Reflekta camera factory Tharandt
The company Reflekta-Kamerawerk Tharandt was a German camera manufacturer based in Tharandt , Saxony, in the first half of the 20th century .
history
Around 1900 the master mechanic Ferdinand Merkel founded a camera workshop in Tharandt near Dresden . The small company assembled wooden cameras from purchased individual parts and later specialized in cameras made of tropical wood, so-called tropical cameras. Woldemar Beier, whose later in-house development Beirette of his own company Freitaler Kameraindustrie Beier & Co. , founded in 1923, became very well known, went on to do an apprenticeship here.
In 1930 the company in Camera Werk Ferdinand Merkel, Tharandt i. Renamed Sat. Around 30 employees continued to produce wooden cameras. The development of the two-lens reflex camera Reflecta began , which was introduced in 1931. But in 1932 the company had to file for bankruptcy.
Fritz Richter and his wife Charlotte took over the insolvent company in 1932 and now traded under the name of Kamera-Werk C. Richter, Tharandt i. Sa. Richter invested in the expansion of the factory and the modernization of production. This enabled the series production of the Reflecta in large numbers, which could finally be delivered from 1934.
After the Second World War , the previously quite successful company became a state- owned company on the basis of the referendum in Saxony . The Richter family was expropriated. As VEB Reflekta-Kamerawerk Tharandt the operation was subordinate to the industrial administration 24 optics . In 1949 the company "Lipca" (Lippische Kamerafabrik Richter & Fischer GmbH) was founded in Berntrup / Lippe (West Germany) with the help of the Richter family.
In 1950 the company was finally connected to the VEB Welta-Kamerawerke .
The already successful Reflecta was further improved and finally produced by Welta as Reflekta II and the further developed Weltaflex and sold with great success.