Ernst Leitz II

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Ernst Leitz II around 1925

Ernst Leitz II (born March 1, 1871 in Wetzlar ; † June 15, 1956 in Gießen ) was a German entrepreneur .

Life

Ernst Leitz was the second son of the entrepreneur Ernst Leitz I . After an apprenticeship as a precision mechanic in his father's company and an apprenticeship as a businessman, he joined the optical company Leitz as a partner in 1906 and became a sole shareholder after the death of his father in 1920.

He initially devoted himself to the development of new microscopes , especially the first binocular microscope in the world that can also be used for high magnifications, which came onto the market in 1913. The large Ortholux research microscope with built-in lighting (1935) was also a great success.

The 35mm camera with interchangeable lenses by Max Berek , developed by his colleague Oskar Barnack , has been in worldwide use since 1925. The small, light Leica with a film format of 24 mm × 36 mm and the possibility of being able to take 36 pictures in a row replaced the often heavy and bulky plate cameras for static single pictures. She was the first to establish dynamic live photography and changed the world of photography, especially that of print media. The Leica format became the worldwide standard and enabled the phototechnical and photochemical industries to enjoy a great economic boom worldwide.

Leitz continued the company's social policy in the spirit of his father by setting up an employee benefit and pension fund as well as a company health insurance fund . With his father, he introduced the eight-hour working day in 1906, twelve years before it was legally required.

Leitz was a member of the left-wing liberal DDP (later the German State Party ) and the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , an organization to defend the Weimar Republic. He ran for the DDP in various Reichstag elections. It was not until 1942 that he joined the NSDAP at the age of 71 in order to avert the threatened takeover of his company by the National Socialists.

Ernst Leitz was friends with Theodor Heuss and had been a member of the FDP since 1945 . The organization Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which campaigns against anti-Semitism, honored his humanitarian services with the award “Courage to Care” in 2007.

His three sons Ludwig , Ernst and Günther followed him as managing directors of the family company.

Business risk

In 1924, Ernst Leitz decided to launch the Leica 35mm camera with the words “I decide: there is a risk” . This was his most important business decision. Ernst Leitz recognized the trend towards compact, handy cameras early on. This required the development of a new system for the 35 mm format (24 mm × 36 mm). The First World War delayed the launch of the new camera by ten years. The hyperinflation and the lack of interest of the photo trade with regard to the conversion to the new enlargement technology made the market launch difficult. However, Ernst Leitz saw the possibility of giving his workers secure employment during the depression. With his moral courage and his great willingness to take risks (opening up a new market) Ernst Leitz laid the foundation for the success of the Leica.

Nazi era

Ernst Leitz II (1871-1956)

Before the National Socialists came to power, Ernst Leitz was a leading democrat. In 1918 he was one of the founders of the German Democratic Party in Wetzlar, was a democratic city ​​councilor , candidate of the DDP for various Reichstag elections and a member of the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold. He dressed the Wetzlar members of the Reich Banner in uniforms at his own expense, took part in parades in Wetzlar and made a Leitz truck available for participation in Reich meetings. His anti-Nazi activities went so far that he appeared in public gatherings and referred to the Nazis as "brown monkeys".

For the new rulers he was therefore an entrepreneur who, with his “politically imprecise disposition”, offered no guarantee for the management of his company in the sense of the National Socialist state conception.

Although Ernst Leitz enjoyed a great public reputation as the manufacturer of the Leica, which was also used for propaganda purposes, as the sole owner of the second largest optical factory in the German Reich and a possible important manufacturer of military optics with his basic democratic attitude, he was particularly at risk for the war of conquest that had been planned from the beginning . In such a case, the government did not shrink from getting into their own hands at an early stage a company that was vital to the war effort. An example of this is Hugo Junkers , who, as an opponent of the regime, was forced to transfer ownership of his aircraft factory in Dessau soon after the seizure of power because he opposed the construction of military aircraft.

Between 1933 and 1945, Ernst Leitz provided valuable help or saved their lives to 86 people between 1933 and 1945, at considerable risk to himself and using the prestige of his company, 68 of whom were persecuted for racist reasons. Most of them were Jews. Immediately after the seizure of power, he consciously hired endangered Wetzlar Jews in his company and provided many of them with money and letters of recommendation to emigrate, especially to the USA . There many persecuted people were hired at the company's New York office until they could find other jobs. This company was later referred to as The Leica Freedom Train in the United States . Leitz never told his grandson Knut Kühn-Leitz anything about the time of National Socialism and certainly not about his help for those in distress. To him it made no difference whether someone was a Jew or a Social Democrat ; it was people he helped. With his relief efforts he constantly provoked the new rulers.

After the end of the Second World War, it became known that the National Socialist regime constantly intended to eliminate what National Socialists described as a "disgusting democrat". As early as 1938, the sales manager at Leitz-Werke Alfred Türk was arrested for sending letters of recommendation to the New York branch for Jewish emigrants. In 1943, Leitz's daughter Elsie was arrested for helping a Wetzlar Jewish woman to flee . She was several months in the Gestapo - prison imprisoned in Frankfurt. Her father was able to avert being sent to a concentration camp .

