RE: [Leica] Re: Oscar Barnak -MORE-

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Anybody tried any midnight digging to see what might have been buried with
some of these guys?:-)


> -----Original Message---
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Jim Brick
> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2000 4:37 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: [Leica] Re: Oscar Barnak -MORE-
>
>
> At 12:32 PM 6/7/00 -0600, you wrote:
> >Oscar Barnack died on the 16th of January 1936, the last camera design he
> >worked on was the IIIa. Professor Max Berek was responsible for
> the design
> >(based on other people's earlier work of course) of all the Leitz camera
> >lenses until his death on the 15th of October 1949.
> >
> >John Collier
>
> A couple of years ago, Doug Richardson posted the following:
>
> Thanks Doug...
>
> Leica-related burials in the old graveyard at Wetzlar
> by Doug Richardson
>
> The old graveyard ("Alter Friedhof") at Wetzlar contains the graves of
> the main individuals responsible for the development of the Leica -
> Ernst Leitz I, Ernst Leitz II, Oskar Barnack, and Max Berek. During
> the April 1999 Leica Historical Society of America (LHSA) visit to
> Wetzlar and Solms, I used part of my free time to explore the
> graveyard and locate the burial sites of all four.
>
> Several Leica enthusiasts who plan to visit Wetzlar in the near future
> expressed an interest in visiting the burial place of Oskar Barnack,
> so I've prepared the following guide to the area from notes I made
> during the LHSA visit.
>
> The Alter Friedhof  is located in the eastern part of the town, on the
> corner of Berg Strasse and Frankfurter Strasse.  The walk from the
> historic district of the old town to the graveyard takes around 20
> minutes. You will probably reach Berg Strasse either via Silhofer
> Strasse, Friedenstrasse, or Bruhlsbachstrasse (where Barnack used to
> live at No 18 before moving to what is now known as the "Barnack
> House" in Alte der Platte to the south of Berg Strasse).
>
> The graveyard has several entrances, but the directions which follow
> assume that you will enter from Berg Strasse using the gate at the far
> end of a long narrow car park on the east side of Berg Strasse. This
> location is around 50 metres from the point where Friedenstrasse
> crosses Berg Strasse.
>
> Once through the gate, you will see a long paved path ahead of you.
> Ignore this paved path for the moment, and take the path which runs
> left from the gate. The Leitz family grave is on the right hand side
> of this path, and less than a minute's walk from the gate. It consists
> of a large pale-coloured main tombstone, whose style reflects the
> taste of the early years of  our century, plus a series of small urns
> engraved with the name and dates of birth and death of the individual
> members of the family. Ernst Leitz I and II are not identified by
> number, but Ernst Leitz I died in 1920, and Ernst Leitz II died in
> 1956. (If you own a copy of Dennis Laney's "Leica Collectors Guide"
> published in 1992  by Hove Collectors Books, the Leitz family tree on
> page 15 will help you identify the other members of the family.)
>
> >From the Leitz grave, walk back to the entrance gate, and turn left
> onto the paved path. This runs down the centre of the graveyard, but
> as you walk down its length, you will see that it ends at a war
> memorial. To reach the Barnack grave you need to make a slight detour
> in order to get behind the war memorial so that you can continue in
> the direction that the paved path was heading.
>
> I suspect that the network of paths within the graveyard started out
> as two separate systems which originated at opposite ends of the
> graveyard. Unfortunately, these two systems are not well
> interconnected, but meet in a confusing network of small paths in the
> area to the rear of the war memorial. The route I used to get to the
> Barnack grave site is as follows:
>
> Take the last turning on the right before the war memorial, then take
> the first path to the left, then the first set of steps to the left.
> You should now find yourself near the end of another long path which
> heads in the same direction as the paved path from the gate - had the
> war memorial not been built, this long path and the paved path would
> probably have run continuously down the centre of the graveyard.
>
> As you walk along this long path, you will pass the rear of a church
> built from pale brown stone. (This is the only large building in the
> graveyard, so if you have difficulty in following the detour sequence
> of right-left-left, or have entered the Alter Friedhof from a
> different gate, look for this church and find the long path which runs
> past its rear.)
>
> Once you have passed the rear of the church, walk on for another 50
> metres or so, and you will see that the long path begins to climb and
> turn to the left, while a second path branches off to the right and
> heads downhill. You will be able to tell when you've reached this
> junction - there is a water tap and a circular concrete sink on the
> corner between the long path and the downhill path.
>
> Take the downhill path - it is quite short, and Oskar Barnack's grave
> is on the left-hand side, around two-thirds of the way down. The
> memorial takes the form of a rough unshaped brown stone, whose
> inscription describes Barnack as the inventor of the Leica, but spells
> his first name as "Oscar" rather than the more commonly used "Oskar".
>
> >From Barnack's grave, carry on down the path until you reach a T
> junction. Turn right onto a long narrow path which will take you back
> in the general direction of the entrance gate.
>
> As you walk along this narrow path, look up to the right and you will
> see the rear of the church which you passed earlier. Walk on until you
> have passed the church, and you will see the grave of Max Berek on
> your right. This has a relatively small black stone of modern style.
>
> Carry on along this long narrow path until you reach a point where
> another path branches off downhill and to the left. Take this
> left-hand path, which will eventually take you round to the right and
> towards the paved path which leads back to the gate on Berg Strasse.
>
> The Leitz and Barnack tombstones face northwest, while the Berek
> tombstone faces southwest, so the best time to photograph these is in
> the late afternoon. The gate of the Alter Friedhof is open until 8pm
> in summer, 5pm in winter. Assuming you spend five minutes at each
> grave site, the entire visit to the Alter Friedhof will take around
> 30 - 40 minutes.
>
>