Leica Monté en Sarre: Only 500 Pieces Built in the Saarland
The Leica Monté en Sarre was manufactured in the Saarland after World War II. At that time the Saarland was still under French occupation, and made it possible for the Leitz company to get better access to the French market.
Monté en Sarre means: assembled or manufactured in the Saa- rland. After the Second World War, German companies were only allowed to export photographic cameras to France under very high customs. Ernst Leitz, Wetzlar granted a license to build the Leica to Saroptico, a company based in the Saarland. This allowed Leitz to legally circumvent existing regulations, and the Leica could then be sold in France without high duties.
The Saroptico production facility in St. Ingbert was managed by Walter Kluck. He later went to Canada (in 1952) as a sales manager to set up the Ernst Leitz branch in Midland, Ontario together with other colleagues.
The Monté en Sarre cameras have this inscription in distinctive lettering on the top plate, under the word “Germany”. The serial number range is between 359000 and 359504. Between 1949 and 1951 Saroptico assembled around 500 screwmount Leicas in Saarland. All these cameras were sold to France or the French colonies. As a rule, the Saar-Leica is a post-war Leica IIIa. However, different pieces have different characteristics. For example, a number of the units had already elements of the Leica IIIf, which was not to be released until September 1950.
The Saar-Leica, like the IIIa, has a 1/1000 second top speed. The available shutterspeeds are: 1/1000, 1/500, 1/200, 1/100, 1/60, 1/40, 1/30, 1/20, 1s, T, Z. The top plate which houses the range- finder and viewfinder is separate from the body, which is also characteristic for pre-war Leicas. All cameras are chrome plated, like the IIIa.
The first 100 to 200 copies have the sharkskin vulcanite covering known from the post-war Leica IIIc. However, conventional vulcanite was subsequently reintroduced. Similarly, the chrome plating of the earlier cameras, as with the contemporaneous Leica IIIc’s, is likely to show certain defects in the chrome due to the scarcity of materials used in plating process.
Pre-war Leicas were engraved with DRP (Deutsches Reichs Patent). This can also be found on most Saar Leicas. Nonetheless, there are a few examples that already have the DBP engraving for the Deutsches Bundes Patent, first used with the IIIf in the early 1950s.
IIIf details seen are also the advance knob and the flash synchronization. The advance knob feature appears to offer the possibility to adjust the sensitivity of the film, but it is just a memo disc that has no effect on the actual exposure control. The camera was usually not equipped with flash synchronization as on the IIIf, but pieces do exist where this was subsequently installed by Leitz.
The Leica Monté en Sarre consists of a combination of pre- and post-war parts that were assembled in St. Ingbert in order to bring the camera to the French market quickly and inexpensively.
Due to its small production numbers, the Leica Monté en Sarre is a very rare and sought-after Leica camera. Nowadays it can usually only be obtained from Leica auctions known in specialist circles.
Olaft Nattenberg ∙ www.leicapages.org