"OCCUPIED GERMANY" Engraved Cameras

CameraQuest

CameraQuest

Head Bartender
Staff member
Local time
7:57 AM
Joined
Mar 1, 2005
Messages
6,647
Location
over the hills from Malibu
View My Gallery
WWII Postwar Germany was occupied by the victors -

US
Russia
Germany
England

Many WWII postwar Germany cameras had occupied engravings,
including the Exakta and Praktina sporting proudly (for the Russians)

MADE IN USSR OCCUPIED GERMANY

A mostly forgotten footnote in history these days, I find the OCCUPIED cameras harder to find and more interesting than the non OCCUPIED versions.

I also remember finding a "US Occupied Zone" engraving (or similar)
on a Steinheil viewfinder for the Casca II.

Which other German cameras / lenses carried OCCUPIED engravings?

I don't recall ever seeing such a Leica engraving.

check out these ever changing OCCUPIED camera items on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odk...313.TR0.TRC0.H0.TRS0&_nkw=occupied&_sacat=625

OK, I have to confess the OCCUPIED Germany markings just amuse me,
harking back to a time when Germany needed all the help it could get (from the US)
and was certainly in no position to lord it over the EU the way it does today.

I wonder if Made in OCCUPIED Germany items are hot collectibles in Greece?
IF I were Greek, OCCUPIED items would certainly put a smile on my face.

Stephen
 
What about the Japanese cameras with OCCUPIED?

I rarely saw any while in Japan. But then again most would have been sold to American GIs, so they are many in and throughout the USA.
 
Wetzler was in the US zone, but my understanding is all Leica's built during the occupation were made in French occupied Saargebiet, so are engraved “Monte en Saare.” Only IIIa cameras?
 
It is not arrogance. It is a recognition of the challenge the manufacturers had at the time of post-war reconstruction. Where to get materials, where to find skilled labor, how can I design for the tools I have, how to get to market? The "occupied" equipment is remarkably high quality in Japan and West Germany. In East Germany the challenges were even greater.
 
Indeed interesting stuff.

I don't think "made in occupied Japan" or "made in Japan" helped photo equipment marketing in the US in the 1950s. I'm old enough to remember US reaction to Japanese products during the post-war economic boom. Perhaps in California there was more acceptance; but in the Mid-West where I grew up there was a very negative attitude toward Japanese products. You can see the attitude in the coxsackie description of Japanese imports. It took Canon some time to find an effective US importer; Nikon fortunately teamed up with Joe Ehrenreich (EPOI) in 1954. What percentage of Canon equipment was sold through the military Exchange Post (EP) rather than regular import distribution? EP is a prevalent marking on Canon equipment from the 1950's.
 
View Range said:
It is not arrogance. It is a recognition of the challenge the manufacturers had at the time of post-war reconstruction. Where to get materials, where to find skilled labor, how can I design for the tools I have, how to get to market? The "occupied" equipment is remarkably high quality in Japan and West Germany. In East Germany the challenges were even greater.
Click to expand...

I think the first time the victors did when they took these factories was to do their best to restart the production as soon as possible...for their own internal market.

For Carl Zeiss in East Germany the greatest challenge was the destruction of the plant during the bombing of Dresden, then of course the first occupation of the Americans that persuaded a good slab of workers to follow them in West Germany, then the Soviets arrived and started to demand a lot of cameras plus of course the production line to be moved to Kiev.
 
CameraQuest said:
WWII Postwar Germany was occupied by the victors -

US
Russia
Germany
England

Many WWII postwar Germany cameras had occupied engravings,
including the Exakta and Praktina sporting proudly (for the Russians)

MADE IN USSR OCCUPIED GERMANY
Click to expand...

That was not "proudly", but embarrassingly. And it strangely enough is a phenomenon that extended long AFTER the division of Germany. "Sowjetische Besatzungszone" (USSR Occupied Germany) remained the official term for East Germany in West Germany into the sixties to early seventies (and right-wing publications continued that into the eighties). West Germany tried to enforce that "unpatriotic" branding (rather than "Made in GDR") on East German products imported into Western Germany (and where they could exercise their influence, also into other NATO countries). Most West German importers evaded these damaging brandings, e.g. by doing the final assembly outside the GDR, or by re-branding the goods. That makes it a somewhat rare sight - most of these marks are either early (approximately in the 49-53 time frame) or on items outside the regular export volume (e.g. trade show samples, or direct exports of products that did not have a mainstream West German distributor).

CameraQuest said:
A mostly forgotten footnote in history these days, I find the OCCUPIED cameras harder to find and more interesting than the non OCCUPIED versions.

I also remember finding a "US Occupied Zone" engraving (or similar)
on a Steinheil viewfinder for the Casca II.

Which other German cameras / lenses carried OCCUPIED engravings?
Click to expand...

"Made in [some Western] occupied zone" was a retaliation foul - some of these exist from the period when the two Germanies fell apart, but they are rare, as the Soviet block kept a tight grip on its limited supply of convertible currencies and usually did not permit the import of luxury items for private consumption.
 
View Range said:
Sperling reflex housings are marked "MADE BY SPERLING IN WEST-BERLIN USA-SECTOR GERMANY".
Click to expand...

Thank you for mentioning Sperling, this nearly forgotten company! Yes, they made quite handy mirror boxes / reflex housings even for the weirdest leaf-shutter VF/RF cameras. 🙂


02Pilot said:
I have a set of Steinheil binoculars marked "Made in Germany U.S. Zone".
Click to expand...

Yes, Steinheil in Munich, Bavaria — US Zone.

I'm quite certain also Enna (Munich) lenses can be found here and there having «US Occupied Zone» engravings.


Mr_Flibble said:
Wirgin in Wiesbaden is one manufacturer. I have an Edinex II with US Zone stamped on the case.

Franka in Oberfranken as well I believe.
Click to expand...

Wiesbaden is Hesse's capital — US Zone.

«Oberfranken» is not a city or town, it's a district, in Bavaria. I've read the company which made the «Franka» cameras was in Bayreuth. But you're right, that's US Zone.


What about Voss (Ulm)? That was US Zone, too.

BTW, here's a map of the US Zone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_in_Germany
 
radi(c)al_cam said:
I'm quite certain also Enna (Munich) lenses can be found here and there having «US Occupied Zone» engravings.
Click to expand...

I do also recall seeing that marking or a similar one on a 100mm Argus Tele-Sandmar which was made by Enna Werk.

I also know I have a HIT camera with U.S. occupied Japan stamped on it as well.

These markings seem commonplace enough to not command any premium for the marking itself. Rather, it's a good way to bookend the manufacture date of the item at a quick glance.
 
The 120 folder I used in the early 1970s had "Made in Germany US Zone" engraved on the body, along with a date of 1946. Camera was a Franka Solida or something very close to it, and the lens was an Enna 75/4.5 without any engraving of interest.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom