Elektro-Apparate-Werke
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The Elektro-Apparate-Werke (EAW) was a state-owned industrial operation of the
German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
(DDR, East Germany). It was a successor of the combine VEB ''Elektro-Apparate-Werke'' (VEB) and, with more than 8000 employees, was one of the largest manufacturers of electrical appliances in the DDR. The site of the former headquarters in the Berlin suburb of
Alt-Treptow Alt-Treptow (, literally ''Old Treptow'') is a German locality in the borough of Treptow-Köpenick in Berlin. Known also as Treptow it was, until 2001, the main and the eponymous locality of the former Treptow borough. History The locality, first ...
is since 1998 the location of the
Treptowers The Treptowers is a complex of buildings with a distinctive high-rise in the Alt-Treptow district of Berlin, Germany. Completed in 1998, the complex is located on the river Spree. The name "Treptowers" is a portmanteau word from Treptow and the ...
, the Berlin offices of
Allianz SE Allianz SE ( , ) is a German Multinational corporation, multinational financial services company headquartered in Munich, Germany. Its core businesses are insurance and asset management. Allianz is the world's largest List of largest insurance ...
.


History

EAW originated from the ''Apparate-Werke Berlin-Treptow (AT)'', founded by
AEG The initials AEG are used for or may refer to: Common meanings * AEG (German company) ; AEG) was a German producer of electrical equipment. It was established in 1883 by Emil Rathenau as the ''Deutsche Edison-Gesellschaft für angewandte El ...
in 1928. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
the company "manufactured radio equipment for bombers and
U-boats U-boats are naval submarines operated by Germany, including during the First and Second World Wars. The term is an anglicized form of the German word , a shortening of (), though the German term refers to any submarine. Austro-Hungarian Na ...
and navigational devices for
V-2 rocket The V2 (), with the technical name ''Aggregat (rocket family), Aggregat-4'' (A4), was the world's first long-range missile guidance, guided ballistic missile. The missile, powered by a liquid-propellant rocket engine, was developed during the S ...
s. Its factory aslargely destroyed by Allied bombing raids." AT was taken over as a ''Soviet
Aktiengesellschaft (; abbreviated AG ) is a German language, German word for a corporation limited by Share (finance), share ownership (i.e., one which is owned by its shareholders) whose shares may be traded on a stock market. The term is used in Germany, Austria ...
'' (SAG) on October 21, 1946, and renamed ''Elektro-Apparate-Werke Berlin-Treptow'' (EAW). After the death of
Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
the company was renamed ''Elektro-Apparate-Werke J. W. Stalin''. On December 31, 1953, the works changed their legal form from an SAG to a nationally owned company (''
Volkseigener Betrieb The Publicly Owned Enterprise (; abbreviated VEB) was the main legal form of industrial enterprise in East Germany. These state-owned enterprise were all publicly owned and were formed after mass nationalisation between 1945 and the early 1960s, ...
'') In 1960, as part of
De-Stalinization De-Stalinization () comprised a series of political reforms in the Soviet Union after Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, the death of long-time leader Joseph Stalin in 1953, and Khrushchev Thaw, the thaw brought about by ascension of Nik ...
, the name was changed to ''VEB EAW Berlin-Treptow "
Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD) who served as the first President of Germany (1919–1945), president of Germany from 1919 until ...
"'', after the former socialist president of Germany. In the 1980s a memorial plaque was installed at the administration building for Communist athlete
Werner Seelenbinder Werner Seelenbinder (2 August 1904 – 24 October 1944) was a German Communism, communist and amateur wrestling, wrestler. Early years Seelenbinder was born in Szczecin, Stettin, Province of Pomerania (1815–1945), Pomerania (modern-day Polan ...
. EAW also provided polytechnic training for students of neighboring schools in Treptow. The class in "Productive Work" was taught through a practical project. The water tower at the
Ostkreuz Berlin Ostkreuz station () (literally "Berlin East Cross") is a station on the Berlin S-Bahn suburban railway and the busiest interchange station in Berlin. It is in the former East Berlin district of Friedrichshain, now part of the borough of Fr ...
station was in a poorly maintained hut, with heating problems in winter. The project taught the theory of socialist production and practical solutions of production tasks. Practical student work included the construction of indoor fountains for the people's use. A second location for the ''Productive work'' lessons was Karl Kunger Street in Treptow. For the qualification of the employees, the EAW maintained a training school, also in Karl Kunger Street. There sales skills were taught with a focus on vocational qualification. Also annual refreshers were held for monotonous tasks of unskilled people, as in the production of refrigerator relays. Compulsory physical education of two hours per week for the entire staff took place in company facilities inside and on the outdoor grass and gravel courts in Baumschulenweg. Also the various sports associations met there (notably the handball association) and weekly sports instruction took place. The EAW was also a workplace and rehabilitation site for prisoners from Rummelsburg prison, not far from the relay factory on Hoffmannstraße. In 1990, following German reunification, the organization was transformed into ''EAW Berlin GmbH'', and was privatized in 1993. Unfortunately the company was burdened with excess employees, and a line of dated, expensive, and unreliable products. Attempts to diversify into consumer electronics and build products that could compete in the world market failed. From the former organization, independent mid-sized enterprises emerged. The EAW vocational school closed in the early 1990s.


Products

EAM manufactured measuring instruments, rectifiers, relays, circuit breakers, vacuum switches, instrumentation and control engineering, electric meters, radios, and computers. EAW was the manufacturer of power system distance protection equipment in East Germany. The last consumer products were the EAW AUDIO 145 stereo radio cassette recorder, the SKR 701 stereo cassette recorder, and the
P8000 The P8000 is a microcomputer system developed in 1987 by the Elektro-Apparate-Werke, VEB Elektro-Apparate-Werke Berlin-Treptow „Friedrich Ebert“ (EAW) in the German Democratic Republic (DDR, East Germany). It consisted of an 8-bit and a 16-bit ...
16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two ...
microcomputer A microcomputer is a small, relatively inexpensive computer having a central processing unit (CPU) made out of a microprocessor. The computer also includes memory and input/output (I/O) circuitry together mounted on a printed circuit board (P ...
, based on the East German ''U8000'' clone of the
Zilog Z8000 The Zilog Z8000 is a 16-bit microprocessor architecture designed by Zilog and introduced in early 1979. Two chips were initially released, differing only in the width of the address bus; the Z8001 had a 23-bit bus while the Z8002 had a 16-bit b ...
, running a Unix clone called WEGA.


References

{{Authority control Manufacturing companies based in Berlin Defunct manufacturing companies of Germany Volkseigene Betriebe