Dresden

Dresden is not just the capital of Saxony. It was also the capital of German photography related industry. In 1852 the famous photographer Hermann Krone moved to Dresden. Since 1865 photo paper makers built their factories in Dresden. Since 1887 the city became the photography metropolis which it remained until 1990. The early camera makers there were:

• Richard Hüttig, (in 1887 his company moved from Berlin to Dresden)
• Wilhelm Franz Matthias (1888, since 1889 Ernemann & Matthias)
• Emil Wünsche (made cameras since 1889)
• Unger & Hoffmann (photo paper maker, started camera making in 1890)
• Carl Paul Förster (1891)
• Ferdinand Franz Meyer, (made the Lysioskop and Lysiostigmat lenses since 1894 and cameras since 1897)

A lot of further optical companies were founded, some got merged, and until WWII many influential camera constructions had been introduced by Dresden's industry.

the city at the river Elbe

Unfortunately Dresden became part of the former postwar East German state which belonged to the block of the socialist countries around the Soviet Union. Several companies got split into a private owned West German part and a state-owned factory in Dresden. Even in socialism the concentration of the capital in large company groups was common. During the 41 years of the existence of the East German state (1949-1990) nearly all photography related companies of Dresden became merged into the state-owned Pentacon group. This company became the first victim of the German reunification. The "Treuhand", the office that had to sell or to liquidate East German companies, simply closed Pentacon, then one of the biggest and most influential East German "combinates". Corruption? At least a huge lack of responsibility of the Treuhand officers who acted severely against their own priority which was to preserve valuable industries.