Zeiss Oberkochen developed a completely new line of Biogon, Planar, Sonnar, and Tessar lenses for Linhof press and technical cameras, to be used at wide apertures for the 6x9cm and 4x5 formats. The postwar separation of Zeiss also lead to two distinctively different large format lens lines. A vast range of products in 1Ģ the fields of optics and precision machinery was produced, from binoculars to planetariums to microelectronics. This also included the assimilation of the other well-known GDR manufacturer of photographic lenses, Meyer- Optik, through the integration of the camera manufacturer VEB Pentacon in In 1989, VEB Carl Zeiss Jena was one of the biggest GDR companies with 69,000 employees. Over the years, the GDR concentrated their optical, precision machining, and electronic industry under the roof of the VEB Carl Zeiss Jena. Nevertheless, Carl Zeiss Jena resumed production shortly after the war and became the major supplier of optical equipment in the Eastern Bloc countries during the cold war.
Operations at Carl Zeiss Jena were initially hampered by war damage, the removal of key personnel to the American sector, and later also to Russia, as well as the subsequent dismantling of equipment by the Soviet army, leaving only 6% of the production equipment. The nationalization and the Cold War subsequently led to the separation of Zeiss into a new independent establishment in Oberkochen (changing its name from Opton to Zeiss-Opton back to Carl Zeiss over a few years), and the traditional company location in Jena in the GDR.
The latter, however, was nationalized in 1948 by the communist rulers of the GDR as VEB Carl Zeiss Jena and later became one of the big industrial combines of the GDR ( VEB is a GDR acronym for a nationalized company, standing for Volkseigener Betrieb ). This led to the foundation of Opton Optische Werke in Oberkochen West Germany, initially as subsidiary of Carl Zeiss Jena. Just before the US command handed the administration of Thuringia over to the Soviet Army, American troops moved a considerable part of the leading management and research staff of Carl Zeiss Jena and of the Schott glass company to Heidenheim near Stuttgart, 126 people in all. However, the Yalta Conference agreement placed it under Soviet control shortly thereafter. Other Eastern Bloc LF lens manufacturers included Meyer-Optik (formerly Hugo Meyer Görlitz, also in the GDR), Meopta in the Czech Republic, PZO in Poland, and several companies such as LOMO, KOMZ, and KMZ in the Soviet Union (see the other article on Eastern Bloc lenses: VEB Carl Zeiss Jena At the end of World War II the German state of Thuringia, where Jena is located, was under the control of British and American troops. The largest manufacturer behind the iron curtain was Carl Zeiss Jena in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) as the direct successor of the well-known prewar company of the same name. This changed since the Berlin wall came down, and many of these lenses have now found their way into the global used market. Obviously, there were view cameras and large format (LF) lenses in the Eastern Bloc countries during the Cold War, but not much was known about them. Until 1989, most lenses came from West Germany, Japan, or the USA. Many large format photographers own a few lenses they bought used, either to save money or because specific features are no longer available in new production lenses. 1 Large format lenses from VEB Carl Zeiss Jena Arne Cröll All Rights Reserved (this version is from Novemthe first version of this article appeared in View Camera July/August 2003).