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129-508: The company began as a dye manufacturer in 1867. In 1925, the company merged with several other German chemical companies to become chemicals giant IG Farben . IG Farben would go on to play major role in the economy of Nazi Germany . It extensively employed forced and slave labor during the Nazi period , and produced Zyklon B poison gas used in the Holocaust . IG Farben was disestablished by

258-558: A "ladies camera" – a Rolleiflex that used 35 mm film . This was the first Rolleiflex to come on the market that used a crank handle to advance the film, a popular feature that emerged on the 6×6 model shortly thereafter. The Rolleiflex 4×4 – known as the Babyflex outside of Germany – used 127 format film and came in two versions with either a f/3.5 and a f/2.8 Tessar lens with a focal length of 60 mm. Unfortunately, sales were disappointing, so production never resumed after

387-569: A British POW who had been held at Auschwitz III, told the IG Farben trial : The population at Auschwitz was fully aware that people were being gassed and burned. On one occasion they complained about the stench of the burning bodies. Of course all of the Farben people knew what was going on. Nobody could live in Auschwitz and work in the plant, or even come down to the plant, without knowing what

516-416: A camera would make studio work more straightforward; at that time, the photographer had to stoop under a black cloth to adjust the camera, and then address the subject from this awkward position. Nevertheless, after the failure of the Babyflex , the company proceeded with caution by initially building some prototypes. One was delivered to Kahn, and the others were shipped abroad in pairs – one to be retained by

645-505: A few years. Others argued for the formation of a profit pool or Interessen-Gemeinschaft (abbr. IG, lit. "community of interest"). In contrast, the chairman of Bayer, Carl Duisberg , argued for a merger. During a trip to the United States in the spring of 1903, he had visited several of the large American trusts such as Standard Oil , U.S. Steel , International Paper and Alcoa . In 1904, after returning to Germany, he proposed

774-529: A film format that Kodak , the market leader, did not support was foolhardy. Needless to say, the quality of the engineering in the Rollei ;16 matched its high price; it had a push-pull viewfinder with automatic parallax correction up to 40 cm, whereby extending the viewfinder also wound on the film and cocked the shutter. In addition, Mutar wide-angle (0.5×) and telephoto (1.7×) conversion lenses were available as accessories. An improved successor,

903-677: A foundation for former captive labourers under the Nazi regime. The remaining property, worth DM 21 million (£6.7 million or €10.7 million), went to a buyer. Each year, the company's annual meeting in Frankfurt was the site of demonstrations by hundreds of protesters. Its stock (denominated in Reichsmarks ) traded on German markets until early 2012. As of 2012 , it still existed as a corporation in liquidation. Film and television Literature Games Also see "Law No. 9" (PDF) . Allied Control Council . Archived (PDF) from

1032-469: A friend of Höss, denied knowing about it. Hayes writes that the inmates of Auschwitz III, which supplied the slave labour for IG Farben, were well aware of the gas chambers, in part because of the stench from the Auschwitz II crematoria, and in part because IG Farben supervisors in the camp spoke about the gassings, including using the threat of them to make the inmates work harder. Charles Coward ,

1161-805: A further 700 workers. It was completed in 1938, and by the end of that year the 300,000th camera had come off the production line. In retrospect, Reinhold Heidecke regarded the Rolleiflex Automat as his favourite camera. During World War II , the company was required by the Nazis to support the war economy . As a result, Rollei was unable to develop any new models from 1940, and production of its stereo camera finally came to an end. Rollei also suffered massive losses resulting from its inability to collect monies owed by debtors from "enemy states". Furthermore, bureaucratic formalities and controls hindered exports to neutral countries. This situation, combined with

1290-485: A holding firm. Today Agfa-Gevaert's commerce is 100% business-to-business. Agfa is headquartered in Mortsel , Belgium , with sales organisations in 40 countries. In countries where Agfa does not have its own sales organisation, the market is served by a network of agents and representatives. At the end of 2011, the company had 11,728 employees (full-time equivalent permanent) worldwide. Agfa has manufacturing plants around

1419-617: A major government contractor, providing significant material for the German war effort. Throughout that decade it purged itself of its Jewish employees; the remainder left in 1938. Described as "the most notorious German industrial concern during the Third Reich ", in the 1940s the company relied on slave labour from concentration camps , including 30,000 from Auschwitz , and was involved in medical experiments on inmates at both Auschwitz and Mauthausen . One of its subsidiaries supplied

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1548-455: A nationwide merger of the producers of dye and pharmaceuticals in a memorandum to Gustav von Brüning, the senior manager at Hoechst. Hoechst and several pharmaceutical firms refused to join. Instead, Hoechst and Cassella made an alliance based on mutual equity stakes in 1904. This prompted Duisberg and Heinrich von Brunck, chairman of BASF, to accelerate their negotiations. In October 1904 an Interessen-Gemeinschaft between Bayer, BASF and Agfa

1677-420: A noisy factory operating within a residential area and pressured the company to move its factory elsewhere. Accordingly, on 10 January 1923 the company purchased a 60,000 m (15 acres) plot of land on Salzdahlumer Straße, which at that time lay just beyond the city limits. Hyperinflation had devalued the currency so much that the land purchase cost practically nothing. Once the new factory had been built, much

1806-421: A picture, two separate steps were required to advance the film and cock the shutter . The Rolleiflex Automat combined the two, whereby advancing the film automatically cocked the shutter. Not only did this innovation speed up the whole process, it also eliminated accidental double exposures resulting from inadvertently forgetting to wind on the film. It also had a film-feeler mechanism that automatically started

1935-413: A result of the research; the camp had asked for RM 200 per person, but Bayer had said that was too high. A Bayer employee wrote to Rudolf Höss , the Auschwitz commandant: "The transport of 150 women arrived in good condition. However, we were unable to obtain conclusive results because they died during the experiments. We would kindly request that you send us another group of women to the same number and at

2064-478: A result, Rollei developed the Rolleimarin , an ingenious underwater camera housing rated for depths up to 100 m. It was made from two cast metal parts. The top part contained a glass prism that was attached to the camera's focusing screen . There were also knobs on top of the housing for adjusting the exposure and aperture settings. On the bottom, left-hand side of the housing was the focusing knob, and on

