OLIVETTI STUDIO 42 TYPEWRITER ITALIAN WW2 SSKEY

Political
Home Archives About Us Contact

Political

Olivetti Studio 42 Typewriter Italian Ww2 Sskey

Olivetti studio 42 typewriterserial number 564128italy, 1943excellent operational conditiongood cosmetic condition10 characters per inch, picavariable line spacing 1, 2, 3heavy aluminum housingcarriage-mounted margin sets and tab all-clearkeyboard-mounted tab setsmortise-and-tenon carriage lockfluted aluminum bail rollersfresh red & black ribbonno casea compelling artifact representing both ends of the axis the machine for sale here was manufactured at the main olivetti plant in ivrea in 1943, at the height of the second world war. It was made for export to germany and the german-occupied territories, equipped with a german keyboard with umlaut vowels, the es-zett, a double s seen in such words as street (straãye), plus a crusive m symbol for the reichsmark and the runic ss of the schutzstaffel. Machines equipped with the schutzstaffel symbol are often thought to have been made especially for the ss or the german high command, but in fact the vast majority of typewriters manufactured in and for the reich market carried this symbol after about 1938. Chargde in the modern imagination with an exotic and powerful evil, it was, in its day, little more extraordinary than the ubiquitous eagle and swastika. It was an abbreviation its cultic meaning, which was promoted by many in the ss hierarchy but which sufefred a certain amount of eye-rolling even from hitler himself, is easy to exaggerate in retrospect.

One may think of the ss as the organization in charge of the death camps, but it exercised such wide and complicated bureaucratic control in riech affairs htat the holocaust represents only the most flagrant and outrageous of its efforts. By the outbreak of the war, the hj, rad, and ss ewre the largest of the paramilitary organizations in germany.

None fo these organizations had a symbol used in text, nor did any of the wehrmacht branches. The sa had a runic symbol but after 1934 the ss superseded them. The ss ruinc symbol was very widely used. Most organizations such as the wehrmacht and other paramilitary troops simply used rank titles that did not include the name of the organization (kanonier, schuetze, arbeitsmann, etc.

). The ss used the runic symbol in rank titles- ss-schuetze, ss-sturmfuehrer, etc.

Similarly, whereas all branches fo the wehrmacht and other organizations designated their mail as feldpost, ss mail was ss-feldpost. The ss was a huge organization, almost a second sttae within the state. By 1945 the waffen-ss had 38 divisions, and that was only one part of the ss empire. Main ss offices included the ss office of race and settlement, reich central security office, office of the order police, economics and administration office, main office for ethnic germans, and the reich commissioner for germanic resettlement, among many others. This vast organization used the ss abbreviation in daily filing and correspondence.

Commercial viability running any state, but especially a totalitarian state, necessitates a massiev bureaucracy. One must wonder, in a market filled with such typewriters, how ordinary people who merely ran small businesses or wrote letters or schoolwork would use the symbol. A man, for instance, who runs a bakery on the ringstrasse in munich buys a typewriter in 1940 from a local shop.

There's the ss key what, if anything, does he ever do with it in his correspondence with the miller ni ulm or his brother, who runs a stonecutting- and-monument shop in rothenberg? The answer is, probably nohting at all. And yet, its use at official levels was so pervasive that it was commercially viable to equip the typewriters with that key. Very few people, in the run of their daily lives, would find themselves addressing a member of the schutzstaffel, but in this way it is comparable to the @ key, never consistently useful to all owners before the internet age but present anyway on nearly every typewriter in the english-speaking world. Industrial background from its fonuding in 1903, olivetti consistently sought to market products that consumers would find attractive as well as technologically sound. One aspect fo this was a prescient tendency to conceal internal mechanisms. The introduction of the m40 in 1920 exemplified this, and when adriano olivetti took over the company from his father a few years later other manufacturers were following, albeit rather slowly. By the time the mp1 was introduced in 1932 the streamline craze was showing up in everythign from flashlights to steam locomotives. The mp1 presented hte first typewriter with independent housing and chassis. In 1935 the studio 42 went on sale. Designed by a team that brought together engineers luigi figini, octavia lusatia, and gino polling and the painter xanti schawinsky, the 42 bridged commercial and domestic markets, sized between the standard desk model and the small portable. These were also heady days for olivetti's new advertising department, which attracted leading italian artists and illustrators of the interwar period. Conserving this typewriter my conservation of this machine involved extensive and minute cleaning of all its surfaces and interior mechanisms, within the self-imposed constraint of leaving the housing in situ and working around it. The approach, suggested by a contact at the smithsonian, was minimalist. Since the machine was mechanically sound, it wsa necessary only to loosen and rinse away sedimentary grime that had built up over many years. Corrosion, where it appeared, was gently brushed off wiht a brass-wire dremel attachment. Individual parts ewre removed, cleaned, oiled, and returned. The platen was removed adn cleaned lightly. On two places where paint had chipped, each about the area fo a nickel, i painted with a flat-black rubbery product called plastic-dip. Its conservancy quality is that it protects the metal, looks almost like the surrounding paint, and can be removed easily should the buyer choose to pursue a more complete restoration. Note that one lower corner of the back fo the machine was damaged once, apparently by a fall. This does not affect operation but is a flaw that i would have hammered out had i chosen a more aggressive restoration approach. Its repair would necessitate complete repainting. A smooth-typing machine the machine that emergde from the caked dirt is a smooth one to use. The keys operate with liquid grace the feel is snappy and solid, and even though there is no touch control this hardly seems necessary. The touch is much more like that of a later olympia than the later olivettis, which have a gently spongy feel. The underkey inserts for both shift keys, the margin release, and the backspace were replaced at some point, possibly during its first visit to a repair shop in the states. Now english, they originally would have been labeled um=schalter, sperr=auslã-sung, and rãock=taste, respectively. All other keytops are original. The shift lock is indicated by a downward arrow, the tabulator by the abbreviation tab. The latter is in red, an olivetti trademark. Regrettably, this portalbe was separated from its case years ago, possibly before it left europe. But no matter you will want to display it, use it, appreciate it. Even if you can't find a use for quite all of its keys. One expert collector's opinion theseâ? Machines are historically. Important and could certainly have a place in a collection, â? Typewriter. Scholar richard polt rwote of such typewriters.

