mid 1950s Werra 1 courtesy of Camera-Wiki and Dries van den Elzen
Toronto. After the Second World War, Zeiss and Jena ended up in the Soviet zone of Germany (East Germany). A western version of Zeiss was quickly moved to Oberkochen.
The East German Zeiss continued to manufacture optical instruments. Cameras were made for both Eastern and Western consumption. One such line of cameras in the 1950s and 60s was the futuristic Werra. Most cameras came with a Tessar normal lens although legal issues blocked any cameras sold in the west from using the name Tessar.
The Werra line was elegant and minimalist, suggesting a design for the future. The cameras often appeared in our fairs and were listed in McKeown’s price guides. (I use the 11th edition – 2001/2002). The image upper left is courtesy of Dries van den Elzen whose Flickr stream may be seen here.
Note: The post title is a riff on a line from the 1962 Bob Dylan song, “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall“.
