Hi Stew. Interesting photo. :-)
I found footage on the web dated march 29th 45 where the Leitz factory can be seen. Most of the windows has been damaged. On this photo, someone have at least swept the floor. And it has been taken almost 5 weeks after the US army arrived.
According to the german Wetzlar article on Wikipedia, the town was in the american zone, but had french military present too.
If it IS Leitz, when was it taken, ( correction, may 2nd. 45, got it) and what are those models they are producing.
I see sloped shoulders on the prism houses at the far end of the table, (not to mention the colour) and incredible long objective barrels on the binoculars closest to the photographer.
Doesn´t look like something I know. 8x56 perhaps ?
Only thing that look "normal" are the 2 lines of 10 porro II at the back of the table.
Who is the civilian? Ernest Leitz III ? I haven´t found a photo of him on the web. But he would fit the age.
And there must have been at least 23 more frames on that film. I wonder where they went.
I think one needs to see the 2-3 hidden years. Those from summer 1945, to about 1948.
In 1945, basically chaos, in 1948 a new beginning well under way.
But in between is a difficult period to look into. The russians did not start immediately with dismantling factories. They had to restore order first, then attempt to start production, and when that failed, or was given up for political reasons, then the exodus to Russia began. Taken the russian system into account, I could guess that their archives have a lot about this too. As far as I know, they are not open, yet.
3 years of which little is known, and everyone had just shown what could be achieved in 3 years with the workforce on battlefields and things blowing up at random.
A very interesting photo. Thank you for sharing.
I found footage on the web dated march 29th 45 where the Leitz factory can be seen. Most of the windows has been damaged. On this photo, someone have at least swept the floor. And it has been taken almost 5 weeks after the US army arrived.
According to the german Wetzlar article on Wikipedia, the town was in the american zone, but had french military present too.
If it IS Leitz, when was it taken, ( correction, may 2nd. 45, got it) and what are those models they are producing.
I see sloped shoulders on the prism houses at the far end of the table, (not to mention the colour) and incredible long objective barrels on the binoculars closest to the photographer.
Doesn´t look like something I know. 8x56 perhaps ?
Only thing that look "normal" are the 2 lines of 10 porro II at the back of the table.
Who is the civilian? Ernest Leitz III ? I haven´t found a photo of him on the web. But he would fit the age.
And there must have been at least 23 more frames on that film. I wonder where they went.
I think one needs to see the 2-3 hidden years. Those from summer 1945, to about 1948.
In 1945, basically chaos, in 1948 a new beginning well under way.
But in between is a difficult period to look into. The russians did not start immediately with dismantling factories. They had to restore order first, then attempt to start production, and when that failed, or was given up for political reasons, then the exodus to Russia began. Taken the russian system into account, I could guess that their archives have a lot about this too. As far as I know, they are not open, yet.
3 years of which little is known, and everyone had just shown what could be achieved in 3 years with the workforce on battlefields and things blowing up at random.
A very interesting photo. Thank you for sharing.
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