Background
Friederich Wilhelm Deckel was born in 1871 in Jungingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
Friederich Wilhelm Deckel was born in 1871 in Jungingen, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.
Friederich Deckel first worked for a company manufacturing hydrographic and cartographic instruments and, in the early 1890s, went to Jena for a couple of years to work under Professor Abbe at the Zeiss factory. After having been a journeyman with various manufacturers of precision optical instruments in Germany, The Netherlands and England, Friederich Deckel moved to Munich and worked for the Steinheil firm in 1897-1898.
Becoming familiar with the photographic industry, he opened his own workshop to produce camera shutters and, after two years, expanded into the sale of optical instruments. He started the firm of Bruns & Deckel in 1903 to manufacture the Compound shutter, conceived by Christian Bruns and constructed by Deckel. They dissolved their partnership in 1905, whereupon Friederich Deckel incorporated his company, which continued until 1916. During World War I his factory was used by the military and, during World War II, a great portion of it was destroyed; but at the time of Deckel's death it was under reconstruction.