Austria PC p/n Ludwig Merker's Microscopes at Chermakgasse 1904

Ludwig Merker was considered by contemporaries to be one of the leading microscope manufacturers of his era in Vienna, Austria, along with Karl Reichert.
Little is known about Merker's personal life. He is reported to have been born in Hanover, Saxony (Germany), in 1856. He completed an internship in optical production in Wetzlar, Hesse (Germany), after which he moved to Vienna to work for Reichert.
In 1886, Merker and another Reichert employee, Fritz Ebeling, left the company to start their own microscope business. The joint business dissolved in 1892–1893, and each of them established their own optical business. Ebeling retained a shop in Hernalser-Gürtel, and Merker moved about 1 km away, to Buchfeldgasse. Shortly after the beginning of the twentieth century, Merker moved to Cermakgasse.