Awards

"With Ernst Leitz there is a person among us who embodies the word citizen, who is also a guarantor for others, as an example in a very lively manner."

- Federal President Theodor Heuss on the 80th birthday of Ernst Leitz

“There were entrepreneurs who did everything to save Jewish employees and their families; great personalities and industrialists like Berthold Beitz, Robert Bosch, Ernst Leitz and Eduard Schulte. "

- Interview with Arno Lustiger about rescue, Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 261 from 12./13. November 2011

literature

  • Ernst Leitz GmbH (Hrsg.): Commemoration for Ernst Leitz on his 70th birthday. Wetzlar 1941.
  • Ernst Leitz GmbH (Ed.): Speeches and congratulations on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Dr. hc Ernst Leitz. Wetzlar 1941.
  • Ernst Leitz GmbH (Ed.): Ernst Leitz 1849–1949. From the group of employees. Wetzlar 1941.
  • Chamber of Commerce and Industry Wetzlar (publisher): 100 years of precision mechanics and optics in Wetzlar. Wetzlar 1941.
  • Alexander Berg: Ernst Leitz Optical Works in Wetzlar 1849–1949. Frankfurt am Main 1949.
  • Erich Stenger: The history of the 35mm camera to the Leica. Wetzlar 1949.
  • Ernst Leitz GmbH (Ed.): Dr. hc Ernst Leitz on his 80th birthday, speeches, congratulations and certificates. Wetzlar 1951.
  • Willi Erb: From the microscope to the Leica. The history of the Leitz works. Freiburg im Breisgau 1956.
  • Ludwig Luckemeyer:  Leitz, Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 174 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Knut Kühn-Leitz (Ed.): Ernst Leitz. Pioneer of the Leica. Königswinter 2006, ISBN 978-3-89880-551-3 .
  • Knut Kühn-Leitz (Ed.): Ernst Leitz. An entrepreneur with moral courage during the Nazi era. 2nd expanded edition, CoCon-Verlag, Hanau 2008, ISBN 978-3-937774-50-3 .
  • Knut Kühn-Leitz (Ed.): Ernst Leitz II. "I hereby decide: There is a risk." ... and the Leica revolutionized photography. Königswinter 2014, ISBN 978-3-86852-941-8 .

Newspaper articles

  • Mark Honigsbaum: New life through a lens. In: Financial Times, February 3, 2007.
  • Thomas Kielinger: The good person from Wetzlar. In: Die Welt from February 9, 2007.
  • Jean-Pierre Langellier: Au bout de l'objectif, la liberté. In: Le Monde of February 17, 2007.
  • Simone Durchholz: Leica manufacturer saved dozens of Jews. In: Rheinische Post from March 2, 2007.
  • Wolfgang Wiedl: Ernst Leitz shows civil courage. In: Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung from January 20, 2008.
  • Volker Trunk: Father Courage. In: Frankfurter Rundschau of October 8, 2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Willi Erb: From the microscope to the Leica. The history of the Leitz works. Freiburg 1956, p. 60.
  2. ↑ Klaus Otto Nass (Ed.): Elsie Kühn-Leitz. Courage to be human. Bonn 1994, p. 41 ff.
  3. ↑ Anti-Defamation League ( Memento of the original from October 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.adl.org
  4. ↑ Hans-Guenther von Zydowitz: 100 years of Leica. “It is risked”. BOOK REVIEW When Ernst Leitz II decided to mass-produce the original Leica
  5. ↑ Bernd Lindenthal: The long fight with the National Socialists. In: Ernst Leitz. An entrepreneur with moral courage during the Nazi era. Hanau 2008, p. 17 ff.
  6. ^ Letter of October 26, 1933 from the representative of Hesse to the Reich, Ministerialrat H.-W. von Zengen, to the head of counterintelligence in the Reichswehr Ministry, Captain Patzig; reproduced in: Ernst Leitz. An entrepreneur with moral courage during the Nazi era. Hanau 2008, Annex 2a.
  7. ^ Richard Blunck: Hugo Junkers. A life for aviation. Düsseldorf 1951, p. 275 ff.
  8. ↑ Bernd Lindenthal: The help from Ernst Leitz 1933 to 1945. A classification. In: Ernst Leitz. An entrepreneur with moral courage during the Nazi era. Hanau 2008, p. 97 ff.
  9. ↑ Cornelia Fuchs: Ernst Leitz II - The Leica Schindler. In: stern.de. February 19, 2007, accessed June 4, 2019 .
  10. ^ Kurt Enfield, Jill Enfield, Henry Froehlich, Emil Keller: The Leica Freedom Train. Anatoly Kazarnovsky, January 14, 2012, accessed November 4, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Frank Dabba Smith: The silent helper Ernst Leitz. In: Ernst Leitz. An entrepreneur with moral courage during the Nazi era. Hanau 2008, p. 30 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Leitz, Ernst II
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Leitz, Ernst junior
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Wetzlar
DATE OF DEATH June 15, 1956
Place of death to water