2193-577: A single, fixed normal lens, although the Rollei Magnar tele-converter lens with 4x magnification was available as an accessory. This could be attached to the front of the primary lens while a mask (which did not magnify the image) was placed over the focusing screen. In addition, Zeiss offered two double lens converters which attached to the viewfinder filter bayonet and the primary lens bayonet. The 5-element Mutar tele-converter magnified 1.5×, weighed 327 g and could render an image accurately in

2322-661: A small Agfa logo discreetly on their packaging, but are not sold as Agfa branded products. By contrast, Agfaphoto branded photographic films are not made by Agfa-Gevaert at all, originally having been made by the now closed Ferrania plant in Italy. Agfaphoto films are now produced by Fujifilm in Japan for Lupus Imaging Media . Agfa produced a range of cameras which included: Including, roughly in chronological order: Black & White films: Colour reversal (slide) films : Colour negative films : While Agfa has retired from

2451-502: A variety of models. The company expanded its production facilities and product range at the end of the 1960s beyond what a small company like Rollei could manage. Rollei's decision to start manufacturing in Singapore in 1970 was regarded as a pioneering achievement by the photographic industry. Unfortunately, it also damaged the companies reputation as a German precision manufacturer. In 1982, after many failed attempts at restructuring ,

2580-523: A wide margin. Even though it was quite an expensive product, orders for 800 cameras were received in the first month alone. A Rolleiflex fitted with a f/4.5 lens cost 198  ℛ︁ℳ︁ , with a f/3.8 lens it cost 225 ℛ︁ℳ︁. This success made it possible to obtain credit to buy a new factory and thrive in the midst of the Great Depression . In the old factory, a further 23,720 cameras were produced up until 1932. In 1930,

2709-663: A year, Franke and Heidecke had taken over the entire building. By 1922, business was so good that they were able to take out a loan to purchase the property outright. To get the company going, Franke and Heidecke decided to manufacture a stereo camera in the short term. Cameras of this type were popular, and Reinhold Heidecke was very familiar with them. As they were also in Voigtländer's product range, however, Franke and Heidecke did not want to look as if they were simply copying theirs. They purchased several Voigtländer units, and from what they learned by dismantling these, constructed

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2838-454: Is their special duty to represent National Socialist Germany . ... The Sales Combines are also requested to see to it that their agents are adequately supplied with National Socialist literature. This message was repeated by Wilhelm Rudolf Mann , who chaired a meeting of the Bayer division board of directors on 16 February 1938, and who in an earlier meeting had referred to the "miracle of

2967-533: The Mamiya C-Series from Japan appeared in 1956. Mamiya initially offered three sets of interchangeable double lenses for it: normal, telephoto and wide-angle. Later on, additional double lenses with focal lengths of 55 mm and 250 mm were introduced; one even had a dimmable viewfinder lens, which enabled depth of field adjustment through the viewfinder. By comparison, the Rolleiflex only had

3096-567: The DHW Fototechnik GmbH —a company founded by Rolf Daus, Hans Hartje and Frank Will, former Franke & Heidecke employees. DHW Fototechnik presented two new Rolleiflex cameras and a new electronic shutter at photokina 2012 . DHW itself filed for insolvency on 15 August 2014 and was dissolved in April 2015, thereby temporarily ending any further production of cameras, lenses and accessories. A new, smaller company called DW Photo

3225-461: The Federal Cross of Merit . Those who served prison sentences included: Those acquitted included: Agfa , BASF and Bayer remained in business; Hoechst spun off its chemical business in 1999 as Celanese AG before merging with Rhône-Poulenc to form Aventis , which later merged with Sanofi-Synthélabo to form Sanofi . Two years earlier, another part of Hoechst was sold in 1997 to

3354-780: The Frankfurt area , this allowed them to cooperate more successfully than the Dreibund , although they also did not rationalize or consolidate their production facilities. IG Farben was founded in December 1925 as a merger of six companies: BASF (27.4 percent of equity capital); Bayer (27.4 percent); Hoechst , including Cassella and Chemische Fabrik Kalle (27.4 percent); Agfa (9 percent); Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron (6.9 percent); and Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler Ter Meer (1.9 percent). The supervisory board members became widely known as, and were said to call themselves jokingly,

3483-579: The Magic II , cost 498 DM and also featured manual exposure control. Some accessories manufactured for Rollei TLRs: By the end of 1950s, the market for twin-lens medium format cameras had gradually become saturated. More and more amateur photographers and photojournalists were using 35 mm format cameras, while studio photographers preferred single-lens medium format cameras. Although they were more expensive, single-lens cameras offered film holders , which could quickly be swapped (an assistant loaded

3612-511: The Rollei 16S , was released in 1965. To help return the company to profitability, Rollei's management sought advice from a number of experts. One of them, Heinrich Peesel , a physicist from Hamburg, produced a concise, 5-page report that so impressed Rollei management that they offered him the chairmanship of the board, thereby accepting that far-reaching changes were necessary. Peesel, then 38 years old, thus succeeded Horst Franke as chairman of

3741-590: The Soviet occupation zone . Franke & Heidecke started over with 72 workers, and by Christmas 1945 the workforce had grown to 172 employees. Everything the company made in 1945 was delivered to the British Ministry of Defence . The difficult supply situation forced Rollei into using lenses from the West German manufacturer Schneider as well. However, this was not a problem as Schneider's quality control

3870-697: The Stereo Heidoscop . It included two Carl Zeiss Tessar lenses (f/4.5, 55 mm) and, mounted between them, a Carl Zeiss Super Triplet (f/3.2) viewfinder. At that time, Tessar lenses were widely regarded as the best available; they were often used in the United States, even though locally produced alternatives were available. Zeiss had an excellent reputation world-wide, which Franke & Heidecke leveraged for their own products. More importantly, they differentiated themselves from cheaper alternatives. The camera projected an image onto glass plates of dimensions 45 mm × 107 mm. The name Heidoscop

3999-804: The University of Frankfurt , housed in the former IG Farben head office , set up a permanent exhibition on campus, the Norbert Wollheim memorial , for the slave labourers and those killed by Zyklon B. At the beginning of the 20th century, the German chemical industry dominated the world market for synthetic dyes . Three major firms BASF , Bayer and Hoechst , produced several hundred different dyes. Five smaller firms, Agfa , Cassella , Kalle & Co.  [ de ] , Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron and Chemische Fabrik vorm. Weiler-ter Meer, concentrated on high-quality specialty dyes. In 1913, these eight firms produced almost 90 percent of

