Country: Germany (DDR at the time)

One possible history of the Optima brand of derailleurs is that it was produced by a company called VEB Optima Büromaschinenwerk in Erfurt in what was then East Germany.

This company had a long and varied history. It started out in 1862 as the Königlich Preußische Gewehrfabrik (the Royal Prussian Rifle Factory), which was moved from Saarn, in the Ruhr, to Erfurt. After the First World War, the Versaille Treaty meant that this factory had to be converted to produce products with peaceful uses - and so it became a typewriter factory. In 1923 AEG bought 50% and then in 1929, acquired 100% of the company and produced various typewriters that seem to warm the hearts of people lonely enough to care about such things (imagine what nerds! - nothing like us derailleur fanatics at all...).

In 1936, the factory produced a model called the ‘Olympia’ in honour of the Berlin Olympic games of that year. This was a success and, in a fit of what now seems like unsavoury enthusiasm, the business was renamed Olympia Büromaschinenwerk AG (Olympia Office Machine Factory). More...