Original Präsident Typewriter from the GDR with Turkish letters
- TAM MUSEUM Collection -
- TAM MUSEUM Collection -
The story behind this object in our collection remains a mystery.
This “Präsident 1500 deluxe” typewriter, featuring a Turkish keyboard, was produced during the GDR era by VEB Robotron in Dresden. Based on its serial number, which begins with 728, we can date its manufacture to late 1984.
According to the Technology Collections Dresden (TSD), the “Präsident 1500 deluxe” was the export version of the identically constructed “Erika E 150.” The primary difference lay in the color variety of the casing—the GDR version was typically gray. The TSD believes that the “Präsident” brand name was likely developed specifically for export to West Germany, as the umlaut rendered it unsuitable for international branding. In West Germany, the “Erika E 150” was also sold under other names—for example, as the “elite SM 500” at Kaufhof or the “Privileg 150” through the Quelle mail-order catalogue.
To date, the TSD has no record of any typewriter with a Turkish keyboard layout. However, their documents confirm that in Dresden, the Erika E 145 (with Persian script), E 146 (Arabic script), and E 147 (Hebrew script) were specially produced for export—though not under the “Präsident” name, but as “Erika” models.1 These were improved versions of the “oriental” models E45/46/47, manufactured since the late 1960s.2 It is also known that Erika typewriters were sold around the globe and with, among others, Cyrillic/Russian, French, Greek and Turkish keyboard layouts.3 Interestingly, in 2024, an Erika typewriter with a Turkish keyboard was offered for sale in Berlin, indicating that the Turkish version was not exclusively fabricated under the brand name Präsident.
So far, we’ve been unable to determine since when and in what quantities typewriters with Turkish keyboards were produced in the GDR, or how and where they were distributed. In the West German edition of Hürriyet, we’ve only found advertisements for Turkish-keyboard typewriters made by the West German company Olympia. We are wondering: Did the GDR export the Turkish typewriters to West Germany or directly to Turkey or were just a handful of these machines produced for the exiled Turkish Communist Party (TKP)? From 1957 until 1988, TKPs top secret headquarter was in Leipzig Dinterstrasse, where it also had a printing shop for Turkish magazine and books and produced a Turkish radio program (Bizim Radyo), all secretly financed by GDRs ruling party, the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany).
We are grateful for any leads! If your family owns an Erika or Präsident typewriter with a Turkish keyboard—or if you’ve ever used or seen one—we’d love to hear your story.
Sources:
https://typewriterdatabase.com/robotron.1018.typewriter-serial-number-database
E-mail correspondence with Curator Dr. Ralf Pulla of Technische Sammlungen Dresden
E-Mail correspondence with Holger Stolten of Schreibstube Krempe
Dietmar Schreiner & Kurt Geißler: Die Seidel & Naumann Story. Ein Dresdner Unternehmen von Weltruf, Dresden: Hille 2010, pp. 96–97
Nelli Tügel, Das Land ihrer Träume? Türkeistämmige politische Emigrant_innen in der DDR, MA thesis, FU Berlin 2014
Photo Credit:
Paulina Akbay & Melis Eda Poyraz