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4128-589: The coal liquefaction process. IG Farben scientists made fundamental contributions to all areas of chemistry. Otto Bayer discovered the polyaddition for the synthesis of polyurethane in 1937. Several IG Farben scientists were awarded a Nobel Prize . Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1931 "in recognition of their contributions to the invention and development of chemical high pressure methods". Gerhard Domagk

4257-475: The "Council of Gods" ( Rat der Götter ). The designation was used as the title of an East German film, The Council of the Gods (1950). In 1926, IG Farben had a market capitalization of 1.4 billion  ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to 6 billion 2021 euros) and a workforce of 100,000, of which 2.6 percent were university educated, 18.2 percent were salaried professionals and 79.2 percent were workers. BASF

4386-571: The 1930s, the company underwent a process of Aryanization , and by 1938 Jewish employees had been dismissed and the Jews on the board had resigned. The remaining few left in 1938 after Hermann Göring issued a decree, as part of the Nazis' Four Year Plan (announced in 1936), that the German government would make foreign exchange available to German firms to fund construction or purchases overseas only if certain conditions were met, which included making sure

4515-468: The 9 cm × 9 cm film format. Kahn explained as a pretext, that his customers liked to keep the negatives because they had doubts about the durability of prints. Moreover, roll film was much easier to archive than glass plates. In fact, Kahn had concealed the real rationale behind his request because Franke & Heidecke supported the Nazi Party in order to get the workers they needed. Fearing

4644-501: The Allies in 1945. AGFA was reconstituted (as a subsidiary of Bayer ) from the remnants of IG Farben in 1952. Agfa photographic film and cameras were once prominent consumer products. In 2004, the consumer imaging division was sold to a company founded via management buyout . AgfaPhoto GmbH , as the new company was called, filed for bankruptcy after a year, and its brands are now licensed to other companies by AgfaPhoto Holding GmbH,

4773-641: The Arcus, DuoScan, SnapScan, StudioScan and StudioStar ranges. While they have all been discontinued and up-to-date drivers for them are not available from Agfa, Vuescan software supports many Agfa scanners on current computer operating systems . Agfa photographic papers were of very high quality; lines included: The production of material identical to the last generation of fibre-based and resin-coated photographic Agfa Multigrade papers has been resumed by Adox. IG Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG ("dye industry syndicate"), commonly known as IG Farben ,

4902-560: The German government's disposal. The minutes of a meeting of the Commercial Committee on 10 September 1937 noted: It is generally agreed that under no circumstances should anybody be assigned to our agencies abroad who is not a member of the German Labor Front and whose positive attitude towards the new era has not been established beyond any doubt. Gentlemen who are sent abroad should be made to realize that it

5031-685: The IG Farben trial, was the sixth of 12 trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany ( Nuremberg ) against leading industrialists of Nazi Germany . There were five counts against the IG Farben directors: Of the 24 defendants arraigned , one fell ill and his case was discontinued. The indictment was filed on 3 May 1947; the trial lasted from 27 August 1947 until 30 July 1948. The judges were Curtis Grover Shake (presiding), James Morris , Paul M. Hebert , and Clarence F. Merrell as an alternate judge. Telford Taylor

5160-418: The U.S. High Commissioner for Germany, under massive political pressure, after which he joined the management or supervisory boards of several chemical companies. The company destroyed most of its records as it became clear that Germany was losing the war. In September 1944, Fritz ter Meer , a member of IG Farben's supervisory board and future chair of Bayer's board of directors, and Ernst Struss, secretary of

5289-583: The U.S. military instituted good time credits in its war crime program. What remained of IG Farben in the West was split in 1951 into its six constituent companies, then again into three: BASF, Bayer, and Hoechst. These companies continued to operate as an informal cartel and played a major role in the West German Wirtschaftswunder . Following several later mergers the main successor companies are Agfa, BASF, Bayer and Sanofi . In 2004,

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5418-598: The US to disperse "ownership and control of such of the plants and equipment seized under this order as have not been transferred or destroyed". The French followed suit in the areas they controlled. On 30 November 1945, Allied Control Council Law No. 9, "Seizure of Property owned by I.G. Farbenindustrie and the Control Thereof", formalized the seizure for "knowingly and prominently ... building up and maintaining German war potential". The division of property followed

5547-601: The activities of the former Agfa Graphics and Agfa Specialty Products business groups, as well as the Imaging activities of the former Agfa HealthCare business group. Agfa Healthcare is a developer of medical imaging information systems, with main offices in Mortsel (Belgium) , Ghent (Belgium) , Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) , Shanghai (China) and Vienna (Austria) . The activities of the Agfa division have been subdivided into three groups: Offset Solutions (the prepress business of

5676-467: The aerial photography market, it is still possible to buy fresh, Agfa-produced photographic films for use in consumer cameras. They are sold by the Lomography Society and Rollei and are branded accordingly. This is because those companies purchase the aerial photography film from Agfa-Gevaert, and then cut and package it into consumer photographic formats. As of 2012, such products carry

5805-650: The birth of the German nation": "The chairman points out our incontestable being in line with the National Socialist attitude in the association of the entire 'Bayer' pharmaceutica and insecticides; beyond that, he requests the heads of the offices abroad to regard it as their self-evident duty to collaborate in a fine and understanding manner with the functionaries of the Party, with the DAF (German Workers' Front), et cetera. Orders to that effect again are to be given to

5934-613: The brands "Rollei" and "Rolleiflex" continue to be owned by the RCP Technik Verwaltungs GmbH . On 1 January 2015, the RCP-Technik GmbH & Co. KG refirmed as Rollei GmbH & Co. KG to market digital consumer cameras and accessories under the "Rollei" label in Europe. Rollei was a German company that established a worldwide reputation with the Rolleiflex , a twin-lens reflex camera . Rollei

6063-428: The bulk of the companies resources, some regular product development was still possible, and work on tempered glass lenses as well as flash synchronization continued, albeit on a small scale. The cameras were used inter alia in military reconnaissance . As Braunschweig was one of the centres of the German armaments industry , it was subjected to frequent, sometimes heavy aerial bombardment , which seriously damaged

