The Publicly Owned Enterprise (German : Volkseigener Betrieb; 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, and the handing back in 1954 of some 33 enterprises previously taken by the Soviet Union as reparations.[ citation needed ]
The managing director of a VEB was called a plant or works manager (German : Werksleiter, Werksdirektor or Betriebsdirektor). They were assisted by the first secretary of the factory party organisation (Betriebsparteiorganisation) of the SED, and the chairman of the factory trade union (Betriebsgewerkschaftsleitung). Subordinate to them were roles such as "Chief Accountant" and "Technical Director".
VEBs were initially vertically integrated into units called Associations of Publicly Owned Enterprises (Vereinigung Volkseigener Betriebe, VVBs). A VVB existed in most major industries to consolidate production and reduce waste. They had all been replaced by 1979 with the VEB Kombinate , or VEB Group, which integrated the VEBs much more closely than the largely administrative VVBs. Under this system, the term Kombinate was frequently dropped and the term VEB usually implied the group rather than the individual factory. The organisation of all state enterprises was the responsibility of the State Planning Commission.
VEBs often had company sports teams, and played an important role in the promotion of sports.
In 1989, VEBs employed 79.9% of the East German workforce. After German reunification and the introduction of the market economy in 1990, the ownership of around 8,000 publicly owned enterprises passed to Treuhand , the trust agency which oversaw the privatization of GDR state property.
An honorary name was frequently added to the firm's actual name, for example, VEB Kombinat Chemische Werke "Walter Ulbricht" Leuna . This was a socialist emulation incentive towards fulfillment and overfulfillment of production quotas. Many Germans, as a form of mild protest against the nationalization of private businesses, nicknamed the VEBs Vatis ehemaliger Betrieb, which translates to "Daddy's former business". [1]
The VEB Deutsche Schallplatten was the monopolistic music publisher in the German Democratic Republic from the 1950s until the 1980s.
Zentrum Mikroelektronik Dresden (ZMD) was regarded as the heart of East Germany's microelectronics research in the 1980s as well as its most advanced integrated circuit manufacturer. Together with TU Dresden and VEB Spurenmetalle Freiberg, ZMD formed the foundation for Silicon Saxony, a cluster of microelectronics companies that came to include new fabs by Siemens and AMD.
The Volkseigenes Gut was a state-owned farm in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), corresponding to the Soviet Sovkhoz and the Państwowe Gospodarstwo Rolne in the People's Republic of Poland. In contrast to the Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft (LPG) or collective farm, another form of state agricultural enterprise, the VEGs were often the successors to former private farms which resulted from the land reform in the Soviet sector of Germany mandated in the Potsdam Agreement of 1945.
Sternburg is a brand of German beer, brewed and bottled by Radeberger Group. Their best selling product is "Sternburg Export". In 2006 it had 9.5% of the market share in Eastern Germany.
VEB Typoart was the only type foundry of East Germany. It was a state-owned enterprise located in Dresden. The foundry's most influential art directors were Herbert Thannhäuser and Albert Kapr.
The football league system of the German Democratic Republic existed from 1949 until shortly after German reunification in 1991.
The DR Class 65.10 was a class of 2-8-4 passenger train tank engine operated by the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) for heavy suburban and commuter services.
Niederschöneweide is a German locality (Ortsteil) within the Berlin borough (Bezirk) of Treptow-Köpenick. It is, with Oberschöneweide, part of the geographic quarter of Schöneweide. Until 2001 it was part of the former borough of Treptow.
The rail vehicle factory in Hennigsdorf, Germany, was founded in 1910 by AEG. Locomotive production began in 1913, and in the 1930s absorbed the work of the August Borsig locomotive factory, being renamed the Borsig Lokomotiv Werke GmbH until 1944. After the Second World War the factory was nationalised in the German Democratic Republic and produced electric locomotives for home use and for export, mainly to Communist Bloc countries under the name Lokomotivbau-Elektrotechnische Werke (LEW).
Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde is an automotive factory in Ludwigsfelde in Brandenburg, just south of Berlin in Germany. The factory is part of Daimler AG and since 1991 it has made Mercedes-Benz vans. It is also the producer of the Multicar line of automobiles.
Buna Werke Schkopau were a chemical company specialising in the production of polymer materials such as plastics and artificial rubber. The name BUNA is derived from the technology of polymerising butadiene with sodium as a catalyst.
Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften (DVW) was a scientific publishing house in the former German Democratic Republic.
The Elektro-Apparate-Werke (EAW) was a state-owned industrial operation of the German Democratic Republic. 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.
VEB Kombinat Mikroelektronik Erfurt was an important manufacturer of active electronic components in East Germany. It should not be confused with the more well-known VEB Kombinat Robotron Dresden which used integrated circuits from Kombinat Mikroelektronik in its computers.
East Germany was one of the leading computer producers in the Eastern Bloc as purchases of higher technologies from the West were under various embargoes. A program of illegal purchases, copying and reverse engineering of Western examples was established, after which GDR sold these computers to COMECON countries. Under the rule of Erich Honecker, electronics, microelectronics and data processing industries grew at average 11.4% in the 1970s and 12.9% during the 1980s.
S-Bahn Erfurt was a colloquial term for a diesel-powered railway connection that existed from 1976 to 1995 in the Thuringian state capital Erfurt, Germany. The term "S-Bahn" is also occasionally used in popular literature. Other contemporary media used terms such as "suburban traffic at the local transport tariff" to describe it. When the line was introduced in 1976, only the "reversible train service" on this line was highlighted as a special feature. In the Kursbuch tables of Deutsche Reichsbahn, the terms "S-Bahn" or "S-Bahn-Tarif" were not used for this line. Riethschleuder was another colloquial term for the connection.
Musik und Gesellschaft was a music magazine in the German Democratic Republic. It was published monthly from 1951 to 1990 in East Berlin by Henschelverlag.
The Trabant P 50, also known as the Trabant 500, is the first series production model of the East German Trabant series, produced by VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke Zwickau from 1957 until 1962. In total, 131,495 units were built. In 1962, VEB Sachsenring switched production from the P 50 to the short-lived intermediate model Trabant 600, which combined the exterior styling of the Trabant P 50 with the technical design of the next generation Trabant model, the Trabant 601.
The Fachbuchverlag Leipzig was an East German publisher. It continues to exist as an imprint of the Munich publishing firm Carl Hanser Verlag.
Verlag Technik based in Berlin today is the remaining part of its incorporation into the Huss-Medien GmbH.