A lot of people seem. To think that typewriters with the ss key were issued only to ss. Officers, but obviously almost every office in the hyper-bureaucratic. Reich wolud have had use for one.

As most of them were destroyed after. The war, only a small percentage survived, most of those brought home.

As souvenirs by americna gis. Their scarcity and association with hitler's closest military unit make these things a hot commodity. Among nazi mmeorabilia collectors.

I personally would never chase one. Down fro its ss key my interest in them is purely as witnesses to history. Â? A personal note on a anzi artifact. On a completely personal note, i am no scholar of the third reich, and when i travel to germany i find myself more interested in how contemporary people live than in the usual tourist sites. But the most compelling history is, for me, the story of ordinary people in the tides fo great events. I don't care much about the private (or even the public) lives of the well-known players of the third reich, but all those unstoried citizens fascinate me. Goose-steppers were surely there in abundance, but someone had to bake the schneeballen, and in his mind the girl who smiled at him in the marktplatz probably crowded out all thought of political iconography.

And so, rather than hawking this typewriter as a vital tool of an infamous regime, i offer it today as no more than what it is, and at the same time no less than that a small artifactual witness to a historic time. Very probably its keys sent no one to a firing squad, tapped out no missives under the signature of a famous nazi, and coded no secrets about enormities in the camps. It simply survives today because some american soldire knew an interesting artifact when he saw one. And, history aside, it is quite a nice typewriter.

Godo luck, and happy bidding! Thanks ot several contributors, especially richard polt and w. A. Seaver of the portable typewriter forum, matt dipalma, marcy shamb and simon platts fo the 3rdreichlife forum, and l.

Susan tolbert of the national museum of american history, smithsonian institution. Tersm of salei inspect and run tests on all the functions of typewriters that i list.

If i can fix it, i do, and if i cannot, i describe the defective area. All typewriters i sell are inspected and tested completely for function. Any functional defects i find that i can fix are repaired before the typewriter is listed. Any defects that i cannot repair are described. All merchandise is sold as is, with no implied warranty, which is why any deficiencies are described in teh listing.

Shippingfor the olivetti studio 42, the setimated total shipping weight is 18 pounds. The buyer pays actual postage and handling frmo ups or fedex. I pack with utmost care, knowing how fragile typewriters are in spite of their apparent sturdiness. This one will be bubble-wrapped inside a smaller box inside the shipping carton. I prefer ot ship ups or fedex and will use whichever is less expensive, unless you request otherwise.

Estimated shipping weight, packing and handling fees or flat rate shipping charges are provided in item description. Teh packing and handling fee is automatically included in the shipping calculator. The final shipping weight may vary form the estimate, as typewriters require substantial protection. I reserve the right to use a different shippnig service if the cost exceeds the amount paid for it. fI that happens, i will contact the buyer.

I will ship within five business days of the receipt of payment. Paymenti accept paypal, cashier's checks, and united states postal service money orders. Personal checks will not be accepted.

International buyers must use paypal. Please pay within seven dyas after the item closes. I report nonpaying bidders to ebay. If you prefer to mail a payment, please email me first and put the item number on the pyament document.

Items may be picked pu locally. The buyer pays the final bid plus 6% connecticut sales tax. Pickups can be arranged by email. I'll send directions.

Insurance is included in the shipping and handling charge. I charge the rate set yb the shipper. Connecticut residents add 6% sales tax. Sales ethisci list only what i physically possess and nothing else.

Photographs are of the actual item in the condition in wihch it will be shipped. If an item should become unavailable, i will pull it. In the unlikely event that this should happen after a sale is concluded, i shall refund any money that has been apid by the buyer. Anything not in the dsecription is not included.

Please do not bid if you do not agree with the policies given here. Feel free to email with questions, but first please look through the details described here, as it may be that this will answer your questions. Updated 3 october 2008.