Typewriter Talk / 'Olympia Model 35 A61' vs SGE 35?

**Posted by thetypewriterman** 14-1-2025 15:49:35

Oh my goodness they were awful. They had to have so many factory retrospective modifications that they had to re-launch the machine as the SGE65. Dealers in England refused to sell them because they were so much trouble. They insisted on having the SGE50. But Olympia had sold the tooling for the SGE50 to East Germany. So they had to go cap in hand to the East Germans to manufacture the SGE50 for them. The clever East Germans said, 'Of course ! But we will not unless you take a load of East German portable typewriters too !' So poor old Olympia had to have a load or Erikas, which were re-branded as the Olympia Regina. My first typewriter course was on the SGE60/65 and I needed it. The Olympia dealer that I was working for was making a fortune in fitting retrospective modifications to these in the field, and charging Olympia for the privilege. Most went to British government offices. I'll bet that Olympia regretted selling them !

**Posted by robmck** 14-1-2025 21:35:59

Fantastic background on all this. Thanks, Tom!

**Posted by Eagle** 18-1-2025 04:48:42

Yes, interesting information about the relationship of Olympia with the GDR.
Today I've found a SGE35 on ebay.co.uk which has the code 'E 51'.
Maybe the E stands for England.

**Posted by thetypewriterman** 18-1-2025 14:31:53

I think that you could be right. That is certainly a standard English keyboard.

**Posted by Eagle** 06-8-2025 15:08:37

thetypewriterman wrote:
But Olympia had sold the tooling for the SGE50 to East Germany.

The Russian Yatran Typewriter was made also with official tooling sold from Olympia.

Yatran (similar to the Olympia SGE 52, post #9)

Yatran (Russian Olympia SGE) electric typewriter - Cyrillic Bulgarian standard - Typing test

**Posted by thetypewriterman** 06-8-2025 16:42:58

Thank you for finding this video. Absolutely fascinating. I had heard of these Russian machines, but never seen one. I think I am right in saying that Olympia never fitted the SGE50 with two paper rests, but otherwise it is an identical clone. It is showing its age though. The escapement silent return needs adjusting, or maybe a new silent return plate, and that constant rattling is possibly age-hardened drive belts. The only real Achilles Heel of these machines was that the shift cam would wear on its' pivot and start wobbling from side to side as the shift was operated. Once you removed the ribbon cover and looked downwards to see that, you knew that it was only a matter of time before a new cam was needed - an awkward job to fit I remember !