German binoculars are popular with collectors.

German binoculars started to appear in numbers from the mid/late 1800s along with the UK and France. First with their galilean binoculars and opera glasses and then in the 1890s the prismatic binoculars started to appear.

Prismatic binoculars do of course use a prism for focusing, and the most common prisms in use during these times were, Abbe and Porro. The Abbe prism is attributed to an Italian, Ignazio Porro in the early 1800s, and then Ernst Abbe of Jena seems to have modified it in the mid 1800s with the assotiation of Carl Zeiss. Thus the Abbe-Porro prism.

Most binoculars from Germany seem to be quite popular with collectors and some of them in good condition can be quite expensive, especially the Zeiss ones.

German Manufactures.

Leitz. Wetzlar.

Zeiss. Jena.

Hensoldt and Sohne. Wetzlar.

Goerz Vienna.

Busch. Rathenow.

Voigtlander and Sohn. Brunswick.

Rodenstock. Munich.

During WW11 the Germans became very sensitive and did not want the allies to know who their binocular suppliers were, so they put a code on them and the following is a list, with probably more that I do not know.

Some German binoculars Manufacturers Codes.

Beh. - Ernst Leitz - Wetzlar - Germany.

Blc. - Carl Zeiss - Militarabteilung - Jena - Germany.

Bmj. - Hensoldt And Sohne - Munich - Germany.

Bmt. - Steinheil and Sohne - Munich - Germany.

Bpd. - Goerz - Vienna - Austria.

Cag. - Swarovski - Wattens/Tirol - Austria.

Cxn. - Emil Busch - Rathenow - Germany.

Ddx. - Voigtlander and Sohn - Brunswick - Germany.

Dkl. - J. Schneider - Kreutznach - Germany.

Dzl. - Oigee - Berlin - Schoneberg - Germany.

Eaw. - Winkel - Gottingen - Germany.

Eso. - Rodenstock - Munich - Germany.

Esu. - Steinheil and Sohne - Munich - Germany.

Eug. - Optische Prazisions Werke - Warsaw - Poland.

Fvx. - Beck and Sohne - Kassel - Germany.

Gwv. - Ernst Plank - Nurnberg - Germany.

Jfp. - Dr Carl Leiss - Berlin - Germany.

Nms. - Holz - Berlin - Germany.

Rin. - Carl Zeiss - Jena Germany.

The picture shows a pair of Carl Zeiss Jena Silvaren 6x30. german binoculars