1960’s Groma Kolbri ‘N’ User Guide

Hi!

Welcome to your beautiful "new" writing machine! This is one of the most mind-blowingly beautiful typewriters in existence.

This particular machine hails from the 19g0's, quite an extraordinary engineering feat for the era! it adds a few features upon the older streamlined 50’s Groma Kolibri.

On the prior machines, a nick or dent in the body by the carriage return handle is standard. Here that has been remedied by slight design modifications to the handle.

Here's a little history...

The  Groma Kolibri was produced by the VEB Schreibmaschinenwerk "Groma" (VEB  Groma Typewriter Works) in Markranstädt, East Germany. It was  introduced in the early 1950s and gained popularity as a compact and  lightweight typewriter, making it suitable for writers, journalists, and  people on the move. They continued with the design virtually unchanged into the 60's.

"Kolibri" means hummingbird. The name  is a reference to its small size and agility. It featured a sturdy bulletproof design and was commonly praised for its  reliability and ease of use, not to mention its staggering beauty.

The Groma Kolibri came with a variety of European keyboards: it takes us some effort to source standard American or International keyboards. Rare is the simple, straightforward US layout, as only a  few were made for export.

Mine, for instance, is qwerty but has all  kinds of odd accents I don't recognize, a British pound key, and a few  math keys? (You could, I suppose, custom order keyboards, so I had a  Eastern European / American Business person perhaps, who liked to do  complex mathematics on a typewriter sometimes.

Many convert Euro QWERTZ to QWERTY, meaning they swap the Z and the Y key.

Company  History and Political Influences: VEB Schreibmaschinenwerk "Groma" was a  state-owned enterprise operating under the East German government  during the time of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Being in the  Soviet-occupied zone of Germany, the company's operations and product  designs would have been influenced by the political and economic  conditions of the time.

The Groma Kolibri typewriters were manufactured  in Markranstädt, which is a town located in the Leipzig district of  Saxony, East Germany. Some are stamped USSR occupied on the back, depending on the year.

In the 60’s, they modernized the design and added a few features to keep up with other machines of the era.

Resources.

Here is the manual.

I've included the original vintage metal ribbon spools, though our standard universal ribbons with plastic spools will also fit (the center can expand to fit the Kolibri's larger shaft). You can find ours here.

Here is a little video tutorial to get you started.

These can take 8.5 x 11 inch paper, and they use a universal ribbon size (though black only, not black and red). If you get a ribbon, make sure the center spool is expandable, or it won't fit. Or else re-wind on the metal spools if yours came with those.

We sell that handmade paper the note came on here.

You've got a rare historical gem! Cherish it! It is also one of the rare ultra portables that are also useful enough to actually write on. (The Hermes baby is another from the era).

Tutorial