Emil Wishes AG

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Emil Wishes AG
legal form Corporation
founding 1887
resolution 1909
Seat Reick near Dresden
management Emil Wishes (1887–1902)

Louis Lang (1902-1909)

Branch photographic cameras and accessories

The Emil Wünsche AG was from 1887 to 1909, a camera manufacturer with factory in Reick in Dresden . Via ICA AG and Zeiss-Ikon , Wünsche AG is one of the original operations of what would later become VEB Kombinat Pentacon in Dresden .

history

Emil Wünsche (1864–1902) opened a shop for photographic articles in Hamburg in 1887 , in which photographic accessories were sold. Wunsch also dealt primarily with cameras, which he had Richard Hüttig & Sohn produce in Dresden and which he offered under his own brand. In this early period, Wünsche only provided the products with its own company logo. Other smaller manufacturers from the Dresden area soon followed, producing for wishes. These included Hüttig AG (cameras), Paul Förster (cameras), Louis Lang (cameras and photographic accessories) and Dienwiebel & Co. (packaging and various materials), all of which were small businesses. In the years 1884 to 1885, Wünsche gradually acquired the workshops of its suppliers, Förster, Lang and Dienwiebel, and took over their entire production.

In 1896 the company reached a considerable size. Wish built a new factory near Reick on the city limits of Dresden on Mügelner Strasse, although at that time the location was not yet connected to the railway network that was important for the transport of goods compared to the city. The new company buildings offered a lot of space for this. In the middle of the complex was a central machine hall with a steam engine , which supplied the production facilities with power via a ceiling transmission . The chimney of the boiler house was 35 meters high.

The first own products were made in Reick in 1897 in the factory now known as the manufacture of photographic equipment and supplies .

In 1898 Wunsch employed 206 workers and 33 salaried employees. 27 employees lived with their families in four houses, each with its own garden, which had wishes set up in close proximity to the company. In the same year the stock corporation was founded under the name Emil Wünsche Aktiengesellschaft für Photographische Industrie Reick , or in short Wünsche AG . Also in 1898 a fire destroyed part of the factory, which was rebuilt on an even larger scale the following year.

In 1902 the number of employees reached its peak with 350 people. Wish AG was the second largest company of its kind in Dresden. Among countless other camera models, a “student device” was produced, intended for those who want to learn photography. In addition to marketing his own brand, Wünsche also sold lenses from Steinheil , Voigtländer and Goerz as well as apertures from Bausch & Lomb .

Emil desires committed in the same year suicide , probably due to personal problems. Louis Lang took over the management of the company. The production was very diverse and included various plate camera models , footage , rolls of film, viewfinders , bezels, tripods , darkroom equipment , magnifying glasses , flash units and even albums for the finished photos. However, this wide range of in-house production and the great competition among camera manufacturers soon led to economic problems.

Therefore, in 1909, the most important German manufacturers Emil Wünsche AG, Hüttig AG, Kamerafabrik Krügener in Frankfurt am Main and the Palmos Camerabau department of Carl Zeiss Jena merged to form ICA (Internationale Camera Actiengesellschaft), which was mainly based in Dresden. In the further course of history, ICA 1926 became Zeiss Ikon .

Products

Wishes LUX

Well-known cameras from Wünsche AG include countless plate and roll film cameras from the early days of the German photo industry, such as the Favorit and Juwel product series , the Mars magazine camera, the Bosco mirror camera , the Ada mirror camera and the Reicka reflex camera .

Other models:

  • Mars camera
  • Black Legion
  • jewel
  • Juvel folding camera
  • leprechaun
  • Bosco
  • Bosco reflex
  • nymph
  • Ada
  • Reick
  • Photo jumelle
  • favourite
  • Student apparatus
  • Furror
  • Excelsior
  • meteor
  • Sirius
  • Eureka
  • Lilly
  • Sport II
  • Tuck
  • Bosko 98
  • Mars 99
  • Gnomes
  • Ezekiel's mirror reflex camera
  • Small
  • Minimal
  • Matador
  • Postage stamp camera

literature

Web links

Commons : Emil Wünsche AG  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 0 ′ 35.2 "  N , 13 ° 48 ′ 34.5"  E