Dr. Rodehüser

Dr. Rodehüser founded Dr. Rodehüser, Feinmechanischer Optischer Apparatebau, a German company based in Heeßen, Westphalia. Its factory in Bergkamen, Westphalia, made still cameras. Widely known are the Panta viewfinder cameras for rollfilm, solid metal cameras with sturdy aluminium body. After bankruptcy Dr. Rodehüser refounded the company as Westfälische Kamera- und Apparatebau and produced the Navax 35mm cameras. This company failed and Rodehüser fled to Brazil for a while. His consultant Heinrich Otterbach refounded the company as Feinmechanisch-optischer Gerätebau Schück & Co.. Financing the new company was based on an act of fraud. Rodehüser and his consultant had misused the postwar credit program of the government to found a KG (commanditist company) which was not able to survive with the simple cameras that it had produced. At the end both had consumed 750.000 D-Mark state money for their experiment and ended in jail.

Cameras

• Panta
• Navax

Links

• Swindle and economic disaster around the Dr. Rodehüser factory in Spiegel Archiv [1]