The Ihagee Company was founded in Dresden, Germany on May 12, 1912 by a 24-year-old Dutch transplant named Johan Steenbergen (1886-1967). The Industrie and Handelsgesellschaft GmbH' (“Industry and Trade Society”), as it was originally known, began as a small-scale camera manufacturer bankrolled by Mrs. Steenbergen, with machines and parts purchased by a bankrupt camera maker. With only mother and son as stockholders, the business steadily grew in volume and revenue, and within a year became known as Ihagee Kamerawerk GmbH. During the 1920s, the company cemented its reputation for camera innovation throughout Europe, hitting its stride in the next decade.

In 1931, Mr. Steenbergen married Elisabeth Louisa Nussbaum, whose Jewish faith would have future repercussions for the couple. Meanwhile, Ihagee released the Exakta, a compact single lens reflex camera that used 127 roll film; and a few years later, it introduced the Kine-Exakta, heralded as the first 35 mm cine-camera that could take 24 x 36 mm pictures, at the 1936 Leipzig Fair. The Exakta models lived up to their name, taking ‘exacting’ photographs, but their hefty price tags limited their market to mostly professional photographers. Both designs are attributed to chief engineer, Karl Nüchterlein. Under his creative supervision, Ihagee pioneered cameras with interchangeable lenses and models specially constructed with TTL (through-the-lens) metering features.

By the end of the 1930s, the name Ihagee was synonymous with innovation, but fortunes quickly changed in 1940 when the Nazis seized all property and businesses owned by non-citizens. Under government control, the company was turned into a munitions manufacturer to support the growing war effort. Mr. Steenbergen was expelled from the company, and he and his wife managed to secure exit visas that allowed them to leave Germany and likely saved their lives. After a brief visit to the Netherlands, the Steenbergens sailed to the United States, eventually settling in San Francisco. Mr. Steenbergen tried to produce the popular Exakta models in the States, but was unsuccessful because of licensing and patent issues.

After World War II, the Ihagee Company resumed camera production on a global scale, and added the Varex to the growing Exakta family. After Mr. Steenbergen’s death in 1967, the name exclusivity rights of the Exakta reverted to his heirs. Renamed the Elbaflex, the newer Exakta incarnations were more affordably priced and included mechanical shutters and mirror foam pad soft stops. The Ihagee Company was officially dissolved in 1976, but cameras featuring the Exakta name were subsequently manufactured and sold in Japan. Ihagee’s original Exakta and Kine-Exakta cameras are now highly sought by collectors.




Ref:
2010 A Comprehensive Beginner's Guide to Photography by Scott G. Shelp (San Francisco, CA: Selective Focus Press), p. 151.

2010 The Daily Book of Photography by Simon Alexander, et al (Lake Forest, CA: Walter Foster Publishing), p. 162.

2008 Deutsche Soldaten: Uniforms, Equipment & Personal Items of the German Soldier 1939-1945 by Agustin Saiz (Drexel Hill, PA: Casemate), p. 221.

2017 Ihagee History (URL: http://i-hagee.com/history).

2018 Johan Steenbergen: Industrialist and Diplomat by E.H. Halbertsma (URL: http://www.ihagee.org/Overig/jsminibioe.pdf).

2001 McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique & Classic Cameras 2001-2002 (Grantsburg, WI: Centennial Photo Service), p. 287.

2010 A Science Career Against All Odds by Bernhard Wunderlich (Berlin, Germany: Springer-Verlag), p. 4-27.

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2020-05-02 18:56:14