1935 on 1923, but who's the writer?

[Roland Zwiers]

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On 1 January 1935 appeared the first issue of of the magazine Leica News and Technique.
This magazine was published by E. LEITZ (London) for the British market.

Now the writer of the opening article does not mention his name.
But the writer states:

"The writer himself knows Mr. Barnack personally and had an opportunity of witnessing from the earliest stages the manufacturing of the first Leica series".

On page 2 he adds:

"I remember in 1923 how Mr. Barnack was still experimenting and how a number of mechanics in his department at the works used to assemble a certain portion of the Leica (...)"

Now these quotes closely resemble quotes by Dr. Paul Wolff in other publications.
So I am tempted to assume that Dr. Paul Wolff is the writer of this opning article.

However, on page 3 the writer refers to Dr. Wolff as another person.

'It is as Dr. Wolff, a famous Leica user, says (...)"

Page 3 also refers to an exhibition in London by Dr. Wolff with over 200 big enlargements.

So my question is:

Who can be the writer of this opening article?
Eye-witness accounts on the Null-Serie are very scarce!
Each new witness would be of great importance!

Of course, it is possible that Dr Wolff is still the author, but that he somehow did not want to publish his name.
E.G. because the article was already making free publicity for his London exhibition?

I will include scans of this article in the next slides.
Here I have already a question:
Is this periodical digitally available?
My collection is not at all complete. 

Roland

 

 

 

 

 

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[Roland Zwiers]

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[SpotmaticSP]

A good possibility is that the writer could be Curt Emmermann. And that the article was originally written in German. Maybe a German version of the same text exists?

[Roland Zwiers]

SpotmaticSP,

Thank you for your reply.

As far as I know, Curt Emmermann received his Leica in February 1925.
Alan has a brochure published by Leitz with positive comments (in German: Gutachtungen) by very early Leica users.
Curt Emmermann figures in this brochure and is explicit about February 1925.

Now the second article in Die Leica of 1931 (the first article was by Oskar Barnack) is written by Curt Emmermann himself.
He relates that before March 1925 Leitz had sent him a Leica with accessories for free, an offer that he could not refuse.
Emmermann relates that at that time he knew Leitz only as a microscope manufacturer. 

So I would say Emmermann cannot be the author.
Had he personally known Oskar Barnack in 1923 already, then he would certainly have referred to this in his 1931 article in Die Leica.

Roland