Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Becomes Leica Camera

In 1986 Ernst Leitz GmbH split its business divisions into three companies, with the camera and binocular business becoming Leica GmbH. In 1988 it moved from Wetzlar — where Barnack had built the Ur-Leica in 1914 — to the nearby town of Solms, and was later renamed Leica Camera GmbH (Leica Camera AG from 1996). The Leitz name, which had appeared on every camera since the 1920s, disappeared from the camera business.

The rename formalised what had long been true in practice: the Leica brand was more valuable than the Leitz corporate name, at least outside the optical and scientific instrument world. The microscope and scientific divisions retained the Leitz identity.

For the camera line, the Solms era produced some well-regarded bodies — the M6 in particular became the benchmark film rangefinder of the 1980s and 1990s. But the company remained financially fragile through this period, a vulnerability that would nearly prove fatal in the early 2000s.