Robot II Analogue camera

Stunning and rare vintage Robot II camera with a black and silver finish, featuring a spring mechanism for sequential shots
Model: Robot II, produced by Otto Berning & Co. in Germany.
Lens:
Equipped with a Schneider-Kreuznach Xenar 37.5 mm f/2.8 lens.
Features: Renowned for its spring motor that allowed taking multiple photos without manual reloading.
Fully functional and supplied with the original case.

The Robot camera was an invention by Heinz Kilfitt of Schweim, Germany, a prolific inventor and entrepreneur in the photography industry. Heinz Kilfitt sold his patent to Hans Berning, who founded Otto Berning & Company to manufacture and market the Robot cameras. The German patent application was filed in 1934, subsequently filed in the United States in 1935, and granted in 1936. The U.S. patent provides a detailed explanation of how this remarkable small automatic spring-powered camera operates.
The serial numbers of Berning Robot II begin at B30001, although there are some preceding pre-production Type II models.
Built around 1941, the camera with serial number B45268-5 is a military serial number. It is the camera destined for Luftwaffe war correspondents. At the start of World War II, civilian journalists traveled as passengers on warplanes. They were later trained as navigators or radio operators and recruited into the Luftwaffe. Their Robot II cameras, chrome or black, long or short, always carried numbers with the B prefix and an additional digit after the number. During World War II about 25,000 Robot II cameras were built. Thousands of these bore the inscription "Luftwaffen Eigentum". Cameras assigned to the air force were not as numerous: there were only about 650 correspondents, two-thirds of whom died in combat.