VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin

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VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin
legal form publicly-owned business
founding 1954
Seat East Berlin , German Democratic Republic
Branch Sound carrier

The VEB German records Berlin was the sole producer of sound recordings in the GDR . It emerged in 1954 from the music publisher Lied der Zeit Schallplatten-Gesellschaft mbH , founded by Ernst Busch in 1947 , and maintained its monopoly position until 1990. The company was based in East Berlin . It was under the Ministry of Culture of the GDR. His most important labels were Eterna and Amiga .

history

The actor and singer Ernst Busch founded a record company in 1947, the Lied der Zeit Schallplatten-Gesellschaft mbH , to which a music publisher also belonged from 1950. The company was nationalized in 1954. In the same year the record company and music publisher were separated. While the music publisher continued the name VEB Lied der Zeit Musikverlag , the record company was now known as VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin . Among the six labels of the company, the Eterna label , which specializes in serious music , took up the largest share with around 60% of the total of 8,500 releases. The largest share of sales was achieved with around half of total sales from the Amiga label , which covered the area of ​​entertainment and dance music. A total of almost 97 million records were sold between 1955 and 1989.

The records were produced in the press shop in Potsdam-Babelsberg in the former facilities of Tempo Schallplatten GmbH . The production of music cassettes took place in Berlin-Johannisthal . Stereo sound carriers were first produced in 1962 and continuously from 1971 onwards. In the 1980s, digital recordings were also made and CDs were released, which were pressed by Supraphon in what was then the CSSR .

The company had five studios, but especially in the 1980s they worked closely with the GDR radio , which also produced music recordings in its studios.

The entire corporate policy followed the GDR's cultural policy , from the selection of performers, titles and texts to the design of the cover and the definition of unit prices based on format and label.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall (1990), the company was transferred to the newly founded Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin GmbH , which also took over the legal succession and continued some brands (e.g. Litera), but also produced new brands, such as B. Musicando. In the course of 1991, however, exploitation rights for many productions and some brands were sold - including to the Bertelsmann Music Group and edel music GmbH.

Labels

VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin operated the following brands (labels):

  • Amiga for contemporary light music (hits, rock, pop, jazz, folk music)
  • Litera for voice recordings (readings, radio plays, drama)
  • Eterna for the so-called cultural heritage (classical music, opera and operetta, folk songs), now a label from edel CLASSICS GmbH
  • Nova for New Music (contemporary "serious" music),
  • Aurora for workers' songs and productions by Ernst Busch,
  • Schola editions of all genres specially prepared for teaching purposes

HO echo

A curiosity is the HO-Echo brand , which was conceived in the mid-1950s for distribution in HO stores and was supposed to use Amiga recordings, but never came onto the market. A few copies are circulating among collectors; they are probably pre-production samples. So far, about 55 different HO-Echo records have been identified, all of which only contain dance and light music. The order number is identical to the regular Amiga edition of the 50 series. The information on the title, artist and author is also identical, only the reference to the Lied der Zeit publishing house is missing. The matrices used come mainly from recordings from 1949 to 1951. The plates were issued from 1952 to 1953, at a time when Ernst Busch was still the managing director of “Lied der Zeit GmbH”. Given his tense relationship with the government, a preferential levy to functionaries (as is sometimes assumed) can be ruled out. Much closer is therefore the pure use as an advertising panel in the shops of the trade organization HO. A complete list is available in the discography by Bernd Meyer-Rähnitz and Frank Oehme "Die Ewige Freund".

Studios

VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin has had numerous recording studios in the course of its history. These were among others:

literature

  • Frank Oehme, Bernd Meyer-Rähnitz, Joachim Schütte (eds.): The eternal friend. - From Lied der Zeit to VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin. A company discography of shellac records from AMIGA, ETERNA and LIED DER ZEIT, as well as REGINA and RADIOPHON. albis-international, Dresden-Ústí 2006, ISBN 80-86971-10-4
  • Birgit and Michael Rauhut: AMIGA. The discography of all rock and pop productions 1964-1999 . Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf. Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-189-3

Web links

  • Lied der Zeit Discography of the VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin (is constantly being completed)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rainer Bratfisch: The jazz scene in the GDR , appendix page 291, Ch. Links Verlag 2005, ISBN 3-86153-370-7