Mackenstein

Also known as: Francia

Region: France    Period: 1890–1930    Tag: Mackenstein Hermann Josef Hubert Mackenstein
* 17 December 1846, Doveren, Germany   † 24 March 1924, Paris, France

Hermann Mackenstein was born in Doveren, Germany. In 1867 he moved to Paris to refine his skills as a carpenter. By the late 1870s, his activities had shifted towards the manufacture of cameras.

Mackenstein’s firm developed into a major camera manufacturer in Paris. Its production included conventional cameras, stereo cameras, photographic accessories, and stereoscopes. In addition to goods of its own manufacture, the company also retailed products by other makers at its shop on Avenue de l’Opéra.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, anti-German sentiment in France was pronounced. Mackenstein was therefore repeatedly required to emphasise the French identity of his company. Following the outbreak of the First World War, the firm was renamed Francia in 1915 in order to underscore its French character. In the same year, Mackenstein’s property was confiscated. In 1916 he left France for the neutral Netherlands.

After the war, Mackenstein returned to Paris. From 1922, the company was taken over by two of his former employees, Henri Suffize and Léon Molitor, and continued under the name Suffize & Molitor.

Related items: Suffize & Molitor

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