Contessa-Nettel

Camera industry in Stuttgart

The Contessa-Nettel AG Stuttgart was a German company that resulted from a merger of Contessa Camerawerke and Nettel Camerawerk in the year 1919. After a time of cooperation with ICA it became part of Zeiss Ikon in 1926.

Dr August Nagel began his camera design business in 1908 as Drexler & Nagel, quickly to become the Contessa Camerawerke a year later. In 1919, he bought the Nettel Kamera-werke and renamed the combined operation Contessa-Nettel AG.

One of the company's specialties was its wide range of stereo camera models. Another specialty were cameras with focal plane shutter. Maybe the company's internal name of these shutters was "Deck-Rouleau", a combination of the German words decken=to cover and Rouleau=roller blind (original form of Rollo, derived from French: rouleau=roll). However, some of the cameras with these shutters were marketed under the type name "Deckrullo".