| |
Carl Zeiss himself was born
in 1816 as son of a toymaker, and after some studies at the Jena University,
he opened his own workshop in 1847. The following years he developed many
innovative microscopes and lenses. As early as 1872 he met Ernst Abbe, who
without any doubt is the most important person in the Zeiss history, maybe
more important than Carl Zeiss himself, who died of natural causes in 1888.
His son Roderick Zeiss who had joined the company retired shortly after his
fathers death. It was also Ernst Abbe who met Dr. Otto Schott of the Schott
Glaswerke, and this cooperation subsequently led to new higher levels of
both lens quality and performance.
Carl Zeiss
The fact is, that many great
innovators and brilliant engineers have been working with Zeiss Ikon, and
apart from the obvious influence from Ernst Abbe, Otto Schott and Paul
Rudolph, without whom things might have looked very different, I also have to mention Hubert Nerwin who more or less picked up the pieces from the first
unreliable Contax designs, and re-designed it to one of most famous and
desirable 35mm cameras ever to have been produced; the Contax II. Hubert
Nerwin continued to design cameras for Zeiss Ikon, which all are loved and
treasured by users and collectors alike. One engineer though, did not at all
like working with Zeiss Ikon, and that was Dr. August Nagel, who joined
together with Contessa-Nettel when was it merged into Zeiss-Ikon.To quote
Mr. Peter Naylor of Australia: "Urban
Legend has it that the other Board members were fond of putting Dr. Nagel down because of his lack of tertiary qualifications, which the others had
in spades" It
is said that he left in great anger, and he subsequently established his own
company, Dr. August Nagel Kamerawerke in Stuttgart which later was bought by
Kodak and we all know what wonderful cameras that came out of the Nagel
factories, so thank God he didn't stay on, but chose his own way and destiny ;-).
Carl Zeiss in Jena around
1930
The Carl Zeiss Foundation
I have always found, that one
of the very interesting aspects of the Zeiss-Ikon history are the social
responsibility and care for the workers and their families that Zeiss Ikon
have shown, mainly through the Carl Zeiss Foundation even since the very
early years. The Carl Zeiss Foundation were founded by Dr. Ernst Abbe back
in 1889, who turned over all his shares to the Foundation, and soon
after he was followed by Dr. Otto Schot. The shares unified in the Carl
Zeiss Foundation meant, that ownership of both the Zeiss company and the
Schott Glaswerke was secured. The statues of the Foundation itself guaranteed the personal rights
of the worker to an extend that had not been seen before at that time, and
workers was given rights to choose their own representatives that held (and
still do today) seats in the Foundation Board. One of the statues expresses
Ernst Abbe's thoughts about the Foundations commitments and aims which were:
To fulfill higher social
duties, than personal proprietors would permanently guarantee, towards the
totall number of of co-workers in its employ, in order to better their
personal and economical rights.
Ernst Abbe (1850 - 1905)
The
statues guaranteed all workers the same and equal opportunities regardless
of social status, religion or political views, and that all workers and
employees should be able to educate and make career advancements based on
his or hers personal skills and talent only. Furthermore the Foundation
guaranteed all workers fair minimum wages, a 9 hour working day (from 1900
changed to 8 hour workday !), paided vacations, social security and free
medical treatment in case of sickness, a share of the profits, compensation
in case of invalidity and last but not least a retirement pension. The
statues define these conditions roughly like this:
This basic wage is guaranteed
for piecework and for any necessary short-hour work. It is paid for time
missed through unavoidable and unintentional absence from work such as are
inseparable from political and family life, on the first day of an illness,
during nay unpaid activity in the service of the State and community, and on
similar occasions. ...... Vacations which are fixed in the Foundation
statute of six days for workmen, now gradually increase with the service age
to as long as three weeks and are recently being paid for with an addition
of 30 per cent to the fixed weekly pay. Overtime on week days is subject to
an extra pay of 30 per cent, and on Sundays of 60 per cent of the fixed
weekly wage. This fixed weekly wage also serves as basis for calculating
pensions. After five years, every Zeiss employee and worker can claim
50 per cent of his weekly wage for pension in case he is invalided, and
after ten years of work this claim rises on per cent per year, up to a final
maximum of eighty percent of his wage earnings. The pension of the widow is
50 per cent of the husband’s pension after five to ten-year service period
and rises one per cent for each additional year to a maximum of 60 per cent
after twenty-year term of service
This is
truly amazing..... Even today millions of workers all over the world (-even in
countries like the U.S.) do not have these rights and/or still fight for such rights. The
ideas and visions of Ernst Abbe were not just truly remarkable in their
time, but the ideas and principles seem just as vibrantly alive, needed and timeless in their visions now as
they did well over 100 years ago.
