Robotron combine

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VEB Kombinat Robotron

logo
legal form publicly-owned business
founding April 1st 1969
resolution July 1, 1990
Seat Dresden
management Friedrich Wokurka (1982 to 1990)
Number of employees 68,000 (1989)
sales 12.8 billion marks (1989)
Branch Electrical engineering / computers / software

The VEB Kombinat Robotron was the largest computer manufacturer in the former East Germany and one of the most important producers of information technology in the CMEA . As a state-owned enterprise and combine, it was subordinate to the Ministry of Electrical Engineering and Electronics . The “Robotron” brand is an artificial word made up of the word parts robot and electronics .

history

Final assembly at Kombinat Robotron in Dresden (1981)

The forerunner of the Robotron combine was VVB Büromaschinen, formed in 1958 , which was renamed VVB Datenverarbeitungs- und Büromaschinen in 1964 . As part of this cooperation association, the mainframe computer Robotron 300 was manufactured, the development of which was started by VEB Electronic Calculating Machines from Karl-Marx-Stadt (today Chemnitz ) and which was manufactured by VEB Rafena in Radeberg . From the VVB data processing and office machines, within the framework of the new economic system of planning and management , a centrally initiated restructuring of industry in the GDR, the Robotron combine and the Zentronik combine were formed on April 1, 1969 . The Rafena television factory in Radeberg was initially used as the parent company of Robotron and the headquarters of the combine management. At the beginning of the 1970s, the new Robotron site Pirnaischer Platz (since 2017 Lingnerstadt) on Leningrader Strasse (today St. Petersburger Strasse ), between Pirnaischer Platz and Georgplatz opposite the New Town Hall, was completed. In addition, a new production plant was built on Bodenbacher Strasse in Dresden-Gruna, as well as new buildings at the branch offices in Riesa , Karl-Marx-Stadt and Hoyerswerda . With the redistribution of tasks and production locations, the combine management with a large part of the computer technology production was relocated to Dresden in 1970.

On January 1, 1978, the Zentronik combine was dissolved and its operations, including the Karl-Marx-Stadt accounting machine factory (formerly Astra-Werke ) and the Sömmerda office machine factory (formerly Rheinmetall -Werk Sömmerda) as well as the typewriter factory with the Erika Production (formerly Seidel & Naumann ), integrated into the VEB Kombinat Robotron.

In the GDR, the combine was largely responsible for the development, production and sale of electronic data processing systems, small and microcomputers, personal computers, process computers, control computers for communication systems and the associated operating systems, standard application software and software technologies , in addition to the Erfurt microelectronics combine .

The first general director was Siegfried Zugehre (1969–1973), followed by Wolfgang Sieber (1973–1982). The last general manager was Friedrich Wokurka (1982–1990).

In 1989 the workforce of the combine was 68,000, the number of companies 21 and the turnover 12.8 billion marks in the GDR .

The transformation process necessary after the monetary, economic and social union in 1990 to adapt to the market economy conditions led to serious changes in the branch of industry. The Kombinat as the managing body was dissolved on July 1, 1990, and the previous Kombinatsbetriebe were converted into corporations with the Treuhandanstalt as the sole shareholder. The significantly lower productivity of the companies in an international comparison did not generally allow cost-covering sales of the products. In the following years this led to the liquidation of the former combine operations. The processing was led by the former member of the Bundestag Hermann Fellner .

brand

The robotron logo was a registered trademark of the Robotron combine under registration number DD641673 until it was deleted on December 20, 2002. The successor companies BuS Elektronik Riesa and Robotron Database Software Dresden secured the word mark rights to the lettering in different spellings, whereby the trademark of the Riesa company was deleted in 2012. The word / figurative mark “robotron®” is a registered trademark of the Robotron Education and Advice Center Leipzig.

Products

The main products of the Robotron combine were

VEB Robotron-Elektronik Dresden - The central unit, the heart of the data processing system, is checked in the test field.

There were also typewriters, printers and plotters , as well as measurement, radio relay and communication technology. The scope of services also included the development and production of equipment for the production and testing of electronic assemblies and devices as well as the production of a range of electronic consumer goods such as home and small computers ( Z 9001, KC 85/1, KC 87 ), selected broadcasting and portable televisions.

Robotron also developed and manufactured military electronic systems for the national and international market, including automatic warfare agent detection devices and the KSMG1 radiation measurement system.

In the 1980s, Robotron also gained importance for the West German market by supplying peripheral devices such as printers for home computers . These were offered by various importers under various names, for example President ( Federal Republic of Germany ) and Samelco (USA). Sometimes only components or semi-finished devices without electronics or interfaces were exported. The majority of typewriters were also sold in the West, mostly through mail order companies. A cooperation was established with the West German branch of Commodore , for which Robotron manufactured the mechanics for the fast type wheel printers CBM 8028 and CBM 8229, while the electronics came from a West German company and the firmware from Commodore itself.