6192-410: The camera, both made of aluminium, had to be handled with care, which remained the case until the camera went into production. One more prototype was produced in 1928, and then the big moment finally arrived: on 10 August, the first camera went into series production. Altogether, 14 units were made that year. Then, at 11am on Monday, 11 December, selected journalists were invited to a press conference in

6321-497: The challenge from Mamiya, Rollei created a camera comparable to the C Series and gave it to photojournalists to test. Although they were enthusiastic, Rollei did not believe – much to the astonishment of industry experts – that it could manufacture removable lenses with the required precision. Instead, as a compromise, the company introduced in 1959 the Tele-Rolleiflex with a Zeiss Sonnar f/4, 135 mm lens. This camera

6450-545: The chemical spin-off of Sandoz, the Muttenz (Switzerland) based Clariant . The successor companies remain some of the world's largest chemical and pharmaceutical companies. Although IG Farben was officially put into liquidation in 1952, this did not end the company's legal existence. The purpose of a corporation's continuing existence, being "in liquidation", is to ensure an orderly wind-down of its affairs. As almost all its assets and all its activities had been transferred to

6579-474: The city. On 1 and 15 January 1944, and again on 13 August, Rollei too suffered air raid damage to its factories. By the time the war ended on 12 April 1945, almost 65% of its plant and machinery had been destroyed. After the war, Braunschweig ended up in the British occupation zone . The allied occupying forces wanted Rollei to survive as a company, even helping it procure lenses from Zeiss, which had ended up in

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6708-442: The collapse in overseas trade, forced Paul Franke to reduce the workforce to 600 people. Alongside its renowned cameras, Rollei – like its neighbour Voigtländer – was now engaged in the manufacture of equipment deemed important to the German war effort: precision optics for binoculars , periscopes , telescopic sights (for sniper rifles , for example), and theodolites for directing artillery . Although these products consumed

6837-460: The company as a United States Justice Department lawyer, quoted an American report: "Without I.G.'s immense productive facilities, its far-reaching research, varied technical expertise and overall concentration of economic power, Germany would not have been in a position to start its aggressive war in September 1939." The company placed its resources, technical capabilities and overseas contacts at

6966-509: The company by the SS for a low daily rate. One of IG Farben's subsidiaries supplied the poison gas, Zyklon B , that killed over one million people in gas chambers. Company executives said after the war that they had not known what was happening inside the camps. According to the historian Peter Hayes , "the killings were an open secret within Farben, and people worked at not reflecting upon what they knew." In 1978, Joseph Borkin, who investigated

7095-458: The company employed no Jews. IG Farben's products included synthetic dyes , nitrile rubber , polyurethane , prontosil , and chloroquine . The nerve agent Sarin was first discovered by IG Farben. The company is perhaps best known for its role in producing the poison gas Zyklon B . One product crucial to the operations of the Wehrmacht was synthetic fuel , made from lignite using

7224-715: The company finally achieved success by focusing on medium format cameras along with a few other products. Surveying systems were added to the product range in 1986, and modern digital and compact cameras were included from 1991. Over the years, many great photographers have used Rollei cameras: David Bailey and Diane Arbus (Rolleiflex 3.5F TLR with 75 mm f/3.5 Planar), Brett Weston (Rolleiflex SL66 and SL66E SLR), and Helmut Newton (Rolleiflex 2.8GX), amongst others. Rollei cameras typically used Carl Zeiss or Schneider Kreuznach lenses, as well as lenses manufactured by Rollei based on designs by Zeiss, and occasionally lenses made by Japanese manufacturers. While Reinhold Heidecke

7353-631: The company headquarters moved to Berlin and the company was split into two different companies: Rollei GmbH in Berlin, owner of the Rollei brand and selling various OEM equipment, and Rollei Produktion GmbH in Braunschweig, an equipment factory which became Franke & Heidecke GmbH, Feinmechanik und Optik . Following another restructuring in 2007, Rollei was split into three companies. Franke & Heidecke GmbH, Feinmechanik und Optik focused on

7482-467: The company moved into the new factory on Salzdahlumer Straße. It comprised two floors with a total area of 2,000 square metres ( 1 ⁄ 2 acre), sufficient space to manufacture 20,000 cameras annually. Although the site was well served by public transport, it lay some distance from the city centre, so the company built a canteen and shop for its workforce, which now numbered 309 employees. Wilhelmine Heidecke, Reinhold Heidecke's wife, suggested building

7611-527: The company renamed into Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke GmbH in 1972, Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke GmbH & Co. KG , in 1979, and Rollei Fototechnic GmbH & Co. KG in 1981. After being purchased in 1995 by Samsung Techwin , part of the South Korean Samsung Group , it was sold back to its internal management in 1999. In 2002, it was bought by a Danish investment group, and renamed Rollei GmbH in 2004. In 2005/2006,

7740-734: The company was split into its original constituent companies. The four largest quickly bought the smaller ones. In January 1955, the Allied High Commission issued the I.G. Liquidation Conclusion Law, naming IG Farben's legal successor as IG Farbenindustrie AG in Abwicklung (IGiA) ("I.G. Farbenindustrie AG in Liquidation). In 1947, the American government put IG Farben's directors on trial. The United States of America vs. Carl Krauch, et al. (1947–1948), also known as

7869-628: The company's managing board, are said to have made plans to destroy company files in Frankfurt in the event of an American invasion. As the Red Army approached Auschwitz in January 1945 to liberate it , IG Farben reportedly destroyed the company's records inside the camp, and in the spring of 1945, the company burned and shredded 15 tons of paperwork in Frankfurt. The Americans seized the company's property under "General Order No. 2 pursuant to Military Government Law No. 52", 2 July 1945, which allowed

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7998-586: The conglomerate in Frankfurt am Main , Germany, was completed in 1931. In 1938, the company had 218,090 employees. IG Farben was controversial on both the far left and far right, partly for the same reasons, related to the size and international nature of the conglomerate and the Jewish background of several of its key leaders and major shareholders . Far-right newspapers of the 1920s and early 1930s, accused it of being an "international capitalist Jewish company". The liberal and business-friendly German People's Party

