Leica how old

Erik Hartmann · Oct 3, 2007

I just got an old Leica with the serial number

352011

On the top it sayes

LEICA
D.R.P.

Ernst Leitz

Wetzlar

Can anyboddy tel me how old it is or give med a site, where I can find it

thanks erik (now in canada)

Uhner · Oct 3, 2007

Your camera was made in 1940 according to this compilation of serial numbers: http://www.cameraquest.com/ltmnum.htm

Claes

vanspaendonck · Oct 3, 2007

According to my Leica Pocket Book (Hove, 6th edition, 1994) Leica 352011 is a Leica II, manufactured in 1940. "D.R.P." stands for "Deutsches Reichs Patent". After the Third Reich went under in 1945 it became "D.B.P." or "Deutsches Bundes Patent".

Anscojohn · Oct 3, 2007

FWWI, so there is no misunderstanding, D.R.P had nothing to do with the Nazis. It was the official German patent registration from the 1870s on and antedated the so-called Third Reich.
John, Mount Vernon, Virginia, USA

vanspaendonck · Oct 3, 2007

I know, and I wasn't trying to imply that D.R.P. had anything to do with the Third Reich. It's just that the term "Reich" was somewhat tainted after 1945 and Germany became a federal republic, hence the Bund/Bundes.

eli griggs · Oct 3, 2007

When did the D.R.P stop being used on Leicas? I just received a IIIc made in 46-47 which bears this designation.

AgX · Oct 4, 2007

The Bundesrepublik was founded in 1949. Thus there can't have been a Bundespatent before that year.

AgX · Oct 4, 2007

The fall of the Third Reich did not necessarily go along with the fall of all the `Reichs-´ designations of nationwide departments. In the GDR the term Reichsbahn (for their national Railway System) survived till the end.

Further I assume that a Reichspatent kept its name even under a new Patent department.

Erik Hartmann · Oct 5, 2007

Tanks to ALL.....

Erik (now i Edmonton)

Mike Kovacs · Oct 9, 2007

Not a surprise since a close literal translation of "Reich" is "realm".

Austria = Österreich = Eastern Realm

Leica how old

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