Central article catalog of the economy of the GDR
The Central Article Catalog of the GDR's economy , or ZAK for short , was a multi-volume catalog that assigned an identification number to every industrial product in the GDR , making it unambiguous for other companies and institutions to order.
The ZAK was developed by a department of the State Planning Commission in Berlin and relocated to the Central Office for Article Cataloging . Similar to today's collections of standards in technical libraries, the ZAK was made available at appropriate locations. Larger companies ran their own ZAK , which often took up their own room, as the catalog consisted of several hundred DIN A5 files. Often the companies only had individual folders on required topics (e.g. semiconductor components in a company for radio equipment), which reduced the scope.
The Central Office for Article Cataloging made new revisions of individual pages or chapters available on a regular basis, which then had to be entered into the existing catalogs. Since obviously many companies did not get all the updates, there is now a rather confusing multitude of revisions on individual subject areas, so that one always has to look closely to see which ones are available. Sometimes only the selling price of a product changed.
In accordance with the order for the protection of official secrets of December 6, 1971, the ZAK catalogs were subject to the NfD level of secrecy (for official use only) and were therefore not openly accessible to everyone.
Appearance
The ZAK consists of several hundred (level of knowledge: 480) A5 sized cardboard folders with a blue plastic cover. The title, folder number, if applicable, the ribbon and the ZAK logo (a square on a point with “ZAK” in it) are stamped in golden print on the back and cover. The folders contain a normal 2-hole binding. The actual content consists of loose pages and more stable separator pages with lettering on the edge for orientation.
Structure and nomenclature
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The folders with the actual content are preceded by folders with a subject directory A – Z.
Folder numbers: The number consists of two to three numbers and possibly a Roman number. Example:
135 11/17 III Pumps including accessories, individual and spare parts
- 135 is the topic
- 11/17 deals with electrically driven pumps
- III is the volume of the subtopic 11/17
Subject areas
2 Bände Sachwortregister ZAK
110 : Rohstoffe / Energie
111 : Energieträger (Elektro, Wärme, Öl, Gas, Kohle)
113 : Erdöl, Erdölprodukte, synthetische Produkte, Schmierstoffe, Kohleveredelung
120 : Metallurgie
121 : Eisen und Stahl
122 : NE-Metallurgie, Hartmetalle
125 : Schmiedeerzeugnisse
131-135 : Maschinenbau
131 : Dampferzeuger, Apparatebau, Generatoren, Maschinen, Wasserversorgung und -behandlung
132 : Werkzeuge und Werkzeugmaschinen, Schweißtechnik
133 : Verarbeitungsmaschinen und Sondermaschinen, Laborgeräte
134 : Fahrzeuge, Wasserfahrzeuge und Fördertechnik
135 : Maschinen: Pumpen, Verdichter, Getriebe, Armaturen, Maschinenbau-Bedarf
136 : Elektrische Maschinen, Schaltanlagen, E-Material, Hydraulik, Kabel, Medizingeräte
137 : Elektronik, Bauelemente
137/10 : Drahtnachrichtentechnik
137/20 : Funktechnik
137/30 : Elektroakustik, Bild und Ton
137/50 : Elektrische Lichtquellen
137/60 : Elektronenröhren
137/71 : Widerstände
137/72 : Kondensatoren
137/73 : Kontaktbauelemente
137/74 : Induktive Bauelemente
137/75 : Anschlußelemente und Leiterplatten
137/76 : Piezoelektrische Bauelemente
137/81 : Dioden
137/82 : Transistoren
137/83 : Thyristoren und symmetrische Steuerelemente
137/84 : Gleichrichter
137/85-86 : Halbleiter Foto- und Thermoelemente
137/87 : Integrierte Schaltkreise
137/90 : Vereinheitlichte Elektronikbaugruppen
138 : Elektronik
138/11 : Meßfühler und Meßeinrichtungen
138/12 : Wandler und Verstärker für Regeleinrichtung
138/13 : Informationsverarbeitung
138/14 : Regler und Relaisgeber
138/15 : Stellantriebe und Stellglieder
138/16 : Fernwirktechnik
138/17 : Anzeige, Registratur und Überwachung von Meßwerten
138/18 : kombinierte Regeleinrichtungen
138/20 : Datenverarbeitung, Bürotechnik
138/30-39 : Meßtechnik für elektrische Größen
138/40 : Sondererzeugnisse wissenschaftlicher Gerätebau
138/50-59 : Meßtechnik für optische und optisch/mechanische Größen, Optik
138/51-53 : Vermessungsgeräte, astronomische Instrumente
138/54 : Längen- und Winkelmessung
138/55 : optische Meßgeräte
138/56 : Mikroskope
138/57 : Ferngläser, Fernrohre, Entfernungsmesser
138/58 : Foto-Kino-Technik
138/59 : Lupen, Brillen, Linsen etc.
