.

Maybe someone can enlighten me.  And not sure if that relates to the "cigarette" posts above.

[alan mcfall]

I believe I have the wrong time period. In July 1952, the US foreign propertry office, which had taken over E. Leitz New York, auctioned the company to Dunhill.  I believe they were at some time in the cigarette business.

 

E. Leitz Wetzlar refused to send products, and wanted their old US owned agency back.  But the name Leica had been tradmarked in the US and Dunhill could possible prevent Leitz from using it in the US.  Reportedly, some cameras imported at this time had the Leica engraving defaced. An agreement was reached by late 1952 and Henry Mann took over and Leitz accepted.

 

See  the history book, "E. Leitz New York" by Emil Keller, page 43 for a more detailed story.

[derleicaman]

I believe I have the wrong time period. In July 1952, the US foreign propertry office, which had taken over E. Leitz New York, auctioned the company to Dunhill.  I believe they were at some time in the cigarette business.

 

E. Leitz Wetzlar refused to send products, and wanted their old US owned agency back.  But the name Leica had been tradmarked in the US and Dunhill could possible prevent Leitz from using it in the US.  Reportedly, some cameras imported at this time had the Leica engraving defaced. An agreement was reached by late 1952 and Henry Mann took over and Leitz accepted.

 

See  the history book, "E. Leitz New York" by Emil Keller, page 43 for a more detailed story.

Thank you Alan for this info. I was racking my brain on the tobacco company name, being Dunhill, which I had just recollected prior to reading your post. Yes, the Mann Corp. of America took over representation of Leitz in the US after them.

 

As an interesting note, in the Leitz delivery records, Mann is referred to as Mannca (shorthand for Mann Corp. of America). I discovered this while researching the records on my MP #225 which was delivered to Mann in New York. This was long before the internet in the mid-80's. I was visiting Wetzlar attending a Leica Akedemie for dealers and had asked for a photocopy of the delivery record for my camera. This was done, and I then questioned what the Mannca notation meant.

 

Emil Keller was a regular at the LHSA annual meetings and I remember him well. He was a true gentlemen of the old school, as were all of the employees of Leitz in those days. I have his books in my library, and they are an excellent source of this type of information.

[ph.]

As I understand it, the graph of relations between AO, Reichert, Jung, Warner-Lambert, Cambridge Instruments, Kern, Wild etc. and Leitz with the later offshoots of geosystems to Hexagon and microsystems via Danaker, is rather complicated. Also, given the many fusions and fissions one has to decide which thread of successors to label "Leitz" rather than Wild or Kern.

 

As for a fairly up to date history of the cameras, the book "Leitz und die Leica" by Alexander Decker is a well documented source available from Lindemanns online bookstore. Some jumps in the narrative due to the chapters the author originally wrote for (the very reliable) journal "Photo Deal", but a good overview. It also has a brief discussion of the competition . (One tiny mistake may be the assumption that the Contarex 50/2 was named Sonnar.)

 

p.

[mercedes mann olivieri]

Good day, In referance to the Dunhill company owning Leitz, ..after WW2 when many German companies were auctioned my Grandfather Henry Mann was a good friend of the leitz family ( Elsie Leitz used to come visit us in NY from time to time) and with Ernst they agreed that my grandfather would bid on the company  but Dunhill won the bid, however they did not get the trade name Leitz/Leica and so in the end my grandfather won the bid. He then became president of Leitz in the USA , after his death my father was president.

I  have a suitcase full of his camaras and some lenses, if anyone is interested .I was going to try to sell them on ebay or privately but no one seems interested in these camaras anymore ! 

M. Mann

 

[luigi bertolotti]

Good afternoon, Mercedes, and thanks for having found this forum...  where your sentence  "no one seems interested in these camaras anymore !" ... souns definitely surreal 😀 ... in this forum, and in this section expethings that have a sure "pedigree"cially, there are dozens of passionate people who devote lot of time, knowledge, (and money) to ALL old Leitz items, from cameras to apparently insignificant devices. Surf a little this section and you easily understand what I mean.

So... if you have time and will, share with us some details on the items you have, be sure that here you can find people seriously intersted into.. their provenance is a plus : collectors do always love  items that have a certain "pedigree", even simply the original receipt from a shop, or an old accompanying warranty card or similar.

[pedaes]

22 hours ago, mercedes mann olivieri said:

 have a suitcase full of his camaras and some lenses,

Some pictures would be great to see, as as @luigi bertolottihas said, there will be lots of interest!

[luigi bertolotti]

(sorry, didn't realize the odd "mixtyping" in my above post...🤔.. sense looks clear, hope...)