Continental | 1943
Before computers, offices ran on machines like this one. In this ad, a young woman works at a Continental 800 accounting machine which, the copy promises, could be switched to other tasks “binnen een oogwenk” (in the blink of an eye) by changing a single part.
The machine was made by Wanderer-Werke in Chemnitz, Germany. It all began in 1885, when two mechanics, Johann Baptist Winklhofer and Richard Adolf Jaenicke, opened a shop to sell and repair bicycles. Motorcycles, machine tools and, from 1904, Continental typewriters followed, and later adding and accounting machines.
The ad appeared in July 1943 in Signaal, the Dutch edition of Signal, a picture magazine the Wehrmacht, Nazi Germany’s armed forces, published in more than 20 languages for occupied, allied and neutral countries. In that context, the promise to get the work done “met de beschikbare werkkrachten” (with the available workforce) speaks of a war economy short of hands.
After 1945, the Chemnitz plants were expropriated and partly dismantled in the Soviet occupation zone, and the company moved its seat to Munich. Wanderer-Werke AG went bankrupt in 2010. Today the Wanderer name lives on in bicycles, right where the story began.
Text in the ad
Door een enkel onderdeel te verwisselen is de boekingsmachine Continental 800 binnen een oogwenk voor ander werk geschikt.
CONTINENTAL-BOEKINGSMACHINES
lossen in economisch opzicht heel wat problemen op, die U zonder deze machines binnen de vereischte tijd en met de beschikbare werkkrachten nooit zoudt aan kunnen.
WANDERER-WERKE AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Vertegenwoordigers in alle landen
Translation:
By changing a single part, the Continental 800 accounting machine is ready for other work in the blink of an eye.
CONTINENTAL ACCOUNTING MACHINES
solve a great many economic problems that, without these machines, you could never manage within the required time and with the available workforce.
WANDERER-WERKE AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT
Representatives in all countries
- Brand
- Continental
- Year
- 1943
- Decade
- 1940s
- Country
- Netherlands
- Medium
- Magazine
- Themes
- Technology
- Original publication
- Signaal, 1943
