The government of the city and the district finally approved a construction of eight floors with a loggia-like ninth floor, that later was closed. It was possible to access all the floors through two stairs. The building was built with a concrete construction modeled from the production halls of Opel in Rüsselsheim, Zeiss in Jena and Wernerwerk in Berlin. The plan was now made up of eight floors for Leica production. In 1936, the architect presented a completely revised plan. The general design shows a mixture of very graphic elements and remains of curved Modernist forms that recall the buildings by Joseph Maria Olbrich at Mathildenhöhe of Darmstadt.
The still existing façade drawings show the columns with arches on the ground floor and that are fitted between a long strip of windows with excessive pilasters. Once again, it was Jean Schmidt, who prepared the plans for a first seven-story skyscraper. The space between the two skyscrapers (which originally had been provided with subsequent buildings) had to be closed by another building in the early 1930s. In the ten-axis building, similar to the oldest skyscraper, the lower levels are grouped by pilasters. Again, the original plan, which provided a horizontal structure of the building through the cornucopia, was abandoned in favor of a simpler façade design. The basement building was made of reinforced concrete with brick stairs. After the planning of Jean Schmidt, contractor Robert Schneider built a four-story building in 1911. Only a few years later, Leitz again demanded the construction of a tall building. The mansard's floor expanded as production and workers also increased. On either side of the central building there was a hip roof with high ceilings. The fourth floor is visually separated from the lower part of the building by a very distant cornice. Narrow wall patterns and lightly embedded parapets summarize the three lowest floors. The four-story building is divided into six groups of windows, each of which has three windows. However, in the same year, it was decided to use the new construction of concrete skeletons and a simpler façade design. The first plans of the architect Jean Schmidt in 1907 show a brick building on a stone base, which was covered by a sloping roof and a slate roof. The oldest part of this row of tall buildings is now hidden by a new building at the Schützenstraße. In the first years, residential buildings and workshops on the Laufdorfer Weg were still sufficient.Īt the turn of the century, the production of optical devices expanded so much that it originated the first skyscrapers in the city of Wetzlar. The Wetzlar factory was located on the opposite side of the administrative building of 1957 and formed a special urban architecture it is upstream from the slope of Kalsmunt and forms a structurally attractive graduation from the skyscrapers to the ruins of Kalsmunt Castle.Īlready in the last decades of the 19th century, Ernst Leitz and its production facilities had moved to the slopes of Kalsmunt.
People will continue to believe brand hype, I now take all that with a pinch of salt.
If you look at car reliability high end German brands are not better, some are below average. In my experience German reliability is a myth.
Actually, a plastic seat nob fell off the Skoda and inside it had an Audi logo! Control nobs all broke off our Neff cooker, the freezer door on our AEG fell off.
In contrast my then new 2003 Audi A4 was an expensive nightmare during its 4th year and my Czech built Skoda Yeti totally faultless for nearly 8. For 25 years my Nikon cameras have been fault free, the recent Fujis seem also very well made, though Leica lenses are still the best. I have to admire them for fixing that as many wouldn't, but when you think of how not offering replacements would ruin the crucial part ex market it made sense. The first problem wasn't even fixed and the final was the sensor replacement. My Leica M9 has been back to Wezlar 3 times, for a period of about 20 weeks in total.