Companies of the combine

VEB Kombinat Robotron Dresden 1990
VEB Robotron-Elektronik Dresden - Computer EC 1055, 1980
VEB Robotron-Elektronik Dresden - Computer Newa 1M, 1984
VEB Robotron-Elektronik Dresden - Computer A 7100, 1987
Radio "Lausitz 2002" from 1975 by VEB Robotron-Elektronik Hoyerswerda, design: Gerhard Schöne
VEB Robotron-Elektronik Riesa - Robotron 4000 (behind the skilled worker), 1983

At the beginning of 1990, the Robotron combine consisted of the following companies, plus sub-companies and parts of companies (with a supplier function ) in a further 64 locations in the GDR, as well as commercial agencies and service offices in 28 countries.

The Robotron combine maintained cooperative relationships with the Microelectronics Combines in Erfurt , Carl Zeiss Jena , Radio and Television Technology Staßfurt as well as with the Central Institute for Cybernetics and Information Processes of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and with the Computer Science Section of the TU Dresden . When VEB Steremat the terminals for Robotron computer P8000 were produced.

Successor company

Occasionally, parts of the company, especially those for intangible services that require a lot of intelligence, have been spun off as joint ventures or management buyouts (MBOs).

IBM Germany:

  • CSD Computer Software-Services Chemnitz, now IBM Global Services, IT-Services and Solutions GmbH (as of July 1, 2008 IBM ITS GmbH)
  • CSP Computer Service Partner Berlin, csg has been operating under the name IBM Germany Customer Support Services GmbH, csg Computer Service Gesellschaft GmbH since June 1, 2008
  • WBI further education company for information technology Berlin, now IBM Global Services, Bildungsstätte Berlin

SAP and Siemens-Nixdorf :

  • SRS software and system house Dresden, until 2008 SAP Systems Integration, subsequently merged into SAP Deutschland AG & Co. KG
Robotron in Leipzig (2009)
until 2005 headquarters of Robotron Education and Consulting Center Leipzig

As an MBO:

  • Robotron database software GmbH, Dresden under the direction of Rolf Heinemann
  • Robotron Projekt GmbH Dresden under the direction of Peter Adenauer
  • CVU project, Berlin
  • CVU Office and Technology, Berlin
  • BuS Elektronik GmbH, Riesa
  • Robotron Education and Consulting Center GmbH, Leipzig
  • Robotron Network Systems GmbH, Leipzig
  • XENON automation technology GmbH

Of the 68,000 employees of the combine, only less than five percent were able to switch to branch-related successor companies. The potential of highly qualified workers, however, encouraged the subsequent business settlement

museum

Fifty years after the founding of the Robotron Combine, Robotron Database Software GmbH opened its own Robotron Museum on April 1, 2019 .

literature

  • Gerhardt Ronneberger: Code name "Saale" - high-tech smuggler under Schalck-Golodkowski . Dietz, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-320-01967-8 .
  • Gerhard Merkel : VEB Kombinat Robotron - A combine of the Ministry of Electrical Engineering and Electronics of the GDR . Industrial history working group of the Dresden City Archives, Dresden 2006 ( robotron.foerderverein-tsd.de [PDF; 580 kB ]).
  • Matthias Judt: The area of ​​commercial coordination: the GDR economic empire of Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski; Myth and Reality . Links, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86153-724-3 .
  • Gerhard Barkleit : Microelectronics in the GDR. SED, state apparatus and state security in the competition of systems (= reports and studies. No. 29). Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism, Dresden 2000, ISBN 3-931648-32-X .

Movie

Web links

Commons : Robotron  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Leonhard Dingwerth: Historical typewriters . Battenberg Gietl, Regenstauf 2008, ISBN 978-3-86646-041-6 , p. 60 .
  2. ↑ a b Gerhard Merkel: VEB Kombinat Robotron - A combine of the Ministry for Electrical Engineering and Electronics of the GDR . Dresden 2006 ( robotron.foerderverein-tsd.de [PDF; 580 kB ]).
  3. ↑ Through life with an open visor at www.oberpfalznetz.de.
  4. ↑ Klaus-Dieter Weise: About the origin of the name Robotron . UAG Historie Robotron of the computer technology working group in the Technical Collections Dresden, Dresden 2007 ( robotron.foerderverein-tsd.de [PDF; 148 kB ]).
  5. ↑ Information on the “robotron” brand  in the register of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
  6. ↑ Information on the Robotron brand  in the register of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
    Information on the robotron brand  in the register of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
  7. ↑ Information on the robotron® brand  in the register of the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
  8. ↑ Werner Thote: Rafena, Robotron and the turning point 1965 to 1993 . In: City of Radeberg in collaboration with the working group City History (Ed.): Radeberger Blätter zur Stadtgeschichte . August 2007, p. 9 ( fesararob.de [PDF; 3.1 MB ; accessed on March 3, 2014] in PDF).
  9. ↑ Robotrontechnik.de
  10. ↑ Robotron Database Software GmbH (RDS)
  11. ^ CVU project, Berlin
  12. ^ CVU Office and Technology, Berlin
  13. ^ BuS Elektronik GmbH, Riesa
  14. ^ Robotron Education and Consulting Center GmbH, Leipzig
  15. ^ Robotron Network Systems GmbH, Leipzig
  16. ↑ 50 years of IT innovations under the name Robotron.