Charles A. Noble
Charles Adolph Noble (born September 6, 1892 in Homberg (Efze) as Karl Adolf Spanknöbel ; † May 22, 1983 in Watsontown , USA) was a German-American entrepreneur in the field of photography.
Karl Adolf Spanknöbel emigrated to the United States in 1922 and received US citizenship in 1931; there he changed his name to Charles Adolph Noble. With his wife Hildegard, geb. Gerding (1897–1974), with whom he had sons John and George, he built a large photo technology company in the USA.
Charles A. Noble acquired the Dresden camera workshops Guthe & Thorsch from entrepreneur Benno Thorsch in 1938 , who in return acquired Noble's Detroit company. Thorsch was a Swiss citizen with one Jewish parent. Charles A. Noble recognized that the future of photography lay in the 35 mm SLR camera and had the Praktiflex developed by the engineer Alois Hoheisel . The Praktiflex was presented at the Leipzig trade fair in 1939. During the Second World War it was switched to military needs.
The fate of the nobles took a dramatic turn in 1945. The Soviet secret police NKVD picked up Charles Adolph Noble and his son John H. Noble, who worked for the company, on July 4, 1945. Charles A. Noble was initially detained in Dresden at Münchner Platz and then came to special camp No. 1 in Mühlberg without charge or judgment . In 1948 the camp was closed and Noble was sent to special camp No. 2 in Buchenwald . In 1950 he was in the penitentiary Waldheim handed over to the German authorities and the Waldheim trials convicted. His son John H. Noble was deported to forced labor in Siberian labor camps. Charles A. Noble was released from prison in 1952 as a broken man.
The communist, former Saxon Prime Minister Max Seydewitz claimed since 1955 in his Dresden book The Invincible City , father and son Noble had arranged the bombing of Dresden on February 13, 1945 from the Villa San Remo in Dresden- Oberloschwitz . The family was expropriated; the company had already been confiscated in 1946. The Noble factory was merged into the Pentacon company via VEB Kamera-Werke Niedersedlitz .
In 2000 he was voted one of the “100 Dresdeners of the 20th Century” in the daily newspaper “ Dresdner Latest News ”.
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles A. Noble on findagrave.com
- ^ History of the camera workshops Guthe & Thorsch
- ↑ Winfried Sträter: How to survive hell. Deutschlandradio Kultur, contribution from May 10, 2006, accessed on February 1, 2014
- ↑ john-noble.de: The Noble Legend
- ↑ 100 Dresden residents of the 20th century . In: Dresdner Latest News . Dresdner Nachrichten GmbH & Co. KG, Dresden December 31, 1999, p. 22 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Noble, Charles A. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Noble, Charles Adolph (full name); Spanknöbel, Karl Adolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-American entrepreneur |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 6, 1892 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Homberg (Efze) |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 22, 1983 |
| Place of death | Watsontown , USA |