Ernst Leitz

Born in Sulzburg, Baden, in 1843, he trained as a mechanic and gained experience in Switzerland before arriving in Wetzlar in the 1860s. He joined the Optical Institute founded by Carl Kellner, became a partner soon afterward, and took over the business in 1869.

Under his leadership, the company expanded from a small workshop into the internationally known Optische Werke Ernst Leitz. It became especially respected for microscopes and other precision optical instruments, growing along with the rise of modern scientific and medical research.

Leitz died in 1920 in Solothurn, Switzerland. Although the Leica camera era is more closely linked with the next generation, his industrial skill and long-term investment in optical manufacturing created the foundation on which that later success was built.