March 28, 2004
Walter Zapp and the Minox
The famous Minox miniature “spy” camera was developed and manufactured by Walter Zapp in Rīga, Latvia. The first production model was even named for the city.
Zapp created the camera in 1936, but the first commercial model—the “Riga”—was made in 1938 and carried a “Made in Latvia” marking.
Zapp was born into a German family in 1905 in Rīga. He died at the age of 97 in 2003 in Switzerland. More about Zapp may be learned from the Minox Historical Society and the Latvian Academy of Sciencies.
Detailed histories of the camera are available from the Minox company Web site and from the Minoxgraphy Community.
Among the photo galleries on the Minoxgraphy Community site is a haunting collection of post-war images of Flensburg, Germany, made in 1946 by Mintauts Jansons, a Latvian.
The picture above is a detail from a 1959 advertisement for Minox cameras in National Geographic Magazine.
Andris Straumanis is editor of Latvians Online.
The article may be found online at http://latviansonline.com/index.php/dyk/article/372/
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