8127-439: The consequences of leasing to a Jew, the owner of his studio had already shut off his water supply. This meant that Kahn had to develop his negatives at home, whereby roll film was easier to transport than plates. A roll film camera would also facilitate house calls. Having built a small Rolleiflex , the obvious next step was to make a larger version. Indeed, the slogan "you see what you get" had already been envisaged for it. Such

8256-632: The construction of an IG Farben Buna-N (synthetic rubber) plant—known as Monowitz Buna Werke (or Buna)—near the Monowitz concentration camp , part of the Auschwitz concentration camp complex in German-occupied Poland . (Monowitz came to be known as Auschwitz III; Auschwitz I was the administrative centre and Auschwitz II-Birkenau the extermination camp.) The IG Farben plant's workforce consisted of slave labour from Auschwitz, leased to

8385-571: The counter, so no red window was needed. The Rolleiflex Automat won the Grand Prix award at the Paris World's Fair in 1937, which generated a lot of interest. The company founders we so taken with their new creation that they immediately commissioned the construction of a second factory. The new factory, comprising three floors with a combined production area of 3,000 square metres ( 3 ⁄ 4 acre), provided sufficient space to house

8514-463: The development costs any more. One of his projects was the Magic , which required several expensive machine tools to be built – expenditure that could not be justified relative to the small number that were produced. In contrast, Agfa preferred the opposite approach, of always developing as many models as possible from an existing camera housing. The Magic , although intended for amateur photographers,

8643-461: The division of Germany into four zones: American , British , French and Soviet . In the Western occupation zone, the idea of destroying the company was abandoned as the policy of denazification evolved, in part because of a need for industry to support reconstruction, and in part because of the company's entanglement with American companies, notably the successors of Standard Oil . In 1951,

8772-403: The drugs the women would experience circulation problems, bloody vomiting, and painful diarrhea "containing fragments of mucus membrane". Of the 50 typhoid sufferers given 3852, 15 died; 40 of the 75 tuberculosis patients given Rutenol died. For one experiment, which tested an anaesthetic, Bayer had 150 women sent from Auschwitz to its own facility. They paid RM 150 per woman, all of whom died as

8901-544: The end, Horst Franke relinquished his position as general manager. In 1960, Rollei introduced its first slide projector , the P11 . It included two slide trays: the left-hand tray was for 35 mm (5 cm×5 cm) slides, the right-hand tray was for medium format (7 cm×7 cm) slides. The Rollei Universal Projector sold for 398.60 DM, plus 97.50 DM for a standard lens. The P11 remained in production until 1978; many more projectors were subsequently added to

9030-515: The experiments were conducted in Birkenau in Block 20, the women's camp hospital. The patients were suffering from, and in many cases had been deliberately infected with, typhoid , tuberculosis , diphtheria and other diseases, then were given preparations named Rutenol, Periston, B-1012, B-1034, B-1036, 3582 and P-111. According to prisoner-physicians who witnessed the experiments, after being given

9159-443: The festively decorated production area. Paul Franke put together press packs for the occasion, which led one magazine to publish a test report without ever actually handling the camera. Although Franke had forgotten to prepare sample photographs to distribute to the press, he neatly avoided this oversight by distributing empty, labelled cartons around the building, just for show. Demand for the new camera exceeded production capacity by

9288-412: The film simply required inserting the leader into the appropriate slot in the camera. Since there was no take-up spool, the film coiled up loosely on itself. Without a doubt, limited film choice and availability adversely affected camera sales, consequently only 25,000 units were produced. As Rollei also spent a lot on advertising, this camera did little to alleviate its dire financial situation. Reliance on

9417-460: The film), as well as interchangeable lenses. Hasselblad was the market leader in this segment. The Swedish company introduced their first camera, the Hasselblad 1600F , in 1948. However, this model was regarded as being technically inferior because its shutter was unreliable. To solve this problem, the 1000F was released in 1952 with a reduced shutter speed range, but the focal-plane shutter

9546-414: The flexibility required to adapt to changing circumstances; for example, he failed to reduce the workforce in difficult times, whereas Paul Franke had done so immediately at the onset of the war. To begin with, Rollei had no real competition, which yielded ever increasing sales of its cameras. In the 1950s, almost every press photographer owned a Rolleiflex , and quite a few amateurs did as well. The camera

9675-493: The former Agfa Graphics business group), Digital Print & Chemicals (the inkjet business of the former Agfa Graphics business group and the activities of the former Agfa Specialty Products business group) and Radiology Solutions (the imaging activities of the former Agfa HealthCare business group). In 2004, Agfa-Gevaert withdrew from the consumer market, including photographic film, cameras and other photographic equipment. Because Agfa-Gevaert still produce photographic films for

9804-416: The former captive labourers for its inability to be legally dissolved and have the remaining assets distributed as reparations. On 10 November 2003, its liquidators filed for insolvency , but this did not affect the existence of the company as a legal entity. While it did not join a national compensation fund set up in 2001 to pay the victims, it contributed 500,000 DM (£160,000 stg or €255,646) towards

9933-404: The gas to Auschwitz to fumigate clothing that was infested with lice, which carried typhus . Fumigation took place within a closed room, but it was a slow process, so Degesch recommended building small gas chambers, which heated the gas to over 30 °C and killed the lice within one hour. The idea was that the inmates would be shaved and showered while their clothes were being fumigated. The gas

10062-541: The gassings. The general manager of Degesch is said to have learned about the gassings from Kurt Gerstein of the SS. According to the post-war testimony of Rudolf Höss , the Auschwitz commandant, he was asked by Walter Dürrfeld  [ de ] , technical manager of the IG Farben Auschwitz plant, whether it was true that Jews were being cremated at Auschwitz. Höss replied that he could not discuss it and thereafter assumed that Dürrfeld knew. Dürrfeld,

10191-410: The headquarters of Rollei GmbH were moved to Berlin while production was transferred to Rollei Produktion GmbH , currently Franke & Heidecke GmbH , in Braunschweig. The company underwent more radical restructuring in 2007/2008. The frequent name-changes are an indication of a turbulent history: After the popularity of the twin lens reflex cameras declined, the Rolleiflex was supplemented with

10320-409: The imaging lens and surrounding the opening for the optical path was a large cogwheel which drove four smaller cogs located top left and right, and bottom left and right. Each of the four small cogs drove rack and pinions (toothed rails) attached to the lens assembly. This system functioned perfectly, and, thanks to high-quality components, also for many years of service. Only the viewfinder and back of

