More about Olympia typewriters
Excerpt from Kristen Ghodsee. Red Hangover: Legacies of Twentieth Century Communism (Duke University Press, 2017).
Dr. Sabine Witt, the Head of Everyday Culture Collections Department at Stiftung Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin provided additional information:
The producing company, „AEG – Deutsche Werke A.G.”, since 1924 manufactured typewriters in Erfurt/Thuringia. In 1930 the company’s name changed in “Europa Schreibmaschinen AG“ and since then the typewriter models get named “Olympia”, starting – following the six models produced since then, between 1924 and 1930 – with Model Olympia No. 7, followed up in 1934 by Olympia 8. Both were very common and wide spread typewriters in Germany and abroad. Finally, in 1936, the company’s name once again changed in “Olympia Büromaschinen”. If this occurred due to the Olympic Games, taken place in Berlin in 1936, I really can not say for sure.
By the way: Because after World War II the company reopened in Western Germany, in Wilhelmshaven, continued to firm under the company name “Olympia”, the former manufacture in Erfurt changed in “Optima Büromaschinen VEB” – it is complicate, the german history….
Apart from the “normal” typewriter models like the Olympia 7 or 8, which are quite more robust and bigger than your model, the company produced some lighter, portable models, too. One of these is the Olympia simplex, manufactured since 1935.
Finally, I will also recommend you two websites:
The Simplex in motion
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Albertson Writes 