According to his grandson, Knut KГјhn-Leitz (son of Elsie), the family credo was always вЂњdo good, but do not speak about itвЂќ.ДЄ very different style of advertisement for the Kleinfilmcamera, also from 1925 (Image credit: Leica) The later yearsДЄfter the 1925 launch, LeitzвЂ™s resolve would have undoubtedlyВ been tested again because, although revolutionary, the new Leica camera attracted mixed reactions and sales were initially slow. It only all came to light in the mid-2000s, earning him a posthumous Courage To Care award from the Anti-Defamation League in 2007. Typically altruistic, Ernst Leitz II kept it all secret even after the war and forbade others, including his son GГјnther, from ever telling the stories. In the 1940s, the Nazis imported slave labour from eastern Europe to work in German factories, replacing military conscripts, and Elsie worked hard to improve the lot of those assigned to Leitz, again risking imprisonment. She subsequently spent three months in prison in Frankfurt. His daughter, Elsie, was also involved in helping Jews leave Germany and was arrested by the Gestapo while assisting refugee women across the Swiss border.

LeitzвЂ™s pre-WWII activities subsequently became known as вЂњThe Leica Freedom TrainвЂќ and saved perhaps as many as 100 lives. They also each got a new Leica IIIB camera to take with them from Germany. These refugees were even paid a stipend until they could find work, with Leitz executives scouring the wider photography industry, particularly in the USA, to secure them legitimate positions. In fact, it wasnвЂ™t just his employees and their families, but also camera retailers and even friends of family members who were sent to LeitzвЂ™s sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the USA. Realising that much worse might lie ahead under the Nazi dictatorship, he began systematically but secretly assigning many of his Jewish employees to fake positions or training courses at Leitz sales offices overseas, giving them a legitimate excuse to leave the country. Bigger risks: the Leica Freedom TrainДЄfter Adolf Hitler was named Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and the persecution of Jews began, Ernst Leitz IIвЂ™s social conscience really came to the fore and he began taking risks that could have had fatal consequences. The familiar red dot logo appeared in the mid-1970s and was worded either вЂњLeitzвЂќ or вЂњLeitz WetzlarвЂќ up to 1986. The Leitz name continued to appear on Leica cameras up until 1986, when it was decided to concentrate all the companyвЂ™s photographic activities under the Leica brand. The camera was finally launched in 1925 at the Leipzig Spring Fair and called the Leica, the name derived from вЂ™Leitz cameraвЂ™. вЂњThis small camera is an opportunity to create work for our employees вЂ“ if it lives up to the promise I see in it вЂ“ through the years of the Depression and to get them through the difficult times ahead.вЂќ Ernst Leitz II assumed control of the company and began to take more of an interest in BarnackвЂ™s camera, primarily because he believed diversification was the key to survival in GermanyвЂ™s challenging economic climate, and he was concerned about the future of his workforce.

The early work on the camera was overseen by Ernst Leitz Sr, but he died in 1920 when the project still only consisted of prototypes. The basic design was refined a number of times prior to being put into production in 1924, but the big innovation was to use a film created from two 18x24mm cine frames to give an image area of 24x36mm, and so reduce the amount of enlargement required to make high-quality prints.ДЄn advertisement from 1925 for the new Kleinfilmcamera (Image credit: Leica) However, LeitzвЂ™s secret weapon was a compact and lightweight Kleinfilmkamera вЂ“ a small format camera вЂ“ which had been developed just prior to the First World War by one of the companyвЂ™s talented optical engineers, Oskar Barnack. ItвЂ™s perhaps not so surprising that most of LeitzвЂ™s senior managers were against the idea, forcing him not to make a risky-looking вЂexecutive decisionвЂ™. WhatвЂ™s more, the plan was for a completely new type of camera never seen before. The German economy was reeling from the effects of hyperinflation and extreme unemployment, and Leitz would be a newcomer in a market dominated by Zeiss and Kodak.

(Image credit: Leica)ДЄnd it was quite a risk.

Ernst Leitz II joined the family company in 1906 and famously, in 1924, gave the green light for the production of an all-new 35mm camera designed by Oskar Barnack to commence, introducing the world to Leica.

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