I have no doubts whatsoever,
that the guidelines and policy laid out in Ernst Abbe's original statues for
the Carl Zeiss Foundation have been one of the main reasons for the companys
succes, leading market position and maybe most important of all, the high
finish and quality of the Zeiss products.
The Zeiss workers took an
enormous pride in their company's name, and would never allow anything
substandard to leave the factory. Why does it seem, that so many
corporations still haven't learned this lesson even today?.
The II World war
Well as far as Zeiss-Ikon are
concerned, the II World War, and the consequences after the war was
basically one big mess... If you follow the links below, you can read all
about it, but basically it all ended up with 2 mayor players in the
Zeiss-Ikon game; Zeiss-Ikon in Oberkochen in the west and VEB Pentacon in
the east. Of course the russians had stolen almost evrything they could, and
had it shipped to the Soviet Union, and the americans had tried to relocate
talented engineers to the US, but nevertheless the Zeiss-Ikon company in
Oberkochen must be regarded as the "true" and "genuine" postwar Zeiss-Ikon.
Even today Carl Zeiss AG
remains one of the finest manufacturers of optical products, and allthough
photography is not anymore the core business of Zeiss they still produce
some of the finest lenses around, and by introducing the new ZM and ZV
series of cameras together with a complete range of lens options they have
once again regained the position they deserve as manufacturers of high-end
cameras and equipment.
If you wish to know more
about the history of Zeiss-Ikon I recommend that you visit the following
websites:
Official site of Carl Zeiss AG, Germany
Biography of Hubert Nerwin
"Something Zeiss to say"
"My own story" by Klaus-Eckard Riess
Want to know more ?
Google is your friend ! ;-)
My Zeiss-Ikon collection
I must reluctantly admit,
that I for some time have been neglecting my Zeiss-Ikon collection. Not for
any reason in particular, but I have just been occupied with other interests
and other camera brands. One should think, that it would be so very easy to
collect Zeiss-Ikon cameras, but actually this is not the case. The problem
is the massive multitude of cameras and models, each with numberless
variations. This makes it somewhat hard to choose those models which are
representative, that is if you don't want to engage in the lifelong quest in
collecting a complete Zeiss-Ikon collection. I have no such intentions. I am
pretty sure, that i've now found my own way how strange it may seem to
others. When looking at the vast number of Zeiss-Ikon cameras that have been
designed and manufactured there are some that appeals to me more than others. Not necessarely the most rare ones, but the
ones that are my personal favourites and the ones that someway have
also made a difference in history. I feel
that these are the ones that I should concentrate on. So don't ask me why "this
and this and this" are not represented in my small collection. Some will be
added later, and others will never enter the collection. Period.
Except for some of the late
medium to low-leves cameras, all Zeiss-Ikon cameras that I own, have owned
or just used has given me great pleasure and satisfaction. Regardless if it
is a Contax, Ikonta, Contarex or even a Contina you can feel the quality and
the pride that have been put in manufacturing these cameras. They are
designed, assembled, adjusted and meant to be: Ikons from Zeiss...
Please navigate through my
Zeiss-Ikon collection by using left side menu !
|
|
