Olympia typewriters began in 1903 and were at one point regarded as the "Mercedes Benz of typewriters" showcasing the effects of solid German engineering. Under parent company AEG (European General Electric), Olympia started to produce some of the most technologically advanced typewriters of their time. In the 1930's Olympia secured itself in the public eye as a major player in the typewriter industry. They produced models such as the 8 series and the Progress. The company flourished until WWII when most of the production facilities and workers where lost during the war. After the war, facing Soviet oppression, several workers fled to West Germany and re-started the company this time as Olympia Werke. They were regarded by many as some of the best manual typewriters ever produced. The Olympia typewriters are solid, well-constructed machines perfect for the typewriter enthusiast who not only wants to own an aesthetically pleasing object, but who could put it through the rigors of use. These machines feature spring loaded keys, key set tabulators, correcting space bars and right hand margins. Some SM models even feature line space scaling for chemical and mathematical formulations as well as special characters for every profession or science. The SM and SF series was built to directly compete with the Hermes Baby and the Hermes 3000. Olympia along with Hermes were the two most expensive typewriters on the market at the time. The Olympia SM series according to Olympia's brochure is " ... the finest writing machine money can buy, with all the advantages of portability... It's built better - for life."
