Zeiss Ikon was founded in 1926 by the merger of Contessa-Nettel, Goerz, Ernemann and Ica, which itself was the product of a merger of Huttig, Krugener, Wunsche, Zulauf and Carl Zeiss Palmos factory. Zeiss Ikon built cameras at all levels of price and features, from the fabled Contax, Contarex and Twin Lens Contaflex cameras that many photographers dreamed of owning, but many could afford, to the simplest box cameras and folding cameras. All were Zeiss top quality construction, some just had more features than others. But as good as they were at designing cameras, they seemed equally unable to efficiently manage their business affairs. All of the parties of the merger brought camera lines with them, and it was difficult to kill off lines that competed with each other. They made too many models, each available with too many lens and shutter combinations. In one year, they had 104 different models in their catalog, with a choice of nearly 1000 combinations of model, format, lens and shutter! The war changed everything. The plant at Dresden was destroyed in the fire bombing by US and British Army.(mflenses.com)