Olympia
Olympia Werke AG
Wilhelmshaven, Germany


The company was originally a producer of typewriters (see Olympia typewriter). After the World War II a factory was opened in Wilhelmshaven, West Germany. This factory produced both typewriters and calculators.

A venerable German typewriter manufacturer, Olympia has also become a well-known brand name of office calculators. In the early 1980s,
Olympia also sold a classic Hand Held Computer (HHC) under its own brand name and Casio pocketcalculator copy models.
West German company that is more famous for its earlier typewriters and office equipment. The majority of calculators appear to mimic Panasonic models so I assume these were also made by Matsushita. Many calculators similar to Panasonic models.

The company started after the invention of the "Pointing Typewriter" MIGNON by Friedrich v.Hefner-Alteneck, engineer of AEG ( = ALLGEMEINE ELEKTRIZITAETSGESELLSCHAFT ) in Berlin: In 1903 a company was founded to produce the »MIGNON«, the UNION SCHREIBMASCHINENGESELLSCHAFT. In 1923 the company moved to Erfurt and was renamed AEG DEUTSCHE WERKE. In 1930 it was renamed EUROPA SCHREIBMASCHINEN. Until the end of production in 1933, there were 49 different Font-Cylinders available! Their new typewriters were very successful under the name »OLYMPIA«, and in 1936 the company was renamed again OLYMPIA BUEROMASCHINENWERKE. In WWII the factory was destroyed. "Leftovers" in Erfurt (East-Germany) became OPTIMA BUEROMASCHINENWERKE a GDR-run business - Former employees founded in Wilhelmshaven (West-Germany) the new OLYMPIA WERKE under AEG share-holding. OLYMPIA's peak was in the 1970s when it was the largest producer of office machines in Germany. The rise of small-computers brought this classic mechanical industry to a alt. With the reorganization of Daimler-Benz/AEG/Olympia, the OLYMPIA branch was sold and the new owner in Asia formed the OLYMPIA INTERNATIONAL HOLDING LTD.


Source : R/S Programmable calculators & beuth-hochschule.de