138/60-69 : Meßtechnik für mechanische Größen
138/61 : Zeitmessung
138/62 : Wägeeinrichtungen
138/66-69 : Werkstoffprüfeinrichtungen
138/81-86 : medizinische Instrumente und Orthopädietechnik
138/91-94 : Laborgeräte
139/11-17 : Besteck, Tafelgeräte, Geschirr etc.
139/21-22 : Haushaltsgeräte
139/25-29 : Leuchten
139/30 : Handwerkzeuge
139/4x : Küchen- und Kochgeräte
14x : chemische Erzeugnisse
141 : bergbauchemische Rohstoffe
142 : anorganische Chemie, anorganische Farben
143 : organische Chemie, organische Farben
144 : pharmazeutische Erzeugnisse
145 : Plastomere und Elastomere
146 : Gummi und Reifen, Asbest-Erzeugnisse
148 : Klebstoffe, Kitte, Gelatine, Feinchemie
149 : fotochemische Erzeugnisse, Seifen, Wasch- und Reinigungsmittel, Wachse
15x :
151 : Baustoffe
152 : Vorfertigung der Bauwirtschaft, Bauelemente
153 : Glas, Porzellan und Keramik, Sanitärkomponenten
154 : Holzerzeugnisse, Möbel, Bauelemente
155 : Zellstoff und Papier
156 : polygraphische Erzeugnisse (Druckindustrie)
157 : Möbel
16x : Textilindustrie
161 : Erzeugnisse der Industrie zur Aufbereitung textiler Rohstoffe
162 : Erzeugnisse der Spinnereien und Zwirnereien
164 : Erzeugnisse der Webereien / Raumtextilien / Flächengebilde
165 : Erzeugnisse der Trikotagen- und Strumpfindustrie
166 : Erzeugnisse sonstige Textilindustrie
167 : Erzeugnisse der Konfektionsindustrie
168 : Rauch- und Lederwaren
169 : Schuh- und Lederwaren
17x :
171 : Fischindustrie
175 : pflanzliche Fette
176 : Süßwaren- und Zuckerindustrie
178 : Gährungs- und Getränkeindustrie
179 : Erzeugnisse der Tabakindustrie / sonstige Lebensmittelindustrie
18x :
181 : Mischfutterindustrie
182/10: Musikinstrumente und Zubehör
182/20: Turn- und Sportgeräte
182/47: Schreib- und Zeichengeräte
182/50: Besen, Bürsten etc.
320 : Fischerei
350 : Forstwirtschaft
System of the uniform article number
XXX XX XX XXX XXXXXX
left to right:
- 8-digit key number of the product and service nomenclature ( ELN )
- Additional and check digits for ELN according to test module 11, residual value 10
- 6-digit basic specification number ( GS )
- 1-digit check digit of the GS number according to test module 11, residual value 10
Captured product data
- Product name
- Product number
- Manufacturing company
- Sales company (e.g. VEB mechanical engineering and technology trade for screws)
- technical data of the product
- possibly b / w photo or technical drawing of the product
- if applicable EVP (retail sales price)
- if applicable, delivery conditions / useful accessories / brief instructions for use
Restrictions in relation to "every industrial product of the GDR"
In ZAK also import materials and devices were such. B. to find Russian multimeters. It can be assumed that (even if it might have been a pious wish of the planners) not all products manufactured in the GDR were recorded. On the one hand, it sometimes took a long time before a product was recorded and it may not have been produced in this form by then. Furthermore, rationalization products and consumer goods (e.g. stainless steel spades from "sheet metal waste" in Leuna) were produced in small and very small series in many companies, which were probably not recorded. It should have looked similar with MMM and Neuerer projects. Exact information on this is still pending.
Availability today
In 2019 there does not seem to be a complete ZAK . A query in various East German archives only resulted in one hit, otherwise there only seem to be individual folders or smaller amounts of folders on narrowly defined topics.
A large, coherent ZAK is located in the computer and technology museum in Halle and is accessible for research purposes. In the long term, the catalog will be digitized and made available online. However, there is currently a lack of volunteers to scan and process the 30,000-35,000 pages. Another collection is in the German Federal Archives in Berlin .