Binoculars 7x50 Ernst Leitz Wetzlar, Kriegsmarine, 1940

7x50 binoculars produced by the E. Leitz Wetzlar company, for the Kriegsmarine (or German navy) during the Second World War. On the part of the left eyepiece there is the full name of the manufacturer, the 7x50 magnifications and the serial number 299786. On the part of the right eyepiece there is the "Reichsadler" or Imperial or National Eagle, with open wings and having between the claws a laurel wreath with the “Swastika” or Nazi swastika in the centre.

The “M” placed under the Eagle indicates acceptance into the German Navy, while the “N” Nordsee indicated the assignment of the binoculars to a ship or submarine operating at a North Sea base. The number 18293 was, in all likelihood, the assignment number to a unit.

The binoculars are in excellent condition, the view is good, the prisms (porro II) are perfectly collimated and the focus is soft and precise. There is also its contemporary original case, also marked “E. Leitz Wetzlar” “1940” with Eagle, Swastika and “M” underneath, in which, in the appropriate cases, inside the lid, there are the relative colored filters (2 orange and 2 light green).

The Leitz company is a company operating in the optics sector. It was founded in 1869 by Ernst Leitz, known as Ernst Leitz I (1843-1920), as an 1849 successor to Carl Kellner's company, the Optical Institute, in Wetzlar.