(Gus Schuettler/Stars and Stripes)

Wetzlar, Germany, April 1979: A worker at the Ernst Leitz optical firm’s Wetzlar plant inspects a 50-pound block of glass that will soon be processed into some of the world’s finest lenses. The company began producing Leica cameras and Leitz lenses in the early part of the 20th century. Read more here.