Third, Bertele is arguably the most accomplished lens designer of modern
times. Before the merger, Dr August Klughardt, the director of optical
research at Ernemann advised his boss, "[H]err Ernemann, dieser Bertele ist
ein Genie!" Bertele was a warm and compassionate man but was not the sort
of close team-player so liked by Zeiss, and so he never really fitted in
well at Jena though he was widely respected and given free rein to produce
lenses such as the Sonnar, Biogon, and Pleon aerial recon optic, the onme
so sought after by the US Army Air Force at the end of the War. Bertele,
during the War, held three simultaneous appointments, as the senior
independent lens designer at Jena, as the head of lens research and
production at Steinheil, and the head of optical research at Zeiss Ikon --
he even had three fully equipped laboratories for his personal use, one at
Jena, a second at Munich, and a third at Jena.
After the War, he left Zeiss, then in shambles, and went to work with Wild
in Switzerland. Carl Zeiss hired him back as contract labor to produce the
second version of the 2.8/35 Biogon for the Contax RF, the 4.5/38 Biogon
for the Hasselblad Superwide, and the 4.5/21 Biogon for the Contax and
Contarex SLR. Bertele was especially proud of the last design, and said of
it, with perhaps a touch of hubris, "[W]as Penicillin für die Medizin und
was der Düsenantrieb für die Luftfahrttechnik, das is das 21mm-Zeiss-Biogon
für die Fotografie".
