Credits: Article and images by Wei Koh @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/lange-sohne-walter-lange-lange-1/
Springer’s story brings to mind the story of another individual whose life was profoundly affected by the Soviet occupation of East Germany. His name is Walter Lange. While his story is equally remarkable, his early life was defined by an almost Job-like series of relentless absurdist tragedies. It goes like this: At 16 years old, Lange, young and idealistic with his whole future before him, was sent to Karlstein, Austria, to become a watchmaker. There he dreamt of adding his own chapter into the indelible codex of high German watchmaking that reaches back to 1845 when his grandfather, Ferdinand Adolph Lange, founded A. Lange & Söhne.
In 1942, at the age of 18, Lange graduated from watchmaking school and returned to Germany to find his country amid the throes of war. He was seconded to the army, sent to the Russian Front where, in 1945, he was shot in the leg and laid in agony on a battlefield all night, too scared to move. At that moment, he thought he would actually perish. He was eventually discovered and sent home via the Baltic Sea. Slowly, in the care of his family, he recuperated. Even better, word had spread that the war was finally coming to an end. His heart thus filled with hope, and on the very last day of the Second World War in Europe, Lange made his way to his family’s Glashütte watch factory to finally begin his journey as a watchmaker. He arrived just a few hours before the ceasefire was announced but then, incredibly, was forced to watch as his factory’s main building was decimated by one of the very last bombing raids over Europe.
Over the next three years, he struggled tirelessly beside his father, Rudolf, and his uncles, Otto and Gerhard, to rebuild A. Lange & Söhne. Brick by brick, they brought the factory back to life. From dust and ruin they breathed hope back into their beloved A. Lange & Söhne. The family felt optimistic for the first time in years and even started work on a brand new movement named the caliber 28, intended for the booming wristwatch market.
Credits: Article and images by Wei Koh @ Revolution Watch Magazine. See the original article here - https://revolutionwatch.com/lange-sohne-walter-lange-lange-1/