10449-535: The importer as a demonstration unit, the other to be delivered to a reputable studio. The project was eventually abandoned after Salomon Kahn was arrested and nobody else showed any interest in the studio camera. Of the 14 prototypes that were built, one still exists: it currently belongs to the Municipal Museum of Braunschweig. In 1933, the Rolleicord , a cheaper version of the Rolleiflex , came onto

10578-425: The increase in sales of Zyklon B to Auschwitz. IG Farben owned 42.5 percent of Degesch shares, and three members of Degesch's 11-person executive board, Wilhelm Rudolf Mann , Heinrich Hörlein and Carl Wurster , were directors of IG Farben. Mann, who had been an SA - Sturmführer , was the chair of Degesch's board. Peter Hayes writes that the board did not meet after 1940, and that although Mann "continued to review

10707-441: The insistence of his wife, he presented his concept to Paul Franke  [ de ] , a salesman and former colleague at Voigtländer. Franke was so enthusiastic he put up 75,000 M of his own money and went looking for more capital. After he secured additional funding of 200,000 M, they resolved to go into business together. In November 1919, they filed an application to register the company "Franke & Heidecke", which

10836-469: The invention and development of chemical high pressure methods", and Gerhard Domagk in 1939 "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil ". In the 1920s, the company had ties to the liberal German People's Party and was accused by the Nazis of being an "international capitalist Jewish company". A decade later, it was a Nazi Party donor and, after the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933,

10965-424: The largest company in Europe and the largest chemical and pharmaceutical company in the world. IG Farben scientists made fundamental contributions to all areas of chemistry and the pharmaceutical industry. Otto Bayer discovered the polyaddition for the synthesis of polyurethane in 1937, and three company scientists became Nobel laureates : Carl Bosch and Friedrich Bergius in 1931 "for their contributions to

11094-519: The leading German gentlemen so that there may be no misunderstanding in their execution." By 1943, IG Farben was manufacturing products worth three billion marks in 334 facilities in occupied Europe; almost half its workforce of 330,000 men and women consisted of slave labour or conscripts, including 30,000 Auschwitz prisoners. Altogether its annual net profit was around 500 million  ℛ︁ℳ︁ (equivalent to 2 billion 2021 euros). In 1945, according to Raymond G. Stokes , it manufactured all

11223-411: The lens because of an earlier, bad experience: around 1916, he conducted an experiment with a Kodak camera; he left it in a cellar, and when he later retrieved it, he found that rats had eaten the bellows. This convinced him that a camera designed for photojournalism and operation in the tropics had to work perfectly, which excluded components that might rot. He ruled out a cloth shutter curtain for

11352-507: The market. It had simpler Zeiss Triotar Lens, a steel back-plate, and a knob instead of a handle for winding on the film. The Rolleicord 1 cost 105  ℛ︁ℳ︁ ; altogether 2,699,505 Rolleicords were manufactured until production ceased in 1976. The later models (III - VB) uses Schneider Xenar lenses that have better optics. The release of the Rolleiflex Automat in the middle of June 1937 marked another significant milestone for Franke & Heidecke. Prior to this, after taking

11481-458: The monthly sales figures for Degesch, he could not necessarily have inferred from them the uses to which the Auschwitz camp was putting the product". IG Farben executives did visit Auschwitz but not Auschwitz II-Birkenau , where the gas chambers were located. Other IG Farben staff appear to have known. Ernst Struss, secretary of the IG Farben's managing board, testified after the war that the company's chief engineer at Auschwitz had told him about

11610-460: The original constituent companies, IG Farben was from 1952, largely a shell company with no real activity. In 2001, IG Farben announced that it would formally wind up its affairs in 2003. It had been continually criticized over the years for failing to pay compensation to the former labourers; its stated reason for its continued existence after 1952 was to administer its claims and pay its debts. The company, in turn, blamed ongoing legal disputes with

11739-458: The original on 22 September 2018. "IG Farben-Haus, Geschichte und Gegenwart" (in German). Fritz Bauer Institute . Archived from the original on 14 March 2007. "Kontrollratsgesetz Nr. 9" . Verfassungen der Welt . www.verfassungen.de. Archived from the original on 19 April 2017. Books and articles Rollei Rollei ( German pronunciation: [ˈʁɔlaɪ] )

11868-418: The period of hyperinflation in Germany, Paul Franke lived up to his reputation as a savvy financier: he invested the income from exports (in foreign currency) so astutely that the company came through this difficult period unscathed – a rather unlikely outcome if Heidecke, alone, had made these decisions. During this period the company acquired new premises. The City Council in Braunschweig did not really want

11997-577: The photography branch, and the Agfaphoto brand was sold to a reseller named Lupus Imaging, the surviving Belgian industrial branch of Agfa continues to produce, among other things, B/W, colour negative and colour reversal materials for aerial photography. Some of these are cut to the usual 135 and 120 formats by Maco and distributed under the brand name Rollei . Specifically, these re-branded Agfa materials include Rollei Retro 80S, 200S and 400S, Digibase CN200 and CR200. Agfa produced many image scanners in

12126-445: The poison gas Zyklon B , which killed over one million people in gas chambers during the Holocaust . The Allies seized the company at the end of the war in 1945 and the US authorities put its directors on trial. Held from 1947 to 1948 as one of the subsequent Nuremberg trials , the IG Farben trial saw 23 IG Farben directors tried for war crimes and 13 convicted. However, by 1951 all of them were released from prison early after

12255-735: The production of professional medium format cameras and slide projectors , while RCP-Technik GmbH & Co. KG in Hamburg was responsible for Rollei consumer products like re-branded compact digital cameras in the European market, and with the RCP Technik Verwaltungs GmbH owning the rights to the "Rollei" and "Rolleiflex" brands. Finally, Rollei Metric GmbH took over the photogrammetry business. In early 2009, Franke & Heidecke GmbH, Feinmechanik und Optik declared itself insolvent. Since 2009 Rolleiflex medium format cameras, Rollei 35 and Rolleivision slide projectors were being produced by

12384-435: The range, providing a major boost to Rollei's turnover. In 1963, Rollei introduced the Rollei 16 , its first all-new camera design since the war. It was a 16 mm camera in the format 12 mm × 17 mm with a Tessar f/2.8, 25 mm lens and cost 425 DM. In retrospect, it seems unlikely that such an unusual format might return Rollei to profitability. However, the German camera industry believed that this

