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Certo

Camera industry in Dresden

Camera distributors in Dresden

Stöckig

Camera industry in Freital

Beier | Pouva | Thowe | Welta

Certo was a German maker based in Dresden, founded in 1902 by engineer Alfred Lippert and Karl Peppel. It made mainly medium-priced folders. In 1905 it got the name Certo. It was quite comparable to Welta and Balda. In 1917 it was bought by Emil Zimmermann who added the Certonett 6x9 rollfilm cameras to the product palette. Before WWII Zimmermann's son-in-law Fritz von der Gönna led the company. Its flagship product was the Super Dollina. During the war von der Gönna hid the machines for the Super Dollina's production in the houses of loyal employees. After the war he started producing cigarette rolling apparatuses, and rebuilt the camera production secretly. When Certo restarted the Super Dollina's production in 1946 all cameras had to be delivered as reparations to the Soviet Union for granted. From 1950 to von der Gönna's death in 1958 the company was a private company. Located in postwar socialist East Germany, it became half state-owned afterwards. In 1960s and 1970s Certo produced cheap and simple viefinder cameras as SL 100 or KN 35. It ended as a part of the VEB Pentacon conglomerate.