VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig

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Lamps manufactured by VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig were used not only for mass street lighting, but also in industrial facilities

In almost every major city of the former USSR, German lamps are preserved

“VEB” is the standard acronym adopted in the GDR, which stands for Volkseigener Betrieb - “national enterprise”.

The predecessor of this enterprise was the Körting & Mathiesen factory, which produced transformers, as well as gas and kerosene lamps. In 1923, the factory accelerated the pace of production, focusing on the production of household appliances. During the Third Reich, the enterprise was nationalized and then became one of the leaders in the production of household appliances, and during the Second World War - ammunition. After the end of World War II, the factory's activity was taken under the control of Soviet forces, and in 1948 the enterprise was bought out and converted into a Leipzig lighting technical factory ( German Betriebes Leipziger Lichttechnische Spezialfabrik, VEB Lelifa ). In 1951, the special factory was transformed into a national enterprise and was given the current name Leipzig Lighting Plant ( German: VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig , abbreviated LBL).

At the end of the 1950s, Leuchtenbau Leipzig entered the CMEA market, offering in its assets advanced (at that time) lamp models designed for both pendant and cantilever bases. The company also engaged in the production of home lamps. In 1960, the company launched the production of the Mandoline series luminaire, made in an oblong form with a transverse almond-shaped incision for the lamp inside. Lamps of the Mandoline line are widely used in all countries of the socialist camp, as well as in some cities in Africa and the Middle East. In the USSR, lamps manufactured by VEB Leuchtenbau Leipzig for their characteristic shape were nicknamed "spoons", "drops", "pears" and others.

In the 1970s, Leuchtenbau Leipzig opened a branch in East Berlin , whose products began to be produced under the VEB NARVA Leuchtenbau Leipzig brand. The trade name NARVA is composed of the abbreviations of chemicals corresponding to nitrogen (N), argon (Ar) and vacuum (Va). Another division was based at AKA Electric in Schwarzenberg.

By 1985, demand for Leuchtenbau Leipzig products fell due to the growing popularity in the demand for fixtures of its own production. The Berlin branch of Leuchtenbau Leipzig worked until the mid-80s, after which the production was closed.

The company was abolished on September 30, 1993.

In the Soviet Union, Leuchtenbau Leipzig products served as the basis for the development of its clones at LZS and KhZEMI factories, whose appearance was visually different from the original.

By the beginning of the XXI century, many cities in the post-Soviet space had completely abandoned the use of German-made streetlights in street lighting systems, due to their inconsistency with environmental standards and the complexity of maintenance. Most of the luminaires were equipped with high-pressure mercury lamps , the use of which is currently severely limited for environmental reasons. In the overwhelming majority of Russian cities, at the turn of 1980-2005, German lamps were gradually replaced by cheaper and unpretentious models of domestic production (KETZ and LZSI). Today, German lanterns can still be found in some sparsely populated areas of Russia, as well as in a number of old industrial zones and in the territory of garage cooperatives.

German streetlights can be seen from the frames of the films “ Mimino ” (Rubik and Valiko driving a truck along the Garden Ring), “ Ivan Vasilyevich changes his profession ” (episodes with the cars of the director Yakin, police and ambulances on Kalinin Avenue ), “ Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! "(Scenes in Moscow) and" White Dew "(Vasily Khodas plays the harmonica, walking along a deserted street in Grodno ).

http://www.leipziger-leuchten.com/historie.html