I will be the first to admit I don't know the story on the history of the Austrian Goerz company, nor it's connection to the German Goerz. I find it difficult to believe that there were two C. P. Goerz companies that were in the camera business, and shared very similar logos.
The C.P. Goerz I do know about was Carl Paul Goerz, who began camera manufacture around 1888, and within about a year had gone into optical production as well. His company was very successful, and in 1905 he formed a subsidiary company Goerz American Optical to supply the American market with his optics.
In 1926 the German part of Goerz merged with Contessa Nettel, Ernemann and Ica, three of the most prominent photographic manufacturers to become Zeiss Ikon. Carl Paul Goerz had passed away three years prior. The firm Goerz American Optical remained independent of Zeiss Ikon, and still is in business. How this connects to C.P. Goerz in Vienna in the 1950's is a mystery to me. Perhaps someone out there knows and would care to share it.
Goerz introduced the Minicord around 1951. It is one of the highest quality subminiatures ever built. The nature of subminiature cameras requires extensive enlargement to create decent size prints for viewing. Because enlarging magnifies the flaws in a photo, it is more important on a smaller camera to maintain absolute sharpness of image, flatness of film and accuracy in focus.
Goerz opted to build their camera a little larger than most of the competition. It is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and is a twin lens reflex. This made the camera easier to handle, and the focusing is very exact. The viewing screen is a bit larger than the 10x10mm image size. It accepts regular 16mm film loaded into special cassettes. The lens is a Goerz Helgor 25/2, and the shutter is a metal plane, with speeds 10-400.
Around 1958 the Minicord was replaced by the Minicord III. Functionally, the only difference I can find is that the Minicord III has flash synch, while at least some of the original models do not. I have seen photos of the original models with flash synch, but do not know if this was original or a late factory upgrade. The Minicord III differs from the original model cosmetically by using brown leather to replace the black from the original model. Also, part of the central body casting was in black bakelight on the original is now silver metal.
In addition to the normal finish, a few Minicords were gold plated with red or green leather. These are very uncommon.
Goerz also marketed an enlarger for use only with the Minicord. It actually attaches to the back of the camera in place of the regular film back, and uses the cameras fine lens and shutter for making enlargements. In keeping with the spirit of the camera, it disassembles and stores in a compact wooden box, which doubles as a base for the enlarger.
The Minicord, with box instructions and book of tips.
A close-up of the folding grip on the bottom
A Minicord cassette and film can.
The Minilux enlarger
A close-up of the enlarger with the camera attached.
The enlarger disassembled and stowed in the baseplate/box.