The Wirgin brothers, Max and Heinrich, established their company way back in 1924. Being jewish and of polish origin they experienced the persecution and harassments of the jews in Germany in the late 30's, and was subsequently forced to sell their company and facilities to Dr. Schleussner who started the Adox production of cameras in the old Wirgin plant. The Wirgin brother fled to USA for the duration of the II world war. Heinrich (now called Henry after his stay in the US)  returned to Germany right after the war, and managed to reposess his old factory. Klaus-Eckard Riess writes on his website that: "The unconfirmed tale has it that he re-bought the factory for 33 cartons of American cigarettes". In the late 60's it was all over, and the Wirgin company seized to exist in 1971. I can't help thinking, that if Henry, and Max for that matter, had only fully understood and used the full potential of the golden egg they had in their basket, namely the talented designer Heinz Waaske, things might have been different. Instead they stupidly chose to delay the launching of the fully automatic SLR Edixa Electronica, a truly innovative Waaske design, until it was too late, and the japanese had totally taken over the market for SLR's. Henry Wirgin also turned down Heinz Waaske's brilliant ideas for a very compact 35mm viewfinder camera. A decision that probably led to the resignation of Heinz Waaske, who took his ideas with him to his new employer Francke & Heidecke - Rollei in Braunschweig, and shortly after the Rollei 35 was born. Oh well, I really wish that I could contribute with something new about the Wirgin company, but yet again Klaus-Eckard Riess has the most elaborate and very interesting webpage on the Wirgin brothers, and furthermore based on his own visit there and his personal experiences. I can't compete with that. Just visit his site !!

Gebr. Wirgin history by Klaus-Eckard Riess

Edixa II (Edina) 1953 - 1958 RF
Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film
Optics: ISCO-Göttingen  Isconar  1:2,8/43mm
Shutter:  Prontor SVS  B + 1 => 1/300 sec. + selftimer

On one hand there is something I like about the way the Edixa II looks. On the other hand the looks are not quite equivalent to the way it feels. The bottom and top plates seems thin and a little cheapish and it hasn't "that" certain quality feel about it. The coupled rangefinder has its own viewfinder window on the back with a horisontal split view. I like the knob on the lens distance setting, which feels comfortable. However the exposure timesetting is horrible because only the chosen exposure setting are visible in the very small cut-out on top of the lens housing. It has a nice curved rapid advance lever though. By the way; The camera only works when loaded with film, just as f.e. the Voigtländer Vitomatic's.

Edixa Reflex Standard SLR
Serial nr.: 222750
Format:  24 x 36 on 35 mm film
Optics: Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 1:2,8  50mm - M42 thread mount
Shutter: Focal plane shutter  B + 1/2  => 1/500 sec.
Accessories:
Schneider-Kreuznach Tele Xenar 1:3,5  135 mm
Tele-Westanar (Isco-Göttingen) 1:3,5  135 mm
Folding viewfinder
Misc: Non return mirror

I have alway loved the looks of the early Edixa Reflex'es, Maybe it's Waaske design and the care for details. The Edixa Reflex were the West Germany workhorse of the SLR's, and the only SLR with focal plane shutter in the west. But it was, and is, also the nightmare of any repairman. Screws and mutters were secured by deforming the screwheads with a conical puncher and thus making it very difficult to disassemble. The focal plane shutter were unreliable, and my Edixa is no exception. Had they only been built like a Contax much would have been achieved. The leatherette on the Edixa's are usually in bad shape due to a poor quality glue. But the Edixa still feels great to handle, and generally I like the shutter release button on the frontplate and of course the possibility af changing the viewfinder. The M42 lens thread mount opens up endless options for choice af lenses and accessories. The Edixa name printing on the front plate are in fact intact on my camera but has disappeared in reflections on the photo above.. Sorry about that. A piece of advice though: If you want to get an Edixa, you should check the shutter action extremely carefully, and many of the used Edixa's out there are more than well used. Please read what Klaus-Eckard Riess has to say about the Edixa Reflex:

Klaus-Eckard Riess about the Edixa Reflex