The Leitz Birthdays Book
Perhaps 10 years ago, I was asked by one of our members whether I knew of “The Leitz Birthday Book” and how to obtain one. I had no idea what that person was talking about, but not wanting to appear as ignorant as I felt, I replied “perhaps you could tell me more”. I must admit I had mental images of my own baby book from earliest childhood. Well, it turns out this was a publication of Leica Historica, LHSA’s German counterpart, and had pictures of rare prototypes and the like. It was all news to me and sounded quite interesting.
I had become a member of Leica Historica sometime prior to that interchange, and did know that periodically LH issued compendia of articles in book format on their anniversaries.
The Birthdays Book (note the plural) was their first such of- fering, in 1990 for their 25th anniversary, and was entitled: “Geburtstage der Leitz Fotokonstruktionen ab 1927”. The book referenced the work of Wilhelm Albert, Oskar Barnack’s closest assistant, and developer, after Barnack’s death in 1936, of the later Leica SM cameras models and apparently many other items. Herr Albert had over his years at Leitz photographed many of the new, unusual, or unique Leitz items on approximately the date their construction was finished (their birthdays), from 1927 on. Many of these projects Albert himself had worked on. Much later these images were mounted onto cards with identifying information, the new images placed into two sequenced scrapbooks / diaries and the ensemble rephotographed. Included with them were also reproductions in blueprint of Albert’s typed tables of references to the images, including information about who had worked on these projects. Three exemplars of the resulting books were made, and one set was presented to Ludwig Leitz. After Albert’s death, his own copy of these volumes was obtained from his estate by Leica Historica, and a combined facsimile was made. Officially, 333 numbered copies (with certificates!) were issued, and probably went mostly to the membership. Text of course was only in German. Trying to find a copy years later for oneself meant persuading a member to relinquish his own book, or working through the insider grapevine for one from an estate.
I did not find a copy for myself for several years. Once one did make a ghostly appearance, briefly whizzing by me on the internet. This quest, however, afforded me the great pleasure of meeting on line and befriending Alfred Wehner, one of the founders of Leica Historica and the editor of this rare volume! And no, Alfred did not have any extra copies, but we found much else to talk about. Finally, and unexpectedly, in 2018 at LHSA’s Wetzlar Annual Meeting, Alfred and his friends surprised me with Nr. 032/333. Should I wish to buy it, I should make an offer!!! “Bob’s your uncle” as they say.
The reproductions of equipment in the original LH book are clear and legible, but it must be said that from a certain perspective they are rather rough and ready, being third- generation copies. Still, this is a necessary book for a Leica historian to have for reference. It is both a resource, with time stamps, photo reproductions, and provenances for period Leitz equipment, and also an historical document in its own right. Herr Albert did a magnificent job, typically Germanic in the best sense, in composing, photographing, and then annotating his images, such that the editor of the facsimiles could make ready use of his tables for reference. In the book one will find several equipment “old friends” and many new and unexpected ones very worth meeting, all from the fecund minds and talented hands of the Leitz personnel! Albert documented Leitz’s most famous projects as well as some that did not make it to market, and some that were only made on special order. Also included are many projects made for the German Armed Forces in WWII such as the IR (Infra Red) Night Vision devices, which were classified as “Top Secret” at the time and some were even kept secret for years after the war ended. There are in addition several specialized scientific and medical optical instruments, based on such common items as the Visoflex line. Other important projects were either never photographed but are still documented in Albert’s tables, or are missing due to the sheer volume of items that Leitz produced.
However, nothing could prepare this Leica afficionado for the surprise announcement of a new volume of the same scrap- book which Lars Netopil and David Pitzer have now brought out. New features are superb images of the highest quality German and English texts for their forewords. This new edition happened for at least two reasons. First, demand for the original facsimile remained high, and a second edition was indicated. More importantly, however, was the procurement of the actual original photographs on their cards as mounted onto their scrapbook pages; these had been obtained years before from Albert by his friend and co-worker Werner Schlapp, who died in 2009. The new material allowed modern reproduction techniques to be used to reformulate the images in the Birthdays Book.
Physically, the old and new books are very close to A4 dimensions (guessing that A4 was the size of the original scrapbook pages); the new book is just a bit larger. The old book has 232 pages, and the new one 248 – the difference is due to expanded / different editorial material in the updated volume. The paper stock is also thicker in the new version, which one can judge in the slide-view closeup. The new book is unpaginated, but Albert’s page numbers are retained, so navigating from Albert’s tables is not a problem. The tables and the labels on the photos are in German, but that ought not to deter most English-speaking readers with Leica interest. There are perhaps 12-15 German words related to photographic equipment that are used frequently throughout, and if necessary, these can be easily translated with an on-line translation engine and saved. The introduction to the new book is bilingual German / English.
One only needs to compare images side by side to see what they have achieved. I am appending one page-pair as an example. Here is Albert’s page 168 from the two volumes (my scanner could not visualize the white border around the image in the new book; what you see is only the image of Albert’s original page). This page details a motor for an M3, together with everready case and electromagnetic release. The text says that this is a test sample, and that it was tested success- fully 72,000 times, 4-5 pictures per second. Albert’s tables (actually for page 169, in error) mostly repeat the image’s text, saying that this is a “Leicamotor for M3. 12V/ 1 Amp, with a switch knob for single / series, an image counter, 4-5 images per second, which was test-run 72,000 times without complaint. Construction dates were from March 29, 1956 to April 1, 1957. Designer / builder was Herr Hilgendorf ”. The text goes on to describe the EM release (and other items on the following page).
The edition of Lars’s new book consists of 300 copies. One can order the book from Lars, by email to: lars-netopil@lars-netopil.com