Optima office machine factory in Erfurt
| Optima office machine factory
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| founding | October 11, 1919 |
| resolution | March 2004 |
| Reason for dissolution | insolvency |
| Seat | Erfurt , Germany |
| Number of employees |
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| Branch | Office machine manufacturer |
The Optima Büromaschinenwerk Erfurt was an important company in the metal industry in Erfurt .
history
The Optima Büromaschinenwerk Erfurt went back to the Erfurt Königlich Preußische Gewehrfabrik , founded in 1862 , which after the First World War had to convert its production to civilian products such as typewriters according to the Versailles Treaty .
On October 11, 1919, the company was transferred to a Reichswerk and later part of the Deutsche Werke AG Berlin . In 1923 AEG took a 50% stake in the new Deutsche-Werke-Schreibmaschinengesellschaft mbH , in order to take it over completely in 1929. The Mignon pointer typewriter was then produced in Erfurt under the company Europa Typewriter Werke AG . The Filia , Elite and Progreß followed . After the introduction of the Olympia typewriter, the name of the company was changed to Olympia Büromaschinen Werke AG in 1937 . During the Second World War , production was again switched to rifles. On April 12, 1945, the plant burned down in large parts after artillery fire.
In 1946 the Olympia Büromaschinenwerk was converted into a Soviet stock corporation (SAG), but was transferred to German administration as VEB Olympia Büromaschinenwerk Erfurt in 1950 . The company then lost a legal battle at the International Court of Justice in The Hague against Olympia-Werke AG in Wilhelmshaven , which was founded by former employees who had fled to West Germany. The company name was changed to VEB Optima Büromaschinenwerk , based on the Optima font class , and the name of the typewriters was changed from Olympia to Optima . The company, which had around 6,900 employees in the 1960s, became part of the Robotron combine on January 1, 1978 and accordingly renamed VEB Robotron-Optima Büromaschinenwerk Erfurt (OBE).
Successor company
In the course of the dissolution of the combine, Robotron Optima GmbH was founded in 1991 . After the privatization efforts of the THA were not successful in 1992 in the buy-out management , the Optima Office GmbH created which again produced with 250 employees in a new building in Peter Born typewriters. A quarter of a century after the sister company Olympia-Werke AG in Wilhelmshaven, this company had to stop production in 1999 and file for bankruptcy.
On January 18, 2000 the company Optima Typewriter Works Erfurt was founded with 18 employees. This company built SP series electronic typewriters until March 2004. This company also had to go into bankruptcy. Typewriter production was sold to Mexico.
From 2004 to 2006 there was Optima Vertriebs GmbH with three employees. This company bought typewriters from Mexico, programmed and labeled the keyboards in the appropriate language. These machines were mainly exported.
literature
- Eberhard Lippmann: AEG - Olympia - Optima. Office machines from Erfurt 1924–2004. Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2010, ISBN 978-3-86680-706-8 .
- Leonhard Dingwerth: The history of the German typewriter factories - Volume 1: Volume 1: Large and medium-sized manufacturers. Verlag Kunstgrafik, Dingwerth 2008, ISBN 978-3921913383 , pp. 87 ff. On Google Books
Web links
- Typewriters from AEG, Olympia and Optima in the Erfurt City Museum
- Overview of the typewriter series Erika elektronic 3004, 3005, 3006, 3015 and 3016 produced in the Optima office machine factory in Erfurt from 1987–1991
Coordinates: 50 ° 58 ′ 31.2 ″ N , 11 ° 1 ′ 8.4 ″ E