12513-406: The right-hand side, the winding handle and a frame counter. There was also a filter turret. A special flash bulb could be attached for flash photography, in which case a battery pack had to be installed inside the housing. Of course, a viewfinder frame could also be screwed onto the housing. Although there were many imitators, none could match the quality of the original Rolleiflex – that is, until

12642-582: The same price." Between 1942 and 1945, a cyanide -based pesticide, Zyklon B , was used to kill over one million people, mostly Jews, in gas chambers in Europe, including in the Auschwitz II and Majdanek extermination camps in German-occupied Poland. The poison gas was supplied by an IG Farben subsidiary, Degesch (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung MbH, or German Company for Pest Control). Degesch originally supplied

12771-462: The same reason, choosing instead a Compur mechanical shutter . Focusing in the "Rolleiflex" was achieved by moving the carriage that held both the viewfinder and the imaging lens, i.e. the camera had so-called "metallic bellows"; that is, the plate enclosed the sides of the case. It was crucial that the plate remained parallel as it moved during focusing; to achieve this, Heidecke developed an ingenious design which proved to be highly successful. Behind

12900-717: The synthetic rubber and methanol in Germany, 90 percent of its plastic and "organic intermediates", 84 percent of its explosives, 75 percent of its nitrogen and solvents , around 50 percent of its pharmaceuticals, and around 33 percent of its synthetic fuel . Staff of the Bayer group at IG Farben conducted medical experiments on concentration-camp inmates at Auschwitz and at the Mauthausen concentration camp . At Auschwitz they were led by Bayer employee Helmuth Vetter , an Auschwitz camp physician and SS captain, and Auschwitz physicians Friedrich Entress and Eduard Wirths . Most of

13029-406: The time production ceased in 1968, over 67,000 units had been made. By this time few amateur photographers made contact prints any more, preferring instead to take 35 mm transparencies (slides), which could be viewed on a slide projector . In 1932, Salomon Kahn, the owner of the renowned Fotostudios Kardas in Berlin, approached Rollei, asking if they could build him a large Rolleiflex for

13158-511: The top-level decision-making of the leading German chemical firms, which was in the hands of professional salaried managers. Because of this unique situation, the economic historian Alfred Chandler called the German dye companies "the world's first truly managerial industrial enterprises". With the world market for synthetic dyes and other chemical products dominated by the German industry, German firms competed vigorously for market shares. Although cartels were attempted, they lasted at most for

13287-440: The uses to which its production was being put". In 1949, Mann became head of pharmaceutical sales at Bayer . Hörlein became chair of Bayer's supervisory board. Wurster became chair of the IG Farben board, helped to reestablish BASF as a separate company, and became an honorary professor at the University of Heidelberg . Dürrfeld was sentenced to eight years, but had his sentence commuted to time served in 1951 by John McCloy ,

13416-454: The viewfinder up to a distance of 4m from the object. The 4-element Mutar wide-angle converter magnified 0.7×, weighed 437 g and could render an object accurately from a distance of 1 meter. In all cases, for the best image quality, closing down the aperture two stops was recommended. This explains why conversion lenses of this type were only regarded as a makeshift solution in comparison to fully interchangeable lenses. In response to

13545-410: The war. The company management believed that many Rollei photographers only made contact prints from their negatives because they had no access to enlargers . However, this was not practical in the case of the Babyflex as the negatives were simply too small. As a result, it was not until 1957 that a new version came onto the market priced at DM 355, firstly in grey, and later (from 1963) in black. By

13674-421: The world supply of dyestuffs and sold about 80 percent of their production abroad. The three major firms had also integrated upstream into the production of essential raw materials, and they began to expand into other areas of chemistry such as pharmaceuticals , photographic film , agricultural chemicals and electrochemicals . Contrary to other industries, the founders and their families had little influence on

13803-579: The world. The largest production and research centres are based in Belgium, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and China. Net sales for 2011 totalled 3,023 million euros . Since January 1, 2019, two new entities emerged within the Agfa-Gevaert Group: Agfa HealthCare (ITCo) and Agfa (MainCo). Agfa HealthCare groups all IT-related activities of the former Agfa HealthCare business group. The newer Agfa includes

13932-514: Was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate . It was formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies: Agfa , BASF , Bayer , Chemische Fabrik Griesheim-Elektron  [ de ] , Hoechst , and Weiler-ter-Meer . It was seized by the Allies after World War II and split into its constituent companies; parts in East Germany were nationalized. IG Farben was once

14061-483: Was a German manufacturer of optical instruments founded in 1920 by Paul Franke  [ de ] and Reinhold Heidecke  [ de ] in Braunschweig , Lower Saxony, and maker of the Rolleiflex and Rolleicord series of cameras. Later products included specialty and nostalgic type films for the photo hobbyist market. Originally named Werkstatt für Feinmechanik und Optik, Franke & Heidecke ,

14190-481: Was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1939 "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil ". IG Farben has been described as "the most notorious German industrial concern during the Third Reich ". When World War II began, it was the fourth largest corporation in the world and the largest in Europe. In February 1941, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler signed an order supporting

14319-411: Was chosen in part to remind the management at Voigtländer that they had restricted Heidecke in his work there. The Heidoscop was a great success, exceeding all expectations. In 1923, the company introduced a Heidoscop for 117 format (B1) roll-film. It was from this product, the "'Roll-film Heidoscop"', that the name Rollei was derived, which later became the name of company. Between 1914 and 1923,

14448-413: Was common knowledge to everybody. Mann, Hörlein and Wurster (directors of both IG Farben and Degesch) were acquitted at the IG Farben trial in 1948 of having supplied Zyklon B for the purpose of mass extermination. The judges ruled that the prosecution had not shown that the defendants or executive board "had any persuasive influence on the management policies of Degesch or any significant knowledge as to

14577-482: Was entered into the German Trade Register on 1 February 1920. In need of factory space, they rented several rooms in a house at Viewegstraße 32, which became the companies first headquarters. The house survived World War II intact and stands to this day. Other rooms in the house were used by a dancing school, who had to abandon their dancing lessons because of noise from the factory. Within

14706-449: Was equal to that of Zeiss. Paul Franke's untimely death in the spring of 1950 had serious consequences for the company though. Not only did his passing mark the end of an era for Rollei, the loss of his business acumen also led the company to the edge of ruin on more than one occasion. After Paul Franke's death, his son Horst Franke succeeded him. Overall, he proved to be less effective as a manager than his father. In particular, he lacked

14835-552: Was expected of the new camera. However, Paul Franke proposed a temporary suspension of further development work because of the catastrophic economic situation. Heidecke concurred, believing that better times lay ahead. The first prototype of the new camera, named the Rolleiflex , was finally completed in 1927; it was built for absolute reliability and featured a rigid, injection-moulded housing made of aluminium . Heidecke wanted to avoid conventional leather bellows for focusing

14964-453: Was first used on human beings in Auschwitz (650 Soviet POWs and 200 others) in September 1941. Peter Hayes compiled the following table showing the increase in Zyklon B ordered by Auschwitz (figures with an asterisk are incomplete). One ton of Zyklon B was enough to kill around 312,500 people. Several IG Farben executives said after the war that they did not know about the gassings, despite

15093-469: Was formed with reduced staffing, and more or less the same people leading the business; the manufacturing and sale of projectors and twin-lens reflex cameras, as well as that of the series 6000, was stopped, to concentrate on the Hy6 and accessories. A new battery and charger for owners of the 6000 series were however released to the market in 2019, as the original NiCd batteries could age prematurely. As of 2015

15222-552: Was formed, also known as the Dreibund or little IG. Profits of the three firms were pooled, with BASF and Bayer getting 43 percent each and Agfa 14 percent of all profits. The two alliances were loosely connected with each other through an agreement between BASF and Hoechst to jointly exploit the patent on the Heumann-Pfleger indigo synthesis . Within the Dreibund , Bayer and BASF concentrated on dye, while Agfa increasingly concentrated on photographic film. Although there

15351-460: Was founded in 1920 as the Werkstatt für Feinmechanik und Optik, Franke & Heidecke in order to make a twin-lens reflex camera . The company changed its name and legal form many times: to Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke in 1962, to Rollei-Werke Franke & Heidecke GmbH & Co. KG in 1979, to Rollei Fototechnic GmbH & Co. KG in 1981, and finally to Rollei GmbH in 2004. In 2006,

15480-476: Was its most pronounced supporter. Not a single member of the management of IG Farben before 1933 supported the Nazi Party; four members, or a third, of the IG Farben supervisory board were themselves Jewish. The company ended up being the "largest single contribution" to the successful Nazi election campaign of 1933; there is also evidence of "secret contributions" to the party in 1931 and 1932. Throughout

15609-649: Was particularly well-suited to portrait photography . Meanwhile, plans for another model with a 150 mm lens were abandoned. The Wide Angle Rolleiflex (also known as the Rolleiwide ) with an f/4, 55 mm lens followed in 1961. It only remained in production until 1967, which today makes it one of the rarest Rolleiflex cameras – excluding special editions. Its main advantage lay in its ability to photograph large crowds at heavily attended events. Reinhold Heidecke kept on making new cameras right up until his death in 1960, although no one bothered to admonish him over

15738-448: Was relatively expensive at 435 DM. It featured an automatic exposure control system driven by a coupled selenium light meter which could select shutter speeds from 1/30 sec to 1/300 sec and apertures from f/3.5 to f/22. There were only two manual controls: one for focusing, the other for selecting either a shutter speed of 1/30 sec (for flash photography), or Brief (for long-exposure night photography ). Its successor,

15867-415: Was so popular that it bred over 500 imitations, more than half of them from Japan . The factory grew rapidly; by 1956 – the year the millionth camera was sold – the workforce numbered 1600, and by 1957 the workforce had grown to 2000 employees. Hans Hass , the underwater diving pioneer, approached Franke & Heidecke to see if they could make him a special housing suitable for underwater photography . As

15996-445: Was some cooperation between the technical staff in production and accounting, there was little cooperation between the firms in other areas. Neither were production or distribution facilities consolidated nor did the commercial staff cooperate. In 1908 Hoechst and Cassella acquired 88 percent of the shares of Chemische Fabrik Kalle. As Hoechst, Cassella and Kalle were connected by mutual equity shares and were located close to each other in

16125-438: Was still prone to failure. While it was no threat to the fully developed Rolleiflex to begin with, that situation changed when the legendary Hasselblad 500C featuring a Compur leaf shutter appeared in 1957. The management of Rollei under Horst Franke were caught napping, having failed to produce a camera that could match the latest Hasselblad. As a consequence, sales plummeted and the company got into financial difficulties. In

16254-623: Was the chief counsel for the prosecution. Thirteen defendants were found guilty, with sentences ranging from 18 months to eight years. All were cleared of the first count of waging war. The heaviest sentences went to those involved with Auschwitz, which was IG Farben's Upper Rhine group. Ambros, Bütefisch, Dürrfeld, Krauch and ter Meer were convicted of "participating in ... enslavement and deportation for slave labor". All defendants who were sentenced to prison received early release. Most were quickly restored to their directorships and other positions in post-war companies, and some were awarded

16383-534: Was the nominal survivor; all shares were exchanged for BASF shares. Similar mergers took place in other countries. In the United Kingdom Brunner Mond , Nobel Industries , United Alkali Company and British Dyestuffs merged to form Imperial Chemical Industries in September 1926. In France Établissements Poulenc Frères and Société Chimique des Usines du Rhône merged to form Rhône-Poulenc in 1928. The IG Farben Building , headquarters for

16512-439: Was the way forward, and both Leica and Wirgin (through their Edixa brand) produced similar designs. The Rollei 16 used special Super 16 film cartridges with a capacity of 18 frames. As no film manufacturer was interested in making this film format, Rollei had to manufacture the film itself. A roll of B/W film cost 5 DM, while slide film (available until 1981) cost 12.50 DM, including development. Loading

16641-452: Was working as a production manager at Voigtländer in Braunschweig around 1916, he got the idea to manufacture a new type of roll-film camera. However, the company rejected his proposal because they thought there would be problems keeping the film perfectly flat . Besides, their current camera range, which used conventional photographic plates , was selling well. Heidecke tried unsuccessfully to secure financing to start his own company, so, at

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