I like the authoritarian tone of parts of the Erika 3004 portable electronic typewriter instruction guide I picked up on eBay: "We congratulate you on having purchased our electronic portable typewriter. You should convince yourself of the efficiency of this machine (and our political system!)." The Erika 3004 was first manufactured in 1987 at the VEB Robotron … Continue reading Erika 3004 Electronic Typewriter Instruction Guide
Tag: Erika
Erika, Freedom Fighter
Samizdat "Self-publishing" was the name given to the underground literature that opponents to the Soviet government secretly wrote and distributed within the Soviet Union. Intellectual opposition to Communist rule emerged in the 1950s and 1960s and formed into a human rights movement. From the late 1960s, these "dissidents" systematically collected and attempted to publicise Soviet human … Continue reading Erika, Freedom Fighter
Ernst Jünger
Ernst Jünger (b. 29 March 1895 – d. 17 February 1998) was a German writer and philosopher. In addition to his political essays, novels and diaries, he is well known for Storm of Steel, an account of his experience serving with the Imperial German Army on the Western Front. In the first week of January … Continue reading Ernst Jünger
Early Spring
In this part of the world it's supposed to be summer, but the weather lately has been a mish-mash of all four seasons. Last weekend was early spring. Not literally, but literarily. After last year's discovery of a new (to me) writer and a copy of The West Pier by Patrick Hamilton, I found another writer and book I'd … Continue reading Early Spring
Erika 11 out of 10
Following on from my post on the Groma Modell N, another East German typewriter with a similarly industrial colour scheme ... ... a typewriter I originally thought was an Erika 9. Luckily, I happened to notice the model number on the underside of the ribbon cover ... ... equally noticeable is the serial number stamped on the underside of the … Continue reading Erika 11 out of 10