No bigger than a child’s wooden building block, with its housing made entirely of stainless steel, the Minox miniature camera was a milestone in the history of photography. It was developed in the 1930s by Walter Zapp. After Western companies such as Agfa had shown no interest in his design for such a small camera, it went into production in 1938 after Walter Zapp teamed up with a business partner to establish a manufacturer called VEF – Valsts Elektrotechniska Fabrika – in Reval, Lithuania. Although the camera soon attracted great international interest, production was halted by the Nazi invasion of the Baltic States in 1941. After the war, Zapp managed to revive the production of his design by founding MINOX GmbH in the German town of Wetzlar. However, the famous follow-up known as the Minox B was launched without Zapp’s involvement following a rift with the management. The camera became enormously popular due to its versatility. As well as featuring in the movies as a prop for investigators and secret agents, it also came to be used in real life for espionage and medical purposes.