Pekka Buttler, 01/2025
Quick summary
The optics company A. Schacht was active from 1948 to 1967. It produced interchangeable lenses for several mounts including Exakta, Leica thread mount, M42 and Praktina. Schacht lenses are widely known for being of the highest (West) German quality.
From 1948 to 1954 the company was located in München (Munich), and from 1954 onward in the city of Ulm. A.Schacht lenses are therefore labeled either A.Schacht München or A.Schacht Ulm.
History of A.Schacht
Albert Schacht had a long career (1919–1946) as a manager at Carl Zeiss, ICA, Zeiss Ikon and Steinheil before founding A.Schacht in Munich in 1948. Early A.Schacht lenses are imprinted with A.Schacht München on their name rings.
The timing was auspicious, as Europe was recovering from a devastating war, and the development of the interchangeable lens SLR camera – which the war had interrupted – was sure to continue towards new heights, thereby also creating a growing market for specialised manufacturers of interchangeable lenses. Even so, while A.Schacht lenses might be the most prominent and well-known A.Schacht product, the company had also other activities.
Moreover, A.Schacht had the ability to procure many of its optical designs from the famous lens Designer Ludwig Bertele who had established himself in Switzerland after a stint in the United States. Bertele’s designs in combination with Schacht’s management acumen certainly offered the new company some considerable potential. On the other hand, largely the same applied to A.Schacht’s competition.
In 1954 the company A.Schacht relocated 120 km westwards to the City of Ulm. From then on, lens name rings said A.Schacht Ulm. Literature on A.Schacht lenses often contain the acronyms ASM (A.Schacht München) and ASU (A.Schacht Ulm).
The company A.Schacht was acquired in 1967 by a minor conglomerate, and the optics division was sold onwards to Will, Wetzlar in 1969 and the A.Schacht machinery was dispersed among existing Will, Wetzlar facilities. Manufacture of A.Schacht lenses ended in 1970.
Why did A.Schacht fail? Please understand that I have no insider information here, and with public sources about the company being sparse as it is … I can still say some things.
One: Yes, A.Schacht failed in the sense that the lenses disappeared from the market and unlike some other companies who withdrew from making interchangeable lenses, A. Schacht did not make a name for itself in other fields either.
Two: On the other hand, A.Schacht lenses (and the company as a separate entity) is in rather good company, as the late 60s and early 70s were a very tough time for the West German lens and photo industry in general, leading to a wave of consolidations and closures until only the most competitive actors remained. Nor is this phenomenon specific to the West German photo/optics industry as the Japanese photo/optics industry was hit with a similar wave of closures and consolidations a decade later.
Three: While I have only a few A.Schacht lenses (and have tested a handful), I can certainly say that A.Schacht’s early demise was not caused by a lack of quality as the optics were designed with great skill and housed in lens bodies that very likely were quality wise ahead of the field. I rather suspect that the problem might have been that the consumers were not willing to pay the price that Bertele’s designs and Schacht’s engineering management acumen should have deserved.
A.Schacht lens names:
Alike most German companies, A.Schacht had the habit of giving its lenses names that echoed the lens’ design or use-case. Some of the typical A.Schacht lens names are: Travenar, Travegon, Travelon and Travegar.
Sometimes the names would also either contain the system the lens was intended for (as in the Praktica-S-Travelon above), but sometimes the name would also be modified to indicate the system (for instance the Alpagon was a version of the Travegon